Report: Mobile browser market set for strong growth

High-end phones with Web-based features will drive explosive growth in the mobile browser market over the next few years, according to new figures from ABI Research.
The market research firm predicted the open-Internet browser (OIB) space for mobile will explode from 76 million browsers delivered in 2007 to nearly 700 million in 2013, as consumers learn to take advantage of features such as RSS feeds and AJAX on their handsets. And while the wireless Web experience still “has a significant distance to go in closing the gap with PC-based browsers,” the industry will move away from on-device applications as Internet-based applications gain dominance.
“There is a lot of development momentum for Web content on mobile phones,” said Michael Wolf, a research director at ABI. “The move towards Web-based applications means browser and Web services engines will become increasingly important for mobile, whether these are in a commercial browser implementation or a customized widget. 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.”