Broadband observers should be delighted to note that the U.S. saw a 76 percent year-over-year growth in the number of connections at high broadband levels — speeds greater than 10 Mbps during the quarter. It is not surprising as many U.S. customers are leaving slower DSL connections and are switching to cable or other higher-speed options such as fiber networks.

Some key findings from the report:

• The global average connection speed increased 13 percent to 3.0 Mbps from the first to second quarters of 2012, continuing a trend of strong growth.
• South Korea continued to have the highest average connection speed at 14.2 Mbps for the quarter.
• Japan was second at 10.7 Mbps and Hong Kong was third at 8.9 Mbps.
• Among top countries ranked by average measured connection speed, Japan experienced largest year-over-year percentage growth (21 percent)
• Year-over-year trends remained generally positive, with global average connection speeds increasing by 15 percent, including growth in seven out of the top 10 countries.
• The global average peak connection speed grew 44 percent year over year, including increases of 10 percent or more across all of the top 10 countries.
• The global average peak connection speed one again showed strong improvement, growing 19 percent in the second quarter to 16.1 Mbps.
• Worldwide, 126 countries saw increases, six of which grew in excess of 100 percent between the second quarters of 2011 and 2012.  In contrast, only eight countries saw year-over-year declines.

However, it wasn’t all good news:

• The global high broadband adoption rate declined slightly in the second quarter, losing 1.6 percent.
• Seven of the top 10 countries also had negative quarter-over-quarter changes, with wildly varying magnitudes of change, ranging from a trivial loss of just 0.6 percent in Latvia (to 26 percent) to a much more concerning decline of 24 percent, seen in both the Netherlands and Belgium (to 17 percent and 14 percent respectively).
• After moving up in the first quarter of 2012, the global broadband adoption level saw a minor decrease in the second quarter, losing 2.8 percent and declining to 39 percent.

However, U.S. broadband had a great summer:

• Nine of the top 10 states saw positive quarter-over-quarter changes in average connection speeds, with the largest increase seen in Delaware.
• Top 10 states saw average connection speeds increase on a year-on-year basis.
• With 41.6 Mbps, Delaware had the highest average peak connection speed.
• A total of 37 states and the District of Columbia saw their high broadband (higher than 10 Mbps) adoption levels increase quarter-over-quarter.

In this edition of SOTI, Akamai is introducing a new Mobile Connectivity that includes mobile browser data from Akamai IO for the month of June 2012.

• The volume of mobile data traffic doubled from the second quarter of 2011 to the second quarter of 2012, and grew 14% between the first and second quarter of 2012.
• The fastest mobile average connection speed in the second quarter of 2012 was 7.5 Mbps, delivered by a mobile provider in Russia.
• A UK The fastest mobile average peak connection speed for the quarter came from a provider in the U.K. at 44.4 Mbps.
• Mobile browser data from Akamai IO for the month of June shows approximately 38 percent of requests on cellular networks came from Android Webkit.  Some 33 percent came from Mobile Safari; and about 4 percent from Blackberry.
• However, add Wi-Fi, the numbers shift in favor of Mobile Safari, which accounted for an average of approximately 60 percent of requests.  Android Webkit represented about 23 percent. Of course, it shouldn’t surprise since many folks own iPod Touches and iPads that use Wi-Fi for connectivity.

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Here’s what the Russian site says makes up the phone: a 4.7-inch IPS display with 1280 x 768 resolution, 8 megapixel camera, 1.5 GHz quad-core Snapdragon processor, 2 GB of memory and only 8 GB of storage capacity. While some of those specifications sound like small upgrades, I’m inclined to believe them and this is why my upgrade strategy has been to skip every other Nexus device. I’ll be doing the same this time around — sticking with my Galaxy Nexus — if the alleged LG Nexus specs are accurate.

In a similar vein, speculation had run rampant on the Galaxy S III Mini for several weeks prior, but Samsung quelled all rumors by launching the device this week. Yes it’s a smaller version of Samsung’s successful Galaxy S III smartphone, but many in the tech world seem disappointed by the diminished hardware capabilities. Gone is the high-resolution display to be replaced by an 800 x 480 pixel screen. A 1 GHz dual-core processor, slower HSPA radio and 5 megapixel camera are also inside.

