Mobile Internet Population Swells to 34.6 Million

Telephia released a report on Monday called the “U.S. Device Consensus Report for Q2 2006.” It indicates that in June of 2006 in excess of 34.6 million consumers browsed the Internet with their mobile devices.

Yahoo! Mail was the most accessed site by mobile device users. About 6.5 million users checked their Yahoo! Mail in June. Weather.com was the second most popular mobile site, garnering over 5.8 million unique visitors in June. ESPN, Google Search, and MSN Hotmail round out the top five mobile sites for June.

Email and weather sites were the most visited mobile sites, while sports, search, and city guides/maps followed behind.

This growth is attributed to the continued efforts on the part of Internet content providers to meet their users through their mobile devices, according to Bernard Brenner, Director, Mobile Content at Telephia.

“As the industry matures and more mobile users continue to complement and extend their Web activity via their wireless devices, Internet content providers are well-positioned to broaden their audience overall,” added Brenner.

The report also showed that Openwave was the most used Web browser for mobile users, slightly edging out Motorola for the top spot. Openwave claimed 27% of the pie, while Motorola grabbed 24%. Nokia was third with a 13% share of mobile browsers in June.

Brenner indicates that “As xHTML-MP support becomes more widespread, mobile consumers will have greater access to richer presentation of content on their phones.”

XHTML-MP is specifically catered for mobile devices, and allows users a friendlier experience as they surf the Web on their phone or other mobile device.

Add to this the possibility of .mobi sites being put to good use by large companies as well as other Internet content providers, and it’s not too much of a reach to expect the inevitable growth of the mobile Internet population to see an even quicker rate of growth in the coming quarters.

Source:

http://www.telephia.com/documents/InternetandDeviceReleaseJune2006v68.14.06FINAL.pdf