Smartphones driving mobile browser maturity

Thanks to user demand and advances in mobile application development, highly capable Internet browsers running on smartphones are becoming more widely available, in turn driving mobile data usage. Today, ABI Research predicted continued growth for mobile browsers on smartphones, growing from 130 million in service today to more than 530 million by 2013.

The rapid acceptance of mobile browsers – often at the expense of the more traditional carrier deck of applications – has been driven largely by browsers more capable of displaying Web pages with desktop-like fidelity, along with 3G networks capable of delivering them in a much speedier fashion. Also helping to drive Web usage on phones: user desire to access popular Web applications on phones, including Web search, social networking sites and online video.

“The increase in awareness of the Web on mobile devices – due to the iPhone and new RIM models – has helped contribute to this growth, as has the continued move towards flat-rate data plans by many mobile operators,” said ABI research director Michael Wolf, in a statement.

The availability of a high-quality mobile browser is shaking up market share in the smartphone market as well. Last week, research firm Canalys reported that Apple’s iPhone had pushed past RIM’s Blackberry in the third quarter, accounting for 17.3% of smartphones sold versus 15.2% for RIM (Nokia leads the market with 46.4% share).

Indeed, much of the current momentum surrounding mobile browsers began with the release of the iPhone, which brought a capable browser to the mobile masses for the first time and continues to set the bar for mobile Web performance. The iPhone browser is based on Safari, Apple’s desktop browser, which is in turn based on Webkit, an open-source browser package that also serves as the basis for Google’s Android browser.