“handheld” Media Type, RIP?
Published on Jun 30, 2009 (updated Jan 31, 2025), filed under development (feed). (Share this on Mastodon or Bluesky?)
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Website authors don’t use handheld
as it’s barely supported; mobile browser vendors don’t support handheld
because it’s barely used.
This is kind of the situation I think we’re facing—please prove me otherwise—, and it’s a problem. CSS’s handheld
media type would be valuable to tailor content and services to mobile devices. The catch-22 we’re dealing with instead means two things:
Media types, with the exception of
print
, could become useless. (That’s not including media features, however.)We may come to depend on user agents so smart (think content scaling) and connections so fast and affordable that site owners don’t have to offer alternative, mobile-optimized access to their services.
The CSS Working Group may disagree with my thinking but I like the idea that vendors meet consumer needs to make the second point a reality: providing us with smart software and reasonable prices to avoid a mess caused by… yes, who.
About Me
I’m Jens (long: Jens Oliver Meiert), and I’m a web developer, manager, and author. I’ve worked as a technical lead and engineering manager for small and large enterprises, I’m an occasional contributor to web standards (like HTML, CSS, WCAG), and I write and review books for O’Reilly and Frontend Dogma.
I love trying things, not only in web development and engineering management, but also in other areas like philosophy. Here on meiert.com I share some of my experiences and views. (I value you being critical, interpreting charitably, and giving feedback.)