There is no doubt the pace of development in mobile Internet on phones and handheld devices is moving ahead fast. Recent announcements from Apple and Google only serve to highlight this trend.

It’s all happening, and with Apple, it’s not only the excessively hyped iPhone, but the new iPod touch – the phoneless iPhone with its WiFi Web browsing capability – which will help to push mobile Internet applications forward.

Archos also offers some WiFi enabled handheld media players with Web browsing capability, and improvements in mobile phone software and connection speeds are starting to make Web browsing only a thumb tip away wherever you are.

I predict that convenient, usable devices like iPod touch, will bring handheld Internet access to the masses. Even in the home, where many people already have WiFi broadband connections, accessing the Web anywhere in the house on a handheld without needing to fire up a personal computer – even a notