It would be great to get some feedback about going with a design that shows the search field open at all times.
It is still true that we will pursue a way to hide any toolbars until they are requested by the user.
Please see:
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Mobile_design/Wikipedia_navigation#Search_fie...
The first alternative would be significantly modified in the iPhone browser because there is already a toolbar at the bottom.
Phil