The Android 2.3 SDK information does not mention a browser upgrade or support for websockets specifically. So there is no official word from Google regarding websockets being included when Android 2.3 is released.

Taking a look at the beta 1 release of the Android 2.3 SDK, the browser in the emulator is the same version as in Android 2.2 FroYo. Here are screencaps from the browser in the Android 2.3 emulator and a screencap from the browser in Android 2.2. Note the browser version is the same in each screencap.

   

Considering that the browser in Android is based on the same open-source WebKit browser used in the iPhone and iPad, and Apple recently released websocket support in iOS 4.2, it is reasonable to predict that Google will include websocket support in the Android browser very soon, and hopefully in Android 2.3.

I posted this question to Quora. We’ll see if someone with more info can add to this.

Android 2.3 ‘Gingerbread’ WebSocket support by Jim Bergman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://jimbergman.net/about.

This was confirmed in a visit to a local Apple store. Here are some screencaps grabbed of the iPhone 4:

   

iOS 4.2 is also available for the iPad, which is a huge improvement. iOS 4.0 was only for the iPhone, and the iPad was still using iOS 3. Here are the iPad screencaps to confirm websocket support on the iPad:

   

Apple had websocket support in the beta of iOS 4.0, but removed it before release. Whatever reason it was not included iOS 4.0 must have been resolved in iOS 4.2.

WebSockets supported in iOS 4.2 by Jim Bergman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://jimbergman.net/about.

UPDATE July 2010: since the beta 2 release of iOS4, Apple has disabled websockets support. A few readers pointed this out, so I made a trip to an Apple Store it run a few tests.

Confirmed: iOS4 as it is released reports it does NOT have websocket support.

ORIGINAL POST:

Since the Safari web browser on the iPhone is based on WebKit, it makes sense that at some point support for WebSockets would make it to the iPhone.

Safari on iPhone OS 4.0 beta 2 supports WebSocket.

Once OS 4 is available for the iPad, support should be there as well.

Thanks to reader Arun for pointing this out.

WebSockets NOT supported in iOS 4.0 by Jim Bergman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://jimbergman.net/about.