Microsoft details broad changes to IE11 Mobile in WP8.1 Update 1 to make it more compatible with the iOS and Android mobile web

The new Microsoft is a lot more pragmatic, and in the case of the IE 11 Mobile team that means, in the latest version of Windows Phone 8.1 Update 1, that they have bowed to the dominance of iOS and Android in the mobile web, and the websites that are specifically designed for those operating systems, and have made changes to IE11 which makes it more compatible with them.

The changes start with a new browser string to make sure the browser is detected as a mobile browser, and a mobile site is delivered to it.

They have also added a new feature which translates browser-specific webkit prefixes to standard compliant HTML so IE11 can still render it. They have also given up their principled but flawed stance of only supporting verified standards, by supporting some non-standard proprietary features from other browsers, and lastly fixed some bugs which were interfering with the mobile web.

All the detail of the changes can be read on the IE blog here. The new level of pragmatism will hopefully mean a much better user experience for Windows Phone users, but also a more aggressive Microsoft willing to adopt features from other operating systems (e.g. the notification centre in Windows Phone) to make sure our mobile OS can stand toe to toe with other operating systems.

What do our readers think of the changes? Let us know below.