Some had hoped that this would be a 4-inch version of the flagship phone: Highly capable hardware in a slightly smaller package. I can understand the disappointment here. However, Samsung’s Galaxy S III isn’t accessible to every budget around the world and I see the Mini as a smart strategy to get those folks familiar with the Galaxy line for less. We’ll see if that bet pays of over time as Samsung shares sales figures.

Whatever Android device you use, chances are rather large that you surf the web on it. Opera Mobile for Android saw a software update this week and it’s well worth the download. This version includes a wider range of HTML 5 support as well as SPDY, a protocol to help speed up page load times. Based on my hands on time, Opera Mobile is pretty quick indeed and even though I’m embedded in Google’s Chrome browser across all of my devices, Opera Mobile has found a place on my Android phone.

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Opera appears to have different installation files in the Google Play store but you don’t have to pick the right one. According to the company, you’ll get the correct version:

Despite being tailor made for four different chipsets, ARM v5 and v7, MIPS and X86, the Opera Mobile 12.1 browser remains sleek and slender since you only get the version suited for the chipset in your Android mobile or tablet.

I doubt this saves much space, but having run out of room on my 16 GB Nexus 7 tablet — which doesn’t have any storage expansion capabilities — every byte can count. The new browser version also includes warnings for potentially suspicious sites or those used for illicit activity. And developers of web pages and apps can now take advantage of additional HTML 5 standard support. Opera specifically calls out support for SPDY — a protocol designed to reduce page load times — WebSockets, CSS Animations and HTML 5 drag and drop capabilities to name a few.

Along with the new features are the old ones that have always impressed me in Opera Mobile. Of particular note is the Opera Turbo feature to speed up the web experience on mobile devices while also reducing the amount of mobile broadband data use: Opera’s compression technology has long been a key differentiator in the mobile space.

While the compression tech has impressed me in the past, the pure speed of Opera is impressing me now. I took the new version for a quick spin on my Galaxy Note 2 and the experience feels as fast as Chrome, my default browser. I ran a SunSpider benchmark, which gives an idea of JavaScript performance in a browser, and found that Opera Mobile was even faster than Chrome. In the SunSpider test, where a lower number is better, Opera Mobile scored 1094.4 milliseconds while Chrome followed in 1192.1 milliseconds.

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Here’s what the Ringmark test checks for, according to a blog post from the Dolphin Browser team, as well as a video showing proof of the passed test. Note: Browser tests are far more interesting to talk about than watch; you’ve been warned!

• Ring 0: Base functionality that most smartphones have today.
• Ring 1: Functionality needed to unlock the most common apps that developers want to build, including 2D games, music and video apps, and camera apps.
• Ring 2: Features that will unlock the next generation of mobile Web apps, based on developer necessity. For example, we expect Ring 2 to include upcoming technology like WebRTC and WebGL.

So how does the Dolphin Browser accomplish getting past Ring 1? For starters, the browser has its own engine comprised of “an improved webkit version with extensive canvas enhancement”, per the company. And the team added support for various HTML5 features such as border-images, HTML5 forms, and Web Workers to name a few. Also of note is partial support for WebRTC, which could power  online audio and video communication in a browser.

Alhough it’s good to see Dolphin Browser advance the feature set of the browser and prepare for HTML5, It’s almost ironic to me that Facebook has a standard HTML5 test at all.

I’ve noted before that performance of the Facebook app, which is written with HTML5 and other web technologies, has gradually declined to the point where I won’t use it on any of my devices. Instead, I’m often using a browser for Facebook now, so I’ll have to take the new Dolphin Browser Beta for a spin on Facebook. I’ve long used Dolphin and only recently switched away from it for Google Chrome on Android. Maybe it’s time to switch back?

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I was leery when I heard the news about Axis, mainly because Yahoo’s mobile strategy has arguably been second-rate by comparison to Apple, Google, and Microsoft. Then I took Axis for a spin on my iPhone and I was pleasantly surprised. In my opinion, Yahoo has accomplished its stated goals with Axis, and its peers could learn something from the venerable search company.

First, I’m very impressed with the user interface implemented in Axis. It’s simple and fast to use once you understand it. Essentially, the browser has a number of sliding panes — both horizontally and vertically — that you swipe to get around the web.

You start out with an address bar that’s also a search field and results begin to appear immediately. Swiping left to right shows more results, which are essentially thumbnails of visual information; far richer than just text results. Tap a thumbnail and a bottom panel rises, showing the a web page. Bookmarks are available with a right to left swipe (or a tap) of a small ribbon icon. Tap an icon on the bottom of the browser and thumbnails of open tabs appear for your to navigate through or view.

