Web browsers that work on mobile phones, providing on-the-go Internet surfing, may be small in size but are becoming increasingly important to companies competing in the wireless service provider space. In fact, there is a war going on to capture the largest share of the mobile browser market.

 

Apple (News - Alert) is having significant success in this arena, having steadily increased its share in the Internet browser market during recent months, according to StatCounter data. Between December, 2007 and March, 2008, Apple’s share in the market grew to 64 percent. More narrowly, Apple’s iPhone (News - Alert) and iTouch devices more than doubled their global share of the Internet browser market, from 0.03 percent to 0.08 percent.

 

StatCounter figures also show that, from December to March, iPhone and iTouch boosted their share of the U.S. market from 0.14 percent to 0.23 percent.

 

“The key message is that iPhone is more than living up to its claims of being a user friendly Internet browser, unlike many other cell phones,” said Aodhan Cullen, founder and CEO of StatCounter, in a statement. “iPhone Web browsing peaked in the U.S. on Christmas Day at 0.07 percent. Presumably this was due to people trying out their new Christmas present combined perhaps with not accessing their PCs that day.”

 

Not surprisingly, Microsoft (News - Alert) still leads the pack when it comes to the mobile Internet browser market, with a 44.5 percent piece of the pie. The competition is fast catching up, however.  Apple has released Apple Safari for PCs and Firefox is fast capturing the fancy of many users. Firefox’s 3.0 beta version for mobile use is getting good reviews.