Mobile Web - ultimate choice of the youth

By SiliconIndia
Most 18 - 27 year old Opera Mini users use their mobile phones to browse the Web more often than they use a desktop or laptop computer for the same purpose, according to the results from a survey released by Opera.

The findings are published in Opera's State of the Mobile Web report also found that the countries with the highest percentage of respondents using desktop or laptop computers as the primary means of Internet access were countries where Smartphones are more common among the top handsets used, including the U.S. and Germany, where the split between phone and laptop or desktop is about fifty-fifty. However, in Nigeria, South Africa, and Indonesia, more than 9 out of 10 respondents said they browse the Web on their handsets more than they browse on a laptop or desktop computer. Looking at the top handsets used by Opera Mini users in those countries, the survey found fewer Smartphones compared to Poland, Germany, United States, and Brazil etc. This result presents a challenge to the long-standing belief that Smartphone uptake will be the major driver of mobile web usage globally.

But the results show that there is a need for a good browsing familiarity on feature phones as well, according to Opera. Opera signed a deal in April with Vodafone to use the Mini browser to push Web browsing in emerging markets. Also, Nokia acquired Novarra with the same intent which shows that Opera isn't alone thinking in the same lines.

At the same time, the phone market is changing rapidly, with the emergence of Smartphones at increasingly lower prices, according to Carolina Milanesi, research vice president at Gartner. The arrival of 3G phones based on MediaTek's Android-based platform next year will help push prices down further, she said.