For evidence of this shift, look no further than Apple. The company just reported an absolutely bonkers financial quarter, in which it sold 37 million iPhones and 15.4 million iPads. The two products now make up 72% of Apple's quarterly revenue and the consumer demand shows no sign of letting up.

This month, iOS edged past Mac OS X for the first time, accounting for 8.15% of all Web traffic, compared to the 7.96% coming from Mac desktops. Of course, this data does include Android, which probably constitutes a share of Web traffic that's roughly comparable to iOS. Even so, the combined mobile operating systems likely do not even begin to outnumber desktops overall, as there are still plenty of Windows machines out there.

Indeed, it will be some time before tablets and smartphones truly outnumber desktops and laptops. For now, most consumers are not replacing their computers with smaller devices, but rather supplementing them.

StatCounter's analytics only include cellphones, excluding tablets from the mix. The global leader in mobile Web use is Nokia at nearly 40% of usage. The firm believes that Nokia's global dominance is due to high penetration in emerging markets like India. Apple is a strong No. 2 globally, while leading use in the United Kingdom and the United States.

While Nokia is the global leader, the strength of Apple is clear. With about 28.76% of use, Apple nearly doubles the next closest competitor, Samsung, by about 14%. If you take all the Android OEMs listed (Samsung, HTC, LG, Sony, Motorola and Sony Ericsson and "Google"), the Android OEMs make up about 24.72% of global mobile Internet usage.

Research In Motion fell about 10% from Jan. 2011 to Jan. 2012 from 18.15% to 8.3%. That is indicative of the global fall of BlackBerry sales and usage. In the U.K., BlackBerry remains the No. 2 device, behind Apple.

In North America, Apple has an astonishing lead in mobile Internet use, with 59.11%. No other OEM comes close, with Samsung holding the No. 2 spot at 11.43% and RIM third at 10.06%.

It is difficult to ascertain Apple's dominance of the mobile Internet access. For most of 2011, Android devices outsold Apple's iPhone globally and in the U.S. The end of the year rise is understandable as both of the U.S.'s largest carriers, AT&T and Verizon, boasted strong iPhone sales in comparison to Android, but after a year of eye-popping numbers, the Android ecosystem has not made a dent in iPhone sales in this metric. It could be attributed to user behavior or device/mobile browser performance or any of several sociological phenomena.

Outside of OEM share, one thing is clear: the mobile Internet is changing the way people access information. If history holds true, then more than one in every six Internet users in the world will be accessing the Web through cellphones by Jan. 2013.

Top photo courtesy of Shutterstock

Google reports that 61% of users are unlikely to return to a site that's not mobile friendly, but user engagement increases by 85% with a mobile-friendly design. That trend is appearing around the world; consumers are way ahead of businesses on mobile. GoMo is a concerted effort to help companies catch up.

The directory of mobile site developers offers browsing by service type (do-it-yourself or full-service), annualized cost and timeframe for build. Google's own free Site Builder is listed, along with a handful of featured shops.

Do you think that websites are slow to adopt mobile versions? Share your thoughts in the comments.

In addition to over 200 new features, iOS 5 came with the promise of enhanced speed. Just how much faster is it? When it comes to mobile Web browsing, iOS 5 loads pages slightly more than twice as fast as its predecessor, iOS 4.

According to these tests, it would appear that iOS 5 is substantially faster than the previous version, and is most likely worth the upgrade for most users. The new OS upgrade is available for either version of the iPad, the iPhone 4 and 3GS (it comes installed on the new 4S) and new iPod Touch devices.

The blog post cites a recent study that found that 61% of users are unlikely to return to a website that offered a bad mobile Web experience. This adjustment to AdWords is an incentive for site administrators to improve mobile experiences.

The New Web Is Mobile

Google needs the Web to work well on mobile, or the quality of its search results will dwindle. If users give up on a site that has a bad mobile experience, Google's results turning up that site will be less relevant. Last year, Google began to limit ad serving on smartphones if the ads pointed to Flash-heavy content. Flash performs slowly and drains batteries on smartphones, and it isn't installed on iOS devices at all. So Google already has a precedent for punishing bad mobile websites. Yesterday's policy change rewards good ones.

Don't know where to begin to optimize your site for the mobile Web? Don't worry. Google has an app for that. In June, Google launched a completely free mobile site builder as part of Google Sites. It offers a range of themed templates for different kinds of businesses, and there's also a custom option. The templates are basic, but basic is good enough to keep users happy.

