E-mail, weather and search web sites are the most popular among consumers logging online through their mobile phones, according to a new study by San Francisco-based Telephia. The company said that 4.8 percent of the 191 million U.S. wireless users accessed web email sites in June. Weather related sites (3.9 percent) and search sites (2.9 percent) weren't far behind, followed by sites featuring sports and news and politics. The most popular sites among mobile users included The Weather Channel, Yahoo Mail, MSN Hotmail, Google Search and ESPN. "For people on the go, accessing the Internet through their mobile devices is an extension of their Internet use on their PC," said Kanishka Agarwal, Telephia's vice president of new products. "It is not surprising top mobile Internet categories mirror Internet content categories accessed via a computer."
The global smartphone market closed 2025 with a story less about recovery and more about transformation. Premium product, ecosystem lock-in, and manufacturing scale are now the forces shaping competition. For business and technology leaders, the latest IDC market study data confirms that smartphones remain a critical indicator of consumer demand, supply chain health, and AI commercialization at the edge. Smartphone Market Development Global smartphone shipments grew 2.3 percent year-over-year in Q4 2025, reaching 336.3 million units and bringing full-year volumes to 1.26 billion units — a modest 1.9 percent annual increase, according to IDC. This smartphone growth emerged despite a memory shortage crisis, tariff volatility, supply chain disruption, and macroeconomic headwinds. What stabilized demand? Two factors: sustained growth in premium devices and strong foldable momentum, combined with accelerated purchases as consumers bought ahead of anticipated price increases. Buyers weren...