Bitstream, the company behind the popular BOLT mobile browser, has announced that version 1.7 of its browser will have the ability to run Web applications - known as widgets.

BOLT already supports Ajax, Javascript and other web-based languages. But the widgets will be installed directly into the BOLT browser and thus will load and execute faster. The BOLT widgets are written in standard W3C code. Users can access their widgets from within the browser via a new widget menu.

“As many of the recent mobile and wireless trade shows have demonstrated, mobile applications are part of the mainstream mobile experience,” said Sampo Kaasila, vice president of research and development at Bitstream. “However, the vast majority of phones in use today are ‘feature phones’ not smartphones. Unfortunately for the users of these billions of feature phones, it isn’t easy to find, install and run mobile applications. By adding Web apps to BOLT, Bitstream is not only improving the usability of our mobile browser, we are also making it possible for literally billions of people to partake in the mobile apps revolution.”

According to Bitstream, more than 3.4 million BOLT accounts have been created since last year, and the browser delivers over 2.8 million pages each day.

The new version of Bolt will be launched at the Mobile World Congress on February 15, 2010, and there will be a small set of beta widgets available at launch.
Sources: news.softpedia.com tech2.in.com