Search fuels appetite for mobile surfing

“We see that wherever flat-rate mobile data charges are pervasive in a country then there's much more web browsing,” said Anil Malhotra, SVP of Marketing at Bango. “This is certainly true of the US and South Africa and the imminent introduction of flat-rate data charges in the UK will push up mobile web usage in the UK even further.”

By working as a “global exchange” for the mobile web, www.bango.com is able to provide insight into where users are coming from world-wide and what handsets they are using. In total, Bango detects mobile web users from over 190 countries.

The statistics show that the US is at the forefront of a mobile web growth, with a threefold increase in usage over the last year.

In addition to growth in the US, Bango's data shows that 9% of all accesses to mobile websites now come from India, up from 4% a year ago. India, with a population of just over 1.1 billion and lack of an established fixed phone line network, relies on mobile phones to stay in touch. Here, mobile phone usage is set to exceed European levels within the next few years.

In the first quarter of 2007 the top handset for accessing mobile websites was the Sanyo Katana SCP 6600. The fact that the Sanyo Katana is only available in the US reflects the rapid growth in mobile surfing by US users. Other popular handsets included the Motorola RAZR V3, the Sony Ericsson K750i and the Samsung A900.