Mobile browser market to grow to 1.5 billion units in 2013, says ABI Research

14 April 2008
While a large number of phones today still use browsers with very limited web browsing capabilities, many smartphones are incorporating browsers that support the latest capabilities such as AJAX and RSS, as well as websites optimized for viewing on a mobile device, according to ABI Research. The research firm sees this segment of the mobile browser market accounting for the vast majority of growth over the next five years, as the open-Internet browser (OIB) segment for mobile grows from 76 million in 2007 to nearly 700 million browsers delivered in 2013.
"The focus today for mobile browser developers is to take advantage of the latest web standards while also developing solutions tailored towards the unique experience of using a browser on a mobile phone," says research director Michael Wolf. "The most recent commercial solutions from Opera, Openwave and Access, as well as those using open source solutions such as Webkit, are targeted towards allowing consumers to access content on the web without limitations due to browser constraints."
Still, it's important to note that despite the best efforts of browser vendors and handset manufacturers, web usage on mobile devices has a significant distance to go in closing the gap with PC-based browsers. The absence of important plug-ins such as Flash on many handsets and the constraints of many phones compared to the PC mean that even OIB browser vendors such as Skyfire continue to see a need for server-assisted architectures for transcoding and web acceleration.
"There is a lot of development momentum for web content on mobile phones," adds Wolf. "The move towards web-based applications means browser and web services engines will become increasingly important for mobile, whether these are in a commercial browser implementation or a customized widget. Ultimately, the long-term trend away from native applications to web-based applications means browser and web services engines will be increasingly important components in the mobile environment."

Opera Launches Mobile Browser with Desktop Sync Facility

7th November 2007

The web browser developer, Opera has released the latest version of its Opera Mini web browser for java based mobile phones. The new browser includes the ability to synchronize your desktop web browser bookmarks with the mobile version, so there is no chance of forgetting a weblink when on the move.

"Two years ago, we introduced Opera Mini to the world because we wanted to bring the Web to users everywhere. Today, Opera Mini is the world's most popular mobile browser," says Jon von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera. "As a result, the mobile Web is now a mass phenomenon. Opera Mini 4 raises the bar for user-friendly access to the Web on any mobile phone, anywhere in the world."
"We've had a lot of help from the community to get us ready to release Opera Mini 4 to the world," says Oleg Tukh, product manager for Opera Mini. "Now that it's ready and free to download, anyone can discover the beauty of Opera Mini and enjoy the best Web experience available on almost any regular mobile phone. We're excited to share this with everyone."

Worldwide growth
Opera says that its Opera Mini product is the world's most popular mobile Web browser, with 26 million cumulative users viewing more than one billion Web pages per month. Opera Mini has seen user growth skyrocket in the past 12 months as more of the world's population browses the Web with mobile devices.
Opera Mini offers a superior browsing experience to other mobile browsers. In some locations where wired infrastructure is limited or Web access by computer is restricted or expensive, Opera Mini is the only application to bring the Web to millions everyday.