GZip with Mobile Browsers

Question

I'm targetting a couple of web projects at mobile users, and noticed that some of the standard tools (JS libraries, json transfers, xml etc) are quite heavy for mobile data plans.

I'd like to be able to implement gzip'd resources, and probably mod_deflate/mod_gzip to try and reduce the amount of bandwidth used by these devices.

However, I don't know how widespread support for gzipped javascript, gzipped html etc. is on mobile devices, or even if it is common practice to use...? It seems to make sense though.

Is it ok to use as a solid tool for the common mobile devices..? iPhone, android, blackberry, windows mobile/opera..?

Thanks.

Answer 1

I don't think it matters, a browser will request GZipped data if it supports it, so your server will only GZip it if your browsers asks it to.