What are your favorite mobile sites? Your least favorite? Share them in the comments.

Research firm Forrester took a deeper look at the mobile Web versus application debate and came to what some may find to be a startling conclusion: there is no debate at all. The mobile Web is not going to die and app stores are not going anywhere. As mobile usage increases worldwide, both sides of the equation will grow with it and become valuable aspects of product roadmaps.

"Sixty percent of US consumers who download apps also access the Internet via their mobile phones at least daily while 63 percent of US iPhone owners access the mobile Internet on a daily basis," Forrester said.

Consumer product strategy consultant at Forrester Thomas Husson advises product strategists that the equation is mostly irrelevant.

"Product strategists often forget to ask themselves the right questions: which product and services, for which audiences, at what cost, and when?" Husson wrote in a blog post.

Different Interface For Different Purposes

The Forrester report says that apps often fulfill a "lean-back" role for consumers while browsers fulfill a "lean-forward" role. It makes sense. When you consume content via a smartphone or a tablet, you are probably in an app that takes advantage of the deeper integrations of the device like accelerometers, ingrained video capabilities, cameras and yes, location-based services. The mobile Web is used more often for research and looking things up on the fly while out and about. Forrester contends that the distinction between the two ecosystems is blurring.

"The debate around web apps, hybrid apps, and optimized mobile website is nothing but industry jargon," the report argues.

A big part of the equation is that smartphones and tablets are not yet ubiquitous in the global economy. Feature phones access the mobile Web and some consumers are content with that. Even more do not, citing cost and lack of need as reasons for not accessing the Internet (through app or the mobile Web) on mobile devices.

So, where do you put your money? It depends on your audience. Looking to rally the Silicon Valley and South By Southwest crowd? Rich media integrated apps are probably the way to go. Wider reach at a lower cost? The mobile Web. The true answer will reside somewhere in between as mobile computing becomes more widespread.

Note on Forrester report: Data was used from the European Technographics Consumer Technology online Survey, Q4 2010, which surveyed 14,363 respondents in the seven markets of France, Germany, Italy, the netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and the UK.

Between LAUNCH and DEMO, this last week has seen more than its fair share of startups. Among these companies, we've seen a number of DIY mobile app creation tools throw their hat into the ring and promise a world where getting your company into someone's hands is as simple as dragging and dropping a couple of buttons.

With all of these democratizing, empowering tools hitting the market, there's just one question - are we about to relive the era of <blink> tag text and marquee side-scrolling banner ads?

During this self-same era, I worked as a freelance web developer and designer and was therefor subject to all manner of requests. I turned down bids for veterinarians who wanted their website to bark and chirp at visitors and I regularly ignored requests for background music, mystery meat navigation and irrelevant weather widgets. I simply refused to plague the Web with such terrible design and, I feel, singlehandedly saved several hundred folks, at the very least, from visiting yet another site with an animated "Under Construction" GIF. That, I felt, was part of my job.

Since that era of multi-font, multi-color websites, however, we've seen a movement to standardization. Businesses, instead of creating their own online presence, have come to rely on sites like Google, Facebook, Yelp and any number of other online services. The restaurant manager and the veterinarian are no longer moonlighting as creative directors, they simply fill in the blanks and it all gets plugged into a user-friendly, uniform online presence.

If DIY, drag-and-drop mobile Web app creators are the future, however, then we may come full circle. We may return to the land of irrelevant features and terrible design just yet. These apps may handle the complex coding aspect of creating a mobile presence, but they don't teach the end-user the most important skills - design and user experience.

It all dawned on me when one of these companies got up on stage and showed off how quickly and easily anyone with a Web browser could create their own app. Look, they said. You can add a map. You're a restaurant - you can add your menu. And while your at it, why not add a tip calculator?

It is but a short mental leap from tip calculator to word find puzzles for the kids and trivia games for the whole family.

What do you think? Will the next generation of user-created mobile Web apps be the resurgence of the Geocities generation? Or is that beast well-contained and a relic of our folkloric past, only to be found in the dark corners of the Internet and in the archives of the Wayback Machine?

In fact, most 18-27 year-olds surveyed in the report user their mobile phones to browse the Web more often than a desktop or laptop. The report offers a number of telling statistics on where the world is headed and it all boils down to one word - mobile.

