Mobile users in the United states view more data-intensive pages than subscribers in any other country, according to Opera's newest State of the Mobile Web report.

The average page viewed over U.S. carrier networks is approximately 32 KB compressed or almost 320 KB uncompressed. Since April 2008, the U.S. saw a page-view growth of 129 percent, unique-user growth of 11.8 percent and logged an average of 198 page-views per user.

"We believe U.S. consumers expect a high-quality Web experience wherever they go," said Thomas Ford, global communications manager for Opera Software ASA, Oslo, Norway.

"They want the same sites and services to function similarly on whichever device they use, so when they visit Facebook, they don't necessarily want a watered-down version of the site," he said.

Opera's State of the Mobile Web report provides information on the top global trends affecting the mobile Web.

In addition to the top global trends and country snapshots, the report highlights trends in Africa and aggregate carrier data for the top 10 countries.

The top 10 sites accessed via Opera Mini in the U.S., in terms of number of unique users:
1. Google.com
2. Facebook.com
3. MySpace.com
4. Wikipedia.org
5. YouTube.com (up from 7)
6. Yahoo.com
7. NYTimes.com (down from 5)
8. AccuWeather.com
9. My.Opera.com
10. ESPN.com

"It's interesting to note that the pages are data-intensive compared to other countries in the top 10," Mr. Ford said.

"We feel this is more indicative of the way U.S. consumers prefer mobile content, rather than the specific pages, although a person's Facebook page and the New York Times home page are larger than 300 KB," he said.

The top handsets accessing the mobile Web via Opera Mini for April 2009 are:
1. BlackBerry 8330
2. Samsung SPH-M800
3. LG CU920
4. BlackBerry 9530
5. BlackBerry 9000
6. BlackBerry 8130
7. BlackBerry 8310
8. BlackBerry 8320
9. BlackBerry 8900
10. Samsung SPH-M540

"Opera Mini's presence on so many BlackBerrys and Samsung Instincts also indicates that users demand a rich mobile Web experience on their high-end phones," Mr. Ford said.

"Data plans for these phones are often sold with a flat-rate data plan, which gives additional freedom to use the mobile Web to its fullest," he said.

We know what you're thinking. Given the growth of mobile Web browsing, has Opera noticed a corresponding increase in mobile advertising?

"Our numbers don't showcase mobile advertising, since most of it is WAP-based," Mr. Ford said. "Because our browser pulls the main Web page where possible, we would serve similar ads to what users would find on the main site.

"That said, we do believe mobile advertising will only grow in importance because usage of the mobile Web is increasing," he said. "These numbers tell us consumers have an appetite for rich Web content regardless of device.

"That should be good news for mobile advertising as it continues to develop."

As for global browsing trends, in April 2009, Opera Mini had more than 23.4 million users, up more than 140 percent compared to April 2008.

Opera Mini users viewed nearly 8.7 billion pages in April 2009. Since April 2008, page views have increased 249 percent.

Last month, Opera Mini users generated more than 151 million MB of data for carriers worldwide.

Data in Opera Mini is compressed up to 90 percent. If this data were uncompressed, Opera Mini users would have viewed up to 1.4 PB of data in April. Over the previous year, data traffic is up 295 percent.

Opera Mini usage in Nigeria continues to surge, pushing past Poland and taking the No. 9 spot.

As for carrier data trends, carriers in the Ukraine were the big winners, according to Opera.

Their customers view 582 pages per month, on average. Ukraine carriers also sport the highest data transfer per user at more than 10 MB per month compressed. This is as much as 100 MB of mobile data per user uncompressed.

The top 12 countries using Opera Mini in Africa are South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt, Kenya, Libya, Zambia, Tanzania, Cote d'Ivoire, Mozambique, Namibia, Ghana and Gabon.

From April 2008 to April 2009, overall page-views in the top 12 countries listed increased 422 percent. Overall unique users in the top 12 countries listed increased 169 percent. Overall data transferred in the top 12 countries listed increased 348 percent.

Since Opera's last spotlight on Africa, Nigeria jumped from No. 4 to No. 2 and Zambia jumped from No. 9 to No. 6. Mozambique, Namibia, Ghana and Gabon are new to the spotlight.

Growth rates continue to soar in Africa, especially in Libya, with 4,155 percent user growth since April 2008, and in Nigeria, with 2,353 percent user growth since April 2008.

Kenya leads the top 12 countries in page views, with each user browsing 372 pages on average each month.

"We found in an earlier report that mobile Web access in countries with high broadband penetration tended to complement Web access on computers," Mr. Ford said. "We attributed this to consumers having a desire to remain connected wherever they are.

"In other countries, mobile is the main way to connect to the Web," he said. "Between 50 percent and 60 percent of the world's population has a mobile phone, whereas about 20 percent have access to a computer.

"Clearly we believe mobile devices will become the primary way many consumers connect to the Web."