Skyfire brings Ustream live video onto it’s mobile browser - will it beat Bolt?

Skyfire has announced a partnership with Ustream, combining it’s full-web web browsing with the Ustream live video service. Skyfire will place Ustream prominently among it’s bookmarks, allowing users to watch thousands of live streams, including some from Fox, CNET and Air America.

Ustream is focused on broadcasting live-streams from any internet connected camera to the web. The new 0.9 version of Skyfire was released this February, claiming to be the best PC-style web browser for video and flash on mobile. Skyfire has said that 2009 will be the year that video and flash “explode” onto the mobile web.

From the release:

“Live video from partners like Ustream fit perfectly into our plan to bring the best of the full web to the mobile generation,” said Tracy DeMiroz, Skyfire VP Marketing. “Without any development required to have a mobile presence, Ustream immediately gives their users access to all the content broadcast from their website. We know Skyfire users consume a lot of media during their day. In fact, on inauguration day a vast majority of our users were watching Obama on Ustream. That’s why we’re excited to include Ustream in the Skyfire bookmarks.  In just one click, our users will be watching live television.”

“We are constantly pursuing ways for our users to access interesting content or find their audience,” said Brad Hunstable, founder and president of Ustream. “We are excited about our partnership with Skyfire to bring our streams to mobile browsers.”

What we think?

Following the swell of support for Bitstreams Bolt browser since it entered live beta at MWC, it doesn’t shock me that Skyfire are pushing releases. It’s quite possible we’re looking at a sort of Battle of the Browsers, so I though it was a good idea to check them both out and see which (if any) was better.

Happily, I’ve already had a chance to use Bolt. I got a live demo of the service at MWC (about 7 mins into this video), and was impressed with how fast it was. How does Skyfire compare? To be honest, there was remarkably little difference between the two browsers. They are both notably faster than other mobile web browsers, but the differences between the two are fairly cosmetic. I would say the biggest advantage that Bolt has is its greater handset coverage. While it’s tailored for a Blackberry market, Bolt is available for any handset. Skyfire is only available on Windows Mobile and Symbian devices.

As for video and flash? I didn’t encounter anything I couldn’t play on either service.