Mobile FAQ

Kendo UI Mobile is a complete mobile framework that automatically adapts the look and feel of mobile applications to the platform they are viewed on (iOS, Android, or BlackBerry). Thanks to the adaptive rendering, mobile apps built with Kendo UI look iOS-ish on iOS, Android-ish on Android, etc. without any additional code required. 

Kendo UI Mobile consists of foundamental mobile framework extensions such as layouts, views, etc. as well as a set of UI widgets including buttons, scrollers, navigation widgets, and more. 

In the simplest terms, there are two ways we provide extended benefit and a differentiated approach than jQuery Mobile.
First, Kendo UI Mobile is a cohesive mobile framework for all of your HTML/JS development, whereas jQuery Mobile is primarily focused on UI (and mostly mobile UI at that). Kendo UI provides core framework components, like templating, MVVM, validation, and a data source, as well as UI for mobile touch interfaces. 

Second, our approach to solving the mobile UI problem is different than jQuery Mobile. Where jQuery Mobile tends to promote a "one size fits all" UI model, we think UIs should be tailored to touch interaction mode and platform (iOS/Android/BlackBerry/etc.). Kendo UI Mobile exemplifies this by providing UI widgets that "look right" wherever they run. On iOS, they look like iOS widgets. On Android, they look like Android widgets.

Blackberry support is a first-grade, in fact. Check out our online demos, where a simulator is provided. You can also browse the demos using your blackberry device for native experience.

Yes, Kendo UI Mobile supports Windows Phone 8 and IE 10, starting Q1 2013. Check out our online demos, where a simulator is provided. You can also browse the demos using your WP8 device for native experience.

Kendo UI Mobile does not support Windows Phone 7 due to a combination of missing features in Internet Explorer 9, such as support for touch events. If you're looking for Metro-style, Windows 8-like controls, we include the Metro theme in Kendo UI Web, which provides a look-and-feel that mimics that experience. It's pretty nice, in fact. Also check this blog post on the subject.

Yes. There aren't any known issues and conflicts betwen Kendo UI Mobile and Kendo UI DataViz. Make sure to initialize the dataviz widgets when the view's init event is raised.

Positively. There aren't any known issues and conflicts betwen Kendo UI Mobile and Kendo UI Web. Make sure to initialize the widgets when the view's init event is fired.

Kendo UI works and is tested actively in PhoneGap. If you experience any troubles, do not hesitate to contact us.

Kendo UI Mobile itself does not expose such functionality. It is in fact, a matter of browser limitations. If you need to access the native device features, we recommend compiling and deploying Kendo UI Mobile apps with PhoneGap.

Even greater value add is to use Kendo UI Mobile as part of Icenium, which allows real-time updates on connected devices, realistic simulation and powerful debugging, access to your code anywhere, seamless one-click PhoneGap build deployment, etc.

Although possible, this approach is not practical, and may lead to quite complex code base. The recommended way to handle this would be to do a server-side agent detection and redirect mobile devices to a different URL for the mobile version of the website.

Kendo UI Mobile is designed on top of the Kendo UI Framework, which is common for Kendo UI Web, Kendo UI Mobile, and Kendo UI DataViz. The recommended way to consume data is through the DataSource component. The DataSource supports variety of formats, including JSON, JSONP, XML, and OData.

Yes, you can use the Web Storage API. Currently, Kendo UI Mobile does not offer any enhancements on top of it, but this may change in the future.

iOS supports file upload since version 6.0. For previous versions it works if the application is wrapped with PhoneGap.

For performance and flexibility reasons, the iOS theme does not use any images. The UI elements are built with CSS effects only.

Kendo UI Mobile is part of all three Telerik Collections (DevCraft UI Edition, Complete and Ultimate), as well as in the Kendo UI Complete bundle, available for purchase on kendoui.com. Kendo UI Mobile is also integrated in the Kendo UI Complete for ASP.NET MVC product.

Individual Kendo UI Mobile licenses are available on the kendoui.com web site.