Bolt Browser Hit the top-operaMini on trouble

Bolt is written in Java ME like Opera Mini and according to Bitstream can run on "nearly all" Java based handsets that support MIDP 2 and CLDC 1.0. The only handsets Bitstream specifically says Bolt will not run on are ones using the Palm OS. Blackberries and "selected" Windows Mobile handsets are specifically mentioned as supported.

Since Bolt browser made its debut at the Mobile World Congress at Barcelona in February, it has been on a promotion spree. The efforts, it seems, have paid off well for BitStream, the developers of Bolt.

The fact that Bolt has more active users in India than in any other country outside North America, comes as a surprise to the folks at BitStream. One in six of Bolt's active users reside in India-- just four months after the initial launch of the browser.

Bolt has a good set of well chosen one click shortcut keys for page up/down, column left/right, bookmarking the current page, entering a new URL, switching to the bookmarks or history pages and opening the built in RSS reader.

BitStream added that Indian users have visited more than 5 million web pages and consumed more than 1 terabyte (1,000 gigabytes) of bandwidth using the mobile browser since it debuted.

Bolt Browser claims to be much faster than its competitors and is web-kit based. Like Opera Mini, it too has a compression mechanism that enables users to save on data transmission costs. Learn more about the browser here.

Featurewise Bolt is fairly basic. Like Opera Mini. tabbed browsing and copying text from web pages aren't suported (UCWEB can do both). Pages can't be saved although images in pages can be "downloaded".

Dowloading of both images and files launches the phone's built in browser. Unlike Opera Mini, Bolt on the N95 and 7100i does not close when it launches the phone browser, a big plus because it means you don't lose your place on the page.