The new Opera Mobile 9.7 beta has a lot of people talking and taking further attention away from competitor Safari, which lost its edge in the worldwide lead in mobile web browsing last month.

Now, Opera is aiming to “accelerate the mobile browsing experience” for Windows Mobile-based phones.

What it all boils down to is speed, fitting with the theme of Opera’s recently launched technology for faster surfing called Opera Turbo. Basically, the Opera Mobile 9.7 beta features a mobile version of Opera Turbo. Read the rest

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Skyfire has been a leader in mobile browsers for a while now, and yesterday marked the long-awaited release of the 1.0 version of it’s full-Web enabled browser for Windows Mobile and Symbian devices.

The key difference with Skyfire remains the ability to support popular Web standards and plug-ins such as Flash 10, Silverlight 2, Ajax and JavaScript that we’ve all come to expect from the traditional Web experience.  The browser will now let users watch any Web video and live event on a small-screen mobile phone, and Skyfire users can even customize their start pages with RSS feeds from their favorite Web sites, integrate their Facebook and Twitter accounts to import status updates and tweets, and easily publish their status to these networks with a single click.

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MocoSpace, the mobile social networking service, is growing at an incredible rate despite no partnerships with major carriers and an emphasis on simple feature-phones instead of smartphones and mobile apps.  This winning combination has helped the four-year-old startup create a six-million strong loyal userbase in no time flat.  

While everyone else in the mobile space is focusing on new-age technologies such as feature-rich smartphones, app stores and carrier partnerships, MocoSpace has quietly gained a viral following relying only on word-of-mouth from its users to grow very quickly.  The formula, according to its founders, is very simple- younger users are much more apt to use mobile social networking than the rest of the population, so this is the demographic they’re after.  In addition, this young demographic is not the one that uses expensive smartphones, instead relying on simple feature-phones with simple web browsers and the most basic of functionality.  

About 80 percent of MocoSpace members are younger than 30, according to vice president of marketing Jim Gregoire; 50 percent are under 24, and a quarter are teens.  It’s a group of mobile users who can’t necessarily afford the latest, greatest smartphones—and who may not even own computers—but who are nonetheless highly social, and who want to interact with peers around the corner or across the globe.  MocoSpace serves them through a combination of, on the one hand, classic social-networking features like profiles, comments, friend lists, and chat, and on the other, digital content like photos, music, and videos, both user-generated and professional.

The service is completely free, relying solely on ad-revenue, and is designed to be accessed from the most simple of web-browsers on the most simple of devices.  This forumla proves that keeping up with technology and the masses isn’t always the best way to go.  There’s a lot to be said about sticking to the basics.

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Mobile search is an integral aspect of mobile marketing in many respects, but still, mobile browsers inhibit the use due to their core design.

Of course the iPhone and other “full browsing” capable devices do a much better job these days, but looking at the big picture, most devices still in use today feature very limited browsing capabilities compared to the speed of the networks they run on.  Even with an iPhone, more searches are performed using search-based apps then with the browser itself, so why is this?

The overall search experience, while all the resources are in place, still isn’t where it should be.  The problem lies in the fact that most search engines rely on the publisher of the content to optimize for mobile instead of the search engine itself.  Most people start with a search engine when searching for mobile content, which works well, but when directed to content from the SERP, the experience weakens substantially due to the fact that 9 out of 10 websites aren’t optimized for mobile- meaning they’re slow-loading, full of flash and other content not viewable on a mobile device and so on.

The mobile search engine should take care of optimizing the experience for the end-user since it’s the first point of contact for most mobile-Web experiences.  SMS search services are becoming ever-more popular due to this fact.  It’s much easier, most of the time, to text-in a query and have it returned instantly.  Services like KGB and ChaCha are growing rapidly due to this fact, but mobile browsers should make the experience as easy and intuitive as it is on the desktop.

For mobile search to really gain traction, mobile browsers need to get better.  The potential for mobile search is huge, but the browsers they run on are limiting their potential.

