Web Browser support Windows Embedded vs Windows CE vs Windows Mobile? [closed]

Question

I am developing a web based inventory solution for a client and there will be handheld mobile computers involved. I've never developed a web app that has been run on a browser on one of these devices. The devices we are looking at have one of the following OS:

1. Windows Embedded 6.5
2. Windows CE 5.0 or 6.0
3. Windows Mobile

My questions are:

1. Do all of these come with some version of Internet Explorer
2. If so, does that version of IE support things like: javascript? JQuery (UI, AJAX calls)

Any experience or recommendations on any of these OS choices, pros, cons?

Answer 1

No, they do not have the same version of IE. All of them support a subset of javascript, but what they support differs between them and I'm not aware of any document that lists what is (or more importantly, what isn't) supported.

There are some subjective lists, for example [jQueryMobile gives WinMo 5.2 a grade of "C"1. Basically it's a story of "don't assume anything will be there. Test, test, test."

Answer 2

I bet you won't find any Windows Mobile user today who seriously uses his phone to browse the web using Internet Explorer Mobile.

Opera Mobile runs on all Windows Mobile devices that I've had over the past 10 years, and the last 6 years or so it came pre-installed with every phone that I had. It's a pretty decent browser. Most popular JavaScript frameworks even work, as long as they don't use too much html5, css3 or SVG trickery.

Internet Explorer Mobile should be entirely ignored, especially if you plan on doing client-side scripting. www.microsoft.com and live.com don't even load with that crappy browser.

If somehow you're forced to develop a dynamic website for IE mobile, you're pretty much screwed. I've done it in the past. Please don't make the memories come back. It left permanent scratches on my soul.