Yahoo: Mobile web to overtake PCs in next decade

Speaking at a London event late last week, Yahoo Europe vice president of connected life Geraldine Wilson predicted that in the decade ahead, more consumers will log onto the Internet via mobile than on PC. "In emerging markets, most people's first contact with the Internet will be with a mobile phone," Wilson said. "We have to be careful because there have been many false dawns of Internet on the mobile … but I think we will look back at 2007 as when things started to happen." Wilson acknowledged challenges like mobile data service pricing, handset interfaces and network speeds, and Yahoo is tackling consumer concerns over mobile advertising: "It's a huge education job to get advertisers on board, and to make them comfortable enough that they want to spend money," she said, citing the importance of building partnerships with operators and handset makers in order to generate the scale advertisers demand. In 2008, Yahoo will also focus its efforts on further personalizing the user experience: "We want to add in more local content in our mobile search listings," Wilson said.

For more on Yahoo's mobile web outlook:
- read this Total Telecom article

Related articles:
Yahoo mobile search expands across Asia Pacific
Yahoo announces revamped mobile search
Yahoo expands OneSearch to mobile web
Yahoo Go for Mobile 2.0 goes international
Yahoo, MobiTV team on mobile ads