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A big theme this year at the Mobile World Conference has been an emphasis on full-web capable mobile browsing, and for good reason.  Not only is it key in the advancement of mobile devices, but also key in the development of mobile advertising.

In addition to Apple’s mobile Safari, Opera Mini, Skyfire, the upcoming Firefox for mobile and Microsoft’s new IE Mobile 6, Bitstream unveiled one of their own today in Barcelona.  Dubbed “Bolt,” the new mobile browser will be available for any device sporting Java’s Mobile Information Device Profile, which is most phones offered by GSM carriers worldwide.  

While Bolt is just another full-web capable browser like many others, it differs in the fact that it will be provided as a white-label solution for mobile carriers, meaning all capable phones sold via those carriers will have Bolt installed by default.  Since Java’s MIDP platform is used on most so-called “feature phones,” or lower-end phones, it means Bolt will get into user’s hands that much faster.  

In the end, the massive push to bring full-web capable browsing to all mobile devices- both low and high-end, will have a huge impact on the mobile content industry, and more important the mobile marketing industry.  Breaking away from the normal WAP-based mode of web browsing, and the subsequent forms of mobile advertising needed for WAP will be a huge step in the right direction.  

With so much focus on high-end smartphones like the iPhone and Android-based phones, we tend to forget that a majority of mobile users are still carrying around very simple devices with very simple mobile-browsing capabilities.  Hopefully, 2009 will be the year low-end mobile devices benefit from new technologies high-end phones have had for years.  When it does, the opportunities for mobile marketing will flourish even more.

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In an everlasting approach to overtake Google’s 61% mobile search market share, Yahoo is again stepping up it’s game and expanding it’s mobile presence by inking more search and display advertising deals with carriers in Asian markets. With these additions, Yahoo now has over 60 mobile search deals worldwide. All signed within the last 18 months.

Yahoo looks to be utilizing mobile expansion as a means to overtake it’s rivals, and in my opinion is doing a great job. We reported on OneConnect back in February, which is Yahoo’s mobile search platform that also incorporates a user’s social profiles and social footprint into an easy to read mobile application. In addition to this, Yahoo’s OnePlace aims to bring together a user’s frequently-checked information into a similar mobile application as well. All of this is an effort to be the first point-of-contact to the mobile web on behalf of Yahoo which is obviously the number one goal. Both OneConnect and OnePlace provide a beautiful user interface that, in my opinion, is easier to use and provides much more useful information than Google’s version. With some slight configuration, all the information you deem most important can be instantly available with the launch of a single mobile app.

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When I used to write about hardware, the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) markets were often heralded as the solution for the overly-commoditized� PC industry. Thanks to a rising middle class, government subsidies, and/or other factors, computer sales� growth was much faster in these regions than in developed economies. Not surprising, seeing as you could even buy a PC off grocery shelves in Brazil.

Alas, rock-bottom PCs are no match for mobile phones, which are increasingly becoming the more common and practical channel for all types of communication, particularly in emerging markets. According to eMarketer, PC and broadband penetration fall far below mobile penetration in BRIC populations. Marketers better take note that their Internet ads in BRIC countries had better be cell-friendly–or better yet, cell-specific.

“Mobile isthe Internet for an increasingly large and attractive customer segment–an important distinction for marketers to keep in mind,” says John du Pre Gauntt, senior analyst at eMarketer, which on Monday released a report on the topic.

That’s a 360 from the usual� concerns of how to make one’s Web presence more conducive to mobiles. Marketers in North America, Europe, and parts of Asia are typically worried about being multi-channel, syndicating information in different media, and trying to make their Web pages navigable or readable on tiny phone screens. Their BRIC counterparts, if eMarketer is correct, are free to focus almost exclusively on� mobile strategies.

That could mean the next great mobile campaign–or even the next shift in mobile marketing trends–could be conducted in Portuguese, Russian, Hindi, or Mandarin.

Anyone know of good campaigns already happening?

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