We'll all be smartphone surfing in 2020

The Pew Internet & American Life Project­ (in partnership with Elon University), which surveys technology stakeholders and critics, says the mobile device will be the primary connection tool to the internet for most people by 2020. Voice recognition and touch interfaces will be used much more for browsing than they are today. [Imagining the Internet, PDF report]

Skyfire mobile browser hits UK

The free Skyfire mobile browser, which describes itself as "the only mobile browser that delivers both the speed and media-rich experience similar to the PC browser", is now available to UK customers. The current (beta) version runs on most Windows Mobile and Symbian devices. [Press blog]

Apple sued over iPhone browser

Law firm Jeffer, Mangels, Butler & Marmaro has filed a patent infringement lawsuit on behalf of EMG Technology against Apple, accusing Apple of infringing US Patent 7,441,196 in the way the iPhone navigates the internet. The patent covers internet content reformatted to XML; the format used by the iPhone and other mobile devices. [Sources: MarketWatch.com; TheRegister.co.uk]

Mobile internet increasingly popular

Researchers at Nielsen say the number of British people accessing the internet via their mobile phones has increased 25% from Q2 to Q3 2008, rising from 5.8 million to 7.3 million. In contrast, PC-based internet use increased 3% from 34.3 million to 35.3 million. Google is the most popular PC-based web site, while the most popular mobile internet site is BBC News, with 1.7 million British visitors (24% of mobile internet consumers) every month. [Sources: PDF press release; Telecoms.com; TotalTele.com]

Top websites aren't coping with mobile browsing

Mobile web company Bango has just completed a survey of the top 20 websites (according to the amount of PC-based traffic, as surveyed by Nielsen Online). They found that half of the sites didn't work well on mobile phones, even though 5% of website visitors are estimated to come from mobile devices. In addition, many online businesses didn't know how much mobile traffic was hitting their PC-focussed site. [Press release; Bango blog]

Openwave browser company sold

Openwave Systems has sold its mobile software business to Purple Labs, which develops Linux-based software. The deal, worth $32 million, will see Purple Labs continuing to maintain Openwave's existing products as well as using Openwave technology in its own software. [Press release]

Men outnumber women when mobile browsing

Men outnumber women on the mobile web almost nine to one according to the latest report from browser company Opera. It says 88.1 percent of people using the mobile internet on its Opera Mini browser are male, and most are aged 18 to 27. [Press release]

Almost 40% of mobile web traffic is to social networks

Mobile browser company Opera has released a report about the state of the mobile web, basing its findings on statistics from more than 44 million Opera-equipped devices. It says almost 40% of mobile web traffic worldwide is to social networks, with some countries hitting 60%. Over three-quarters of all users are visiting standard web sites, with WAP and .mobi sites accounting for 23% of mobile web traffic. The UK's top ten web sites viewed from a mobile device were:

• www.facebook.com
• www.google.co.uk
• www.live.com
• www.bebo.com
• www.mocospace.com
• news.bbc.co.uk
• uk.yahoo.com
• www.itsmy.com
• www.faceparty.com
• www.ebay.co.uk

1.5 billion mobiles with web browsers by 2013

By 2013 there'll be 1.5 billion mobile phones with web browsers, according to ABI Research. Most of this worldwide growth will come from browsers that offer full internet access, with this in "open-internet browser" segment growing from 76 million in 2007 to nearly 700 million browsers in 2013.

Opera mobile browsers now using Google

Opera's mobile web browsers - Opera Mini and Opera Mobile - are are now using Google as their default search engine, replacing a year-old deal with Yahoo! - which, in turn, had replaced an earlier deal with Google. This new agreement, which takes effect from 1st March, will apply worldwide except for Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States. [Press release]

Zumobi launches free 'mobile widget' browser

In last week's podcast we mentioned a news story that suggested alternatives to traditional web browsers. This week Zumobi has launched a beta version of its mobile widget platform, which offers a simple way for people to check bite-sized pieces of information on the screen of their phone. The idea is rather like the on-screen ‘widgets’ that are part of the new Windows Vista platform. Zumobi is currently only available for Windows Mobile devices but is free to download from www.zumobi.com

iPhones are changing the online world (and now you can buy even more of them)

iPhone owners were responsible for nearly one out of every thousand web page views last month. ComputerWorld.com has details of the latest Net Applications quarterly browser report, which shows that 0.09% of all web page views worldwide in November were made on the Apple iPhone - a device that's been available for less than six months. Microsoft's mobile browser has just two-thirds of that... and it's been around for ten years.

Meanwhile, Wired.com reports that iPhone buyers in the UK and the USA are now able to buy five iPhones at once, as opposed to the original limit of two.

Better mobile 'browser' options required

Jupiter Research says better mobile alternatives to a conventional web browser would encourage people to use internet services while on the move. The company says mobile users want certain information available at a glance and don't need the equivalent of a desktop PC's browser most of the time. It also mentions price as another issue for mobile users. [Source: BusinessWire.com]