• Almost 90% of respondents in the United States aged 18-27 have used their phones to share pictures. Of the profiled countries, Vietnam -- at 67% -- had the lowest use of mobile phones to share pictures.
• Respondents in the United States are least likely to have asked someone out on a date via SMS (44%). Respondents in China (84%), Germany (84%) and Vietnam (83%) are most likely to have used SMS texts to ask someone out on a date.
• Generation Y in both China and the United States share a disdain for printed newspapers. 53% of respondents in the United States and 57% of respondents in China rarely or never read physical newspapers.
• Watch your privacy policies. Respondents in South Africa (49%) and the United States (44%) were somewhat to very uncomfortable sharing their personal information online.

"We have often said that the next generation will grow up knowing the Web mostly through their mobile phones," said Opera co-founder Jon von Tetzchner of the results. "We see this trend already emerging in different regions around the world. The mobile Web will bring a profound change in how we connect with one another. I think the results from this survey already show that change taking place."

Interestingly, the report also found that countries with the highest percentage of users using desktops and laptops were also those with the highest percent of smartphones. That is, smartphones are not replacing laptops and desktops, but rather going hand-in-hand. "This result," states the report, "presents a challenge to the long-standing belief that smartphone uptake will be the major driver of mobile web usage globally."

If you have any doubts, just wait until the family gathers for the holidays and see for yourself - Generation Y certainly has chosen the mobile Web.

Berners-Lee began his keynote by discussing the improvements we've seen in technology in recent years, most notably the ability of our devices to be location-aware. However, he says, "location-awareness is just the tip of the iceberg." Devices already know so much about you: your geographical position, which way is up, which direction you're headed, etc., but future devices may know more than this. For example, they may know about your medical information and your physical state. Perhaps they could tell when you're excited by measuring heart rate increases, he said.

Another major improvement which is impacting the Web is the explosion of data available online, a project which he has heavily contributed to, here in the U.K. with data.gov.uk and its U.S. counterpart data.gov. Not so long ago, less than 10 years ago, in fact, "data" on the Web consisted of governments uploading a scanned document, like a spreadsheet that would be posted as a PDF on a government-hosted website. If anyone ever wanted to do anything with that data, they would have to re-type the information. Today, that same type of data is more accessible - the raw data itself is available and, says Berners-Lee, there's a race between governments and other organizations as to who can provide the best and most interesting data.

As for how data access relates to mobile, Berners-Lee explained that data drives development on mobile, just as it does on the Web as a whole. Even a basic calendaring type of application is data-driven. By combining the aspects of mobile technology, like location-awareness, with the semantic Web of data, entirely new types of mobile applications can exist. Most recently, augmented reality applications are an example of this pairing, tying together location with data to identify points of interest just by aiming your mobile phone at something like a landmark or building.

4 Concerns about the Future of Mobile

All that being said, Berners-Lee also mentioned that there are concerns which we need to be aware of when moving forward with mobile technology. They are as follows:

1. Privacy

The challenge of privacy is one many companies, both mobile and otherwise, have been dealing with in recent months. However, on mobile phones, the problem that has not been worked out yet is how to allow a user to share their location while still making it easy for them to understand when they're sharing critical information, how much control they have over that information and who can access that data. The challenge here is how to do all this without getting in the way of the user's experience.

The solution, says Berners-Lee, is that we may need to re-adjust our ideas about privacy. "I think that we'll end up having to think about privacy from a different point of view," he said.

2. Accountability

Along the same lines of user privacy, is the idea that companies that want access to our critical information have a responsibility to build systems that respect that data. "Responsible" companies that are accountable for how they use our data are key. Clearly, this is a struggle many companies are dealing with now, and no one has a winning formula yet.

3. Neutrality

A perennial favorite topic for Berners-Lee is the idea of network neutrality, referring to regulations that forbid prioritizing the speed or access with which one company's data is available over another's. Companies that want you to use their services have an incentive to end neutrality for their own benefits - for example, those that provide voice services may want to slow down access to VoIP services.

Here Berners-Lee was the most passionate, saying point-blank that "the moment you let neutrality go, you lose the Web as it is - you lose the idea that you can click a link and go anywhere."

4. Bringing Web Access to the Rest of the World

The last point also involved a project in which Berners-Lee is involved: providing Web access to the 80% of the world that doesn't go online. He works on this issue through the foundation at webfoundation.org, which examines the challenges in this area. Surprisingly, lack of signal with which to log onto the Web is not the main thing holding back the spread of the Web. 80% of the world has access to the Web, but, for some reason, chooses not to use it.

