According to a new report by ABI Research, the number of web-enabled mobile phones will double to make up 60% of the market, or 3.8 billion phones, by 2015.
The growth of mobile web browsers is following two trends, say ABI. Smart phones carry a fully-enabled web browser, while cheaper “enhanced” or “feature” phones use a proxy-based browser such as Opera Mini, which downloads highly compressed versions of web pages and as such requires far less memory and processing capacity.
While full internet browsers will overtake proxy-based browsers by next year, the less costly option still has strong appeal in emerging markets.
This new research reinforces the view that mobile web browsing will soon become the most common way of accessing the internet. This becomes even more true of emerging markets where it is often easier to afford and maintain a phone than it is a computer.
Given the global growth in mobile web access suggested by the report, mobile marketing will become a primary driver of growth in ad spend in both mature and emerging markets.
