Many predicted to access search through mobiles

By the year 2013, almost 1.3 billion people will use mobile phones to access local search services, a new report has predicted.

The analysis, conducted by Juniper Research, has suggested that Western Europe and North America are the best equipped for such a surge in mobile search use as they have good local information resources online, such as telephone directories.

It remarked that content will be key to the success of advertising within the sector but predicted that local search will be responsible for around 43 per cent of mobile search advertising revenues between now and 2013.

Juniper Research concluded: "In the end it will be the quality of the user experience that will be of paramount importance."

Recently, Yahoo! suggested that the key to growing the mobile ecosystem is to deliver services through the platform which are "indispensable" to the everyday lives of consumers.

Marco Boerries, executive vice-president of Yahoo!'s Connected Life, said that if it is allowed to reach its full potential, the opportunities presented by mobile marketing are "massive".