Mobile Browser Interest Heating Up

Mobile browsers accounting for larger share of web traffic

We all know, or should be aware, that mobile devices are growing and taking up more of the day to day usage in people's lives. One of the biggest usages is browsing the web which is not a surprise. That web browsing takes up traffic and performance is an important item in that process. And with the growing importance of mobile devices, it follows that there is growing competition among those who provide mobile browsers to get a larger share of the market. In the mobile world, things are far different than in the desktop world in terms of control. In the desktop world, Microsoft has control of the desktop, yet they have not been able to maintain control of the browsers being used on the desktop.

In the mobile world, getting a mobile browser installed on a mobile device before it is released for sale gives a company an edge in the browser being used. Recently, we have been hearing a lot about the Opera Mini browser in the news. This has been because of talk of Facebook purchasing Opera to be used with Facebook to move the company more into the mobile world. Depending on who is doing the reporting on mobile traffic, some have indicated increases in Opera Mini usage on mobile devices. But that is not the only one we are hearing about. In a recent report, Opera and Android are the 2 top browsers being reported.

While we have been hearing a lot about the Safari browser for mobile devices, it is because it is the default browser on the iPhone. Since the Opera Mini mobile browser is not directly tied to a device, itS future is far more robust. The Opera Mini for Android has been growing steadily and is now a big contender in the mobile world. But the Android Robot browser has the best future given the huge gains for the Android OS on the growing number of devices. It is very popular, especially given that it is the default browser on Android phones.

If you look around at measurements for the most popular mobile browser, you are going to find a variety of different results as to popularity. That is because of exactly what is being looked at, such as ad traffic to a particular ad provider. But the end result of all the numbers is that mobile traffic is heating up and competition among various browsers is heating up. There is much talk about Safari, Android Robot and Opera Mini right now. But what about Internet Explorer? Microsoft's Windows Phone OS is expected to grow this year because of Nokia phones being rolled out around the world. How much shifting is going to take place is unknown, but it is going to intensify.

In the mobile world, browser selection is important for performance and just how well things are being displayed in the small screens on smart phones. Exactly which one you like is a matter of personal preference. Given the rapid increase of smart phones, we expect to see much more interest in which mobile browser people are going to be using.

What mobile browser do you like the most?