Skyfire a mobile browser that directly aims to compete against Opera Mobile browser is opening its doors for open beta testers. After months of private beta program, users can now test the browser into their Windows Mobile phones.

Part of the open beta stage is the upgrading of the browser from version 0.6 to version 0.8.

Skyfire sports a lot of features that is not present in the Opera Mobile browser. The browser employs a sleek design and user interface tied with widgets and news contents provided by Yahoo.

Skyfire has the SuperBar, a box field that combines search and address bar into one. This feature is very much like Google, Yahoo and other browsers’ auto search help, where users get search suggestions as they type. The only low-down is perhaps Skyfire’s incapability to store URL history.

The browser also supports video streaming, image and PDF downloading and SMS sending.

Although it is apparent that Skyfire is doing its best to offer something different from what the most used mobile browser used many analysts agree that Skyfire can get inspiration from some of the best features of the Opera Mobile browsers. According to them it will not hurt if Skyfire incorporates functions like searching within text as well as highlighting a text selection.

The browser is now available for download thru Skyfire’s official website, skyfire.com.

Source: The Daily Download