The cost of data is partially to blame in many cases for this, and for those who cannot afford data plans through their carriers, they're limited to SMS for sharing information. But SMS is very constraining, says Berners-Lee. What's needed instead are better, more low-cost data plans for mobile phones. Carriers should want to offer these plans because once people get a taste of what a data plan can provide, they're potential customers for an upgrade to a more expensive plan that offers even more data and would generate more revenue for carriers.

Affordability of Web access is an area which Nokia thinks about when building their technologies. For example, Nokia's Ovi Maps service uses compression so as not to need data access when zooming in and out, unlike competing service from Google Maps. Nokia's messaging services also compress data and as, Mary McDowell, Nokia's EVP of Mobile Phones, mentioned in the keynote speech following Berners-Lee's, Nokia's recent acquisition of mobile Internet company Novarra was primarily for access to its proxy-browsing browser technology, which saves on clicks, while also providing faster and more efficient access to the Web. This is an important technology for emerging markets where data plans are pricey, but needed.

Disclosure: Nokia paid for this reporter's travel and accommodations to Nokia World 2010.

As Bango CEO Ray Anderson points out, BlackBerry and Apple still dominate, together accounting for nearly two-thirds of the mobile Web market.

"Even with the advent of Apples new iAd platform and Google's acquisition of AdMob, BlackBerry still represents the best volume opportunity for mobile advertising in the USA", says Anderson. "Apple appears to be losing ground to the latest Android handsets from HTC, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and Samsung, showing the slowest quarterly growth in Web browsing."

So what is the take-away from this latest set of data? It would appear that the device fragmentation of the Android market is helping the platform by continually adding to its volume of users. Developers should be encouraged by the increased traffic on Android devices, both from mobile Web and app usage, as the platform's growth seems to be building steam.

Unfortunately for Android fans, not all of them are.

Just today, the Nieman Journalism Lab released an iPhone app while arguing against the creation of an Android app. To paraphrase lab director Joshua Benton, the organization doesn't feel an Android version of its app is necessary because a very small amount of its traffic comes from Android devices. While it makes sense to serve its largest group of customers first, it should behoove them to release an Android app precisely because Android users are their smallest group.

As we saw last week, many more notable mobile applications are embracing the demand for Android apps. GetGlue launched an Android app in just a few weeks after its iPhone app helped traffic explode and angry Android users flooded the company's inbox demanding an app. StumbleUpon, when making its first forays into mobile applications last week, made a smart choice by releasing iPhone and Android apps simultaneously.

Bango's latest data is just further evidence of the expanding Android platform and the growing risk of underserving this segment of the market.

SiteonMobile requires a website publisher to Web-enable their site's content using something called "tasklets." These widget-like tools encompass the steps one would perform on a website to complete a particular task. For example, a publisher could create a "tasklet" for booking airline tickets or getting a daily horoscope. (The Web via SMS can be fun, too, right?) Designing these tasklets requires "little or no programming experience," says Sudhir Dixit, director of HP Labs India.

Once the tasklets have been created, users can send a text message to a particular number to get the information they desire returned to their mobile phone, thanks to these tasklets which reside in HP's cloud. Or they can dial another number to receive voice-based information via an interactive voice response (IVR) service.

Both the IVR system and the SMS server live in a cloud application maintained by HP, itself called "Tasklet" too.

In India, Dixit explains, there are over 600 million mobile connections and more than half of the country's mobile phone users have low-end phones without Web browsing capabilities. Most people in the country access the Web via their phones, not computers, due to both the high cost of bandwidth and low tech literacy. People want "intuitive and quick access to the information they need, rather than having to negotiate the Web for it," he says.

DIY Tools for the Mobile Web

In short, this new service is providing DIY tools for the creation of SMS and voice-accessible "web applications." Ironically, it's not that different a concept from Google's App Inventor, a DIY tool for developing Android applications, which launched yesterday. Instead of collaborating with a third-party vendor to develop an IVR or SMS service for a particular site, SiteonMobile puts the power to do so in the hands of the publishers themselves, democratizing access to what was, before, a more complex technology. According the HP site, the service offers "very quick deployment," "no system integration required," "no additional programming needed," and it's "absolutely free."

Revenue Model?

According to the press release from HP, commercialization of the technology is still being decided upon internally, and that the current goal is popularization of the technology. However, a couple of other reports state that SiteonMobile will introduce a revenue-sharing model similar to Apple and its iTunes App Store where publishers are charged for a premium level of the service. Clearly, those details are still being worked out at HP.

At the moment, SiteonMobile is an invitation-only service and is being tested with just a handful of undisclosed publishers. Interested parties can sign up for access via email here.