Smartphone Browsers To See Strong GrowthSmartphone Browsers To See Strong Growth

Cell phone users are increasingly accessing the Web from their mobile devices, and ABI Research said that growth will be quite robust in full-featured smartphone browsers.

The new report, "The Mobile Browser Market," said consumers' desires to have access to popular Web applications like search, social networking, and online video will lead to an increase in smartphone shipments. The research firm said it expects smartphones with highly capable browsers to grow from 130 million shipped in 2008 to 530 million by 2013.

"From the strong growth in ad-calls for ad networks such as AdMob to the astounding increases in page views for Opera Mini, it's very clear that consumers have embraced the use of the Web on mobile devices," research director Michael Wolf said in a statement. "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."

Companies like Adobe, Google, and Microsoft are also seeing potential revenue in extending their brands onto handsets, and they are increasing their development on the mobile side.

"Investment in content access and playback both in browsers and Web-based applications across various devices will help to continue this market's future growth," said Wolf.

The smartphone browser market will become increasingly crowded to capitalize on this growth. The on-deck offerings like mobile Internet Explorer, Apple's mobile Safari, and Android's "Chrome-lite" will only get stronger and more refined.

The third-party browser market is also expected to grow, as Opera will continue to get its Opera Mobile on more devices. Startup SkyFire's browser is turning some heads with the ability to stream online videos on handsets, and Mozilla hopes its Fennec browser will replicate the success Firefox has had on the desktop.