BOLT Browser to stop its Mobile Browsing Services !!!

Bad news folks – Bolt is die for 14th of December 2011! Thus version 2.52 happened to be the last one for Bolt. Bitstream has announced the demise of Bolt at the official website. Besides Bolt is also giving notification of its own death, saying –

“Dear BOLT User, the free Bolt mobile browsing service will be discontinued starting Dec- 14, 2011. Unfortunately, the economic circumstances prevent us from running a free service going forward. We apologize for any inconvenience and thank you for your loyalty and support….” Bolt has been a very good mobile web browser right from its launch (about three years ago). Despite being a small MIDlet (J2ME, java app), Bolt gave “desktop style” browsing experience on millions of mobiles (including low end Java phones). Thanks to excellent server-side rendering, websites at Bolt looked as if being surfed on a desktop browser. Unfortunately these very servers have now become a liability for Bolt owners (Bitstream).

As Bolt is completely free to use, its owners are not in a position to bear the cost of Bolt servers any more. It is a sad development and another indication that j2me (Java app development) is heading to a slow death. I have been using Bolt since its launch in various mobiles, it was not as great as Opera Mini and Opera Mobile but was definitely a close-second. We’ll miss u Bolt as a great app….RIP