Smartphones drive demand for Web browsing

Mobile Web usage is on the rise as more fully featured browsers come to market on smartphones.

Smartphones, which are designed to handle more sophisticated applications, are growing in popularity. In fact, Apple's iPhone was named the most popular phone during the third quarter of 2008, surpassing sales of Motorola's Razr, according to the NPD Group.

A report from ABI Research on Thursday predicts that the number of smartphones with highly capable mobile browsers will grow from 130 million today to more than 530 million by 2013.

There are many reasons consumers are using the mobile Web now more than ever. For one, carriers are offering flat-rate mobile data plans, which makes subscribing to these services more affordable. New 3G networks are also making accessing the mobile Web much faster.

"The increase in awareness of the Web on mobile devices--due to the iPhone and new RIM models--has helped contribute to this growth, as has the continued move towards flat-rate data plans by many mobile operators," Michael Wolf, ABI research director, said in a statement.

As wireless subscribers get more sophisticated about their Web surfing, they are looking for more freedom. They don't want the carrier-controlled, on-deck mobile Web experience available on earlier mobile phones. Instead, these users are looking to replicate the Web experience they have on their PC on their phones.

The iPhone was the first to offer a browser that came even close to matching the PC experience on a phone. Google's Android is also providing a full browsing experience to users. And now RIM is also releasing new browsers in its latest BlackBerry devices to enhance Web browsing. The new touch screen Storm, set to launch next week on Verizon Wireless' network, and the Bold are already using the enhanced browser.

Other companies such as Firefox, Skyfire and Opera have also been improving mobile browsers to give wireless users a more robust surfing experience. This week Opera released the beta version of its Opera Mini 4.2 browser, which improves support for YouTube and other mobile video services.

More sophisticated browsers means that more Web sites are actually getting traffic from mobile users. In fact, between 3 percent and 10 percent of traffic to a PC-based Web site comes from mobile devices, according to Bango, a company that offers a tool for tracking traffic from mobile users. Bango found in a recent survey that half of the 20 most trafficked PC-based Web sites did not work well on leading mobile phones.

This could be why sites, such as Google, are being optimized for mobile users. Earlier this week, Google said iPhone users accessing Google.com would soon see search results formatted specifically for them to make it easier to access local results and click on links.

[KayakFun]

It won't happen until there is flatrate mobile Internet across Europe.

Too many people have been bitten by high bills when they were crossing or even close to a border. I live in the south of the Netherlands, 10km way from Belgium, and 30km away from Germany. Although a flatrate inside the Netherlands generally can be had for E 19,95/mo, the international fees are between E2 and E9 per Mb.

We are europeans, we live in 1 economic zone, so demand europa-wide flatrate internet. Without it we are still living like 50 years ago, only the border control has been replaced by cash registers.

[Adrian Hall Bytemobile]

As Maggie Reardon mentions, mobile users are consuming enormous amounts of data. Traffic over tier-one networks is growing at 10-15% per month, with 2% of users generating up to 50% of the traffic. Demand for richer mobile content such as video, plus the popularity of high-end smartphones such as the iPhone, promises to further accelerate traffic growth, and operators need to protect their network infrastructure. By increasing network efficiency and capacity, operators can manage the effects of continued traffic growth within the footprint of their existing installation and scale their networks ahead of rising data usage trends. This will also help to ensure a compelling user experience. And by customizing data plans and controlling service levels, they can enforce fair use policies adaptively without damaging customer relationships.