Massive growth in mobile browser use

The mobile browser market will grow to 1.5 billion units worldwide by 2013, due to emerging browser software that can take advantage of the latest 'Web 2.0' technologies.

ABI Research, said in its new study, The Mobile Browser Market that smartphones incorporating browsers, which support the latest capabilities such as AJAX and RSS, as well as websites optimised for viewing on a mobile device would account for the majority of growth in this sector over the next five years.

It predicted that, while a large number of phones today still use browsers with very limited web browsing capabilities, growth in the open internet browser (OIB) segment for mobile will increase from 76 million in 2007 to nearly 700 million browsers delivered in 2013.

"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," he said.

A 25-year veteran enterprise technology expert, Miya Knights applies her deep understanding of technology gained through her journalism career to both her role as a consultant and as director at Retail Technology Magazine, which she helped shape over the past 17 years. Miya was educated at Oxford University, earning a master’s degree in English.

Her role as a journalist has seen her write for many of the leading technology publishers in the UK such as ITPro, TechWeekEurope, CIO UK, Computer Weekly, and also a number of national newspapers including The Times, Independent, and Financial Times.