Browser company Opera has taken a look at ‘gender equality on the mobile web’ in its latest State of the Mobile Web report. It notes that the percentage of women on the mobile web has risen 575% in the last two years. South Africa currently has the world’s highest proportion of mobile internet users – 43.5% - followed by the USA with 35.6%, Russia at 32.4% and the United Kingdom with 31.5%. At the other end of the scale, India has the fewest female users (4.0%), followed by Nigeria (5.4%), China (11.6%) and Vietnam (17.9%).

Last year Intel and Nokia announced a partnership. They've since worked together on the creation of MeeGo and are now opening a joint research centre. It's called the Intel and Nokia Joint Innovation Center, it'll employ around 24 R&D professionals and it'll be based at the Center for Internet Excellence within the University of Oulu in Finland.

Mobile research company research2guidance has calculated that the first six months of 2010 have seen more mobile app downloads and more money generated by apps than all of 2009.

Its newest report shows that the worldwide application market was worth over $2.2 billion within the first six months of 2010, compared with a total of $1.7 billion for the 12 months of 2009.

This year's Communications Market Report from telecomms regulator Ofcom has revealed a surge in smartphone ownership. In June 2010, 26.5% of people in the UK said they had a smartphone, more than double the number two years previously. Growth in the last 12 months was particularly strong, up 81% from 7.2 million users in May 2009 to 12.8 million in May 2010.

Mark Bridge writes:

The adage that “the customer is always right” has apparently been disproved by a recent survey of mobile phone users.

Mobile News reports that virtual networks Virgin Mobile and Tesco Mobile outperformed their network partners in a recent customer satisfaction survey carried out by research firm YouGov for price comparison website uSwitch.