The entire UI is seamless and very focused on swiping as opposed to tapping. Yahoo clearly spent time figuring out the best way to take advantage of the touchscreens found on today’s smartphones, and the effort shows. Although geared for mobile devices, I really like how Axis allows you to switch views optimized for iPhone, iPad and desktops from within the settings. I never expected to say this, but Google, Microsoft and even Apple could learn from Yahoo’s UI approach here. That’s debatable and open to personal opinion of course, but I really like what Yahoo did here.

How much will Axis matter in the grand scheme of things? Probably not too much because even with the well designed user interface, I don’t expect a significant number of iOS device users to switch browsers. Some might use Axis — or Opera, Dolphin HD or another third-party browser — on occasion, but since all links in iOS open Safari, few will likely bother to open up Axis on a regular basis. That’s a shame because Yahoo has delivered a solid browser for mobile devices in Axis.

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How did we get here?

I can certainly understand why both companies are up in arms — no pun intended. Each has long supported an open web and have built some or all of their business with such products. Along the transition from traditional desktop to mobile computing, however, the rules have changed. Smartphones and tablets are at times are obviously considered to be portable computers, but they’re also looked upon as consumer electronic devices, which have a long, rich history of proprietary software, connectors and technologies.

Along the timeline of this change from standard computer to CE device, Apple has arguably best made the transition. The “it just works” mentality isn’t 100 percent accurate, but the latest Apple devices come closest in that regard. Think of the iPhone, iPad and even Apple TV: These aren’t just high-priced computing products; instead, you turn then on and use them just as you would a standard television set, an old VCR or an electric fan. All of the complexities inside the Apple product line are hidden by simple, intuitive controls, for example.

This isn’t a new problem

I don’t use Apple as an example to say they have the best products. Instead, it’s to show that their smartphones and tablets are more like traditional consumer electronics devices than products from most of their peers. And there’s another reason for using Apple here: For some time, Apple didn’t allow third-party browsers on its iOS devices. It does now, but they’re restricted just as Microsoft is restricting other browser capabilities in Windows 8: You can’t set a third-party browser on iOS to be the default browser, which is terribly inconvenient and likely holds back a significant amount of iOS users from using Dolphin HD or Opera to name a few.

Why is this allowed? Because Apple controls everything about its product from hardware to software to ecosystem. Perhaps you don’t like that example though. That’s fine. Consider this timely tweet from Ian Betteridge this morning because it’s spot-on in the point I’m trying to make:

Google's griping about not being able to put Chrome on Windows RT. So when will I be able to install IE on a Chromebook?—
Ian Betteridge (@ianbetteridge) May 10, 2012

The obvious answer is that you’ll never be able to install Internet Explorer — or any other third-party browser, for that matter — on a Google ChromeBook. Google developed the ChromeOS, which is essentially a Linux core that runs Google’s Chrome browser. How is that different from what Apple does or what Microsoft intends to do?

The choice is yours, but there are trade-offs involved

As a consumer, I personally like choice. It’s choice that drives some away from Apple’s iPhone, for example, and towards a phone that runs Android or some other alternative. Mobile technology however is a huge series of trade-offs because it’s so personal. If you want the rock-solid and intuitive experience from Apple, you give up some choice to gain that experience. Willing to tinker with your device so you can run any app you want and have your phone look the way you want it to? You may give up some of the polished refinement of iOS in order to get that freedom.

Unfortunately, as mobile technology intersects more with and emulates a consumer electronics mindset, some companies are going to continue to control more of the experience, and in this case that experience is web browsing. I’m not sure this is in Microsoft’s best interest, however, mainly because the company has tried tablets for over a decade with relatively little success. Simply put: it doesn’t need another potential obstacle in the way of Windows 8 tablet sales, considering the competition from and traction of Apple’s iPad.

No matter how this browser battle plays out, I’ll do what I always do. I’ll consider the overall product, look at the trade-offs made by choosing one tablet over another and simply vote with my wallet. Ultimately, you do have the choice because it’s your money to spend on the device and browser(s) you want to use.

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Helping to deliver a good experience is support for hardware acceleration in Opera Mini 7 for Android. I’ve found this version to be much faster when rendering pages, zooming and scrolling. In fact, many pages I’ve browsed on Opera Mini 7 open faster — the New York Times is a great example — and allow for quicker navigation than on the native Android browser. That’s impressive as Opera Mini initially launched in 2006; a time one could effectively call the pre-touchscreen smartphone age.

Opera Mini complements the more robust Opera Mobile client, but the two share a common user interface. That means Opera Mini has most of the same UI features: Speed Dial buttons for favorite sites, tabbed browsing support, pinch-to-zoom, offline reading, and kinetic scrolling. Missing is support for Adobe Flash, so if you need that, don’t ditch your native browser entirely.

Overall, my favorite browser on Android is actually a beta product: Chrome for Android. I highly recommend it, but it’s a different class of browser since everything is processed and rendered on the phone, not by a server in the cloud. But Chrome is only available for Android 4.0 devices, and most Android phones don’t yet, or won’t run, Android 4.0. And it doesn’t save you anything on data usage like Opera Mini 7 does, which is Opera’s big selling point of the browser.

Sure, if you don’t want to have your web browsing activities go through Opera’s servers, this isn’t the product for you. But if you want to cut down on your mobile broadband data use, you can’t go wrong with Opera Mini 7, found in Google Play. Even if you use it for casual browsing to reduce some of your data needs, there’s a benefit. Of course, Opera wouldn’t mind that strategy at all; that’s why it also offers the full-fledged Opera Mobile product and the Opera Link service to sync bookmarks between them.

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The new version of Dolphin keeps all the features that have had me using it for the past year: true tabbed browsing, fast performance, full-screen mode, the recently added Webzine function and customizable on-screen gestures. But the Dolphin team took a page out of Google’s Chrome playbook and added browser synchronization: handy for people who use multiple Android smartphones or tablets. The new features are coming soon to Dolphin for Apple iOS devices.

All the browsing preferences, bookmarks and gestures on device are wirelessly sent to any others on which you have Dolphin installed. The custom gesture sync alone is huge because it takes time to create gestures (you could always use the default ones) and syncing them ensures that all of the gestures are identical across devices.

Dolphin’s Webzine feature — a nicely formatted version of web pages — gains a subtle facelift in this version as well. It’s easier and more intuitive to swipe around to different articles or sources. And there’s a button in the browser’s address bar to switch between Webzine or standard modes. All in all, adding synchronization through the cloud makes a great browser even better for Android devices. If my eight reasons to try Dolphin Browser didn’t convince you, perhaps a ninth reason will.

Ironically, the timing of the browser sync function corresponds with Tuesday night’s launch of Android 4.0, aka Ice Cream Sandwich. The updated native Google browser will also sync bookmarks and such, but if you want gesture support, you’ll need to stick with Dolphin for now.

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Opera released updated versions of its Opera Mini and Opera Mobile browsers for Google Android devices on Tuesday. The new software includes a mobile broadband meter showing how much data has been used for browsing. Other improvements include a faster Opera Turbo feature, inline video on Honeycomb tablets and faster page rendering with the Opera Presto engine.

At a time when most carriers are moving away from unlimited data plans on smartphones and tablets, the new data meter is a welcome addition. The meter is a dedicated web page within Opera Mini 6.5 and Opera Mobile 11.5, making it easy to view total broadband usage while browsing, which can translate into actual cost savings on limited data plans.

One of Opera’s key advantages over other browsers is data compression on its servers: Optimized web pages are sent directly from Opera to client devices, saving up to 90 percent of the bandwidth over a non-compressed page. The company supports most of the major mobile platforms, including Apple iOS, which is one of the most popular phones for Opera use. However, at the platform level, I’d expect Android devices to use Opera browser more.

In iOS, Apple doesn’t allow any browser other than its native Safari browser be the default. That means any link tapped in iOS will open in Safari, even if a third-party browser such as Opera is installed. The experience is less than optimal. On Android, however, it’s a simple check box to make any browser the default option. That’s why I suspect the new data meter for Opera is first appearing for Android smartphones and tablets.

While viewing the web while using less data sounds appealing, some have opted to pass on Opera because browsing preferences and history are used at the server level. I suspect that more people will begin to overlook this issue as data demand rises in the face of monthly mobile bandwidth caps or metered data plans. In some sense, Android owners are already giving their data to Google if they use the stock browser, so why not go with another company and save big on the bandwidth?

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