Skyfire browser proxy closing down in most countries

Published by Steve Litchfield at 6:41 UTC, June 29th 2010

Skyfire, the proxy-based web browser which can handle Flash video, is reportedly tightening its belt, closing down its support, availability and operations in most countries from Thursday (1st July), according to Mobile Royale. A shutdown notice, curiously worded to only apply to Windows Mobile and Symbian users, is presented when attempting to use the browser [updated] anywhere other than the USA, the UK or Canada. [further update] There has now been an official Skyfire blog article on this, albeit with some mixed messages.

“Dear Skyfire User, As, of July 1st, 2010 Skyfire will no longer be providing service in your country for the windows mobile and symbian browser. In order to offer the best possible service level for our officially supported customers and countries , Skyfire is consolidating the countries in which it operates. We apologize for this inconvenience and hope you have enjoyed the Skyfire will work on your phone until July 1st 2010,at which time the service will be de-activated and your browser will no longer function. You can direct inquiries about this to geo@skyfire.com.”

News Discussion

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hardeep1singh Stupid Ameican mindset strikes again. Skyfire is a Steve's (Jobs) drone now.

What you are seeing is the "losing money too fast" mindset. It was inevitable that Skyfire was going to have to do something to cut costs. Other proxy browsers are barely able to make money, and then Skyfire comes around and is mostly used for bandwidht-heavy stuff like video?

They had to do this, focus on markets and products they had a fair chance of not losing too much money on, or they would have gone bankrupt.

Quote:

Originally Posted by slitchfield Their http://www.skyfire.com/focus-geography-and-skyfire-1-0/ contains confusing mixed messages. On the one hand they say that now that v2.0 is their future, they're going to stop v1.0 and v1.5, so as to focus resources. Fair enough. They then say that v1.0 and v1.5 *will* carry on being supported, but only in certain countries! I guess it's down to there already being Skyfire proxy server farms in those particular countries?

No, it's down to Skyfire not making money, and moving out of the places they are making the least amount of money in a desperate attempt to lower their expenses.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Unregistered This is a shame really.. I always watch Live Motogp races on it whenever I'm out n about and away from my laptop.. Now there goes my full year subscription on Motogp.com coz I'm always out n about n away from my laptop.. But hey.. they only mentioned Winmo & Symbian devices.. Does that mean Android devices are fully supported everywhere?? Then I should suggest Nokia buy this company now and make Skyfire its default browser(after tweaking some improvements, of course).. c",)

There's no reason for Nokia to buy Skyfire. With the amount of phones Nokia is selling, they would have lost money even faster than Skyfire does today.

I bet Skyfire's primary business plan was to be bought. It clearly failed, so now they have to cut down on their expenses.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Unregistered I think it's just for version 1 of the browser according to the blog. 2.0 and above should still work fine. thanks, hector graham.

It will work if they can stop losing money at an accelerating rate. At this point it looks like Skyfire will basically be a media viewer on top of the existing/built in browser..

Quote:

Originally Posted by Unregistered here in india it was workin fine till yesterday..its very sad tat it has stopped workin from today..i hope opera upgrades its mini to support flash content.

Not gonna happen. Transcoding video is too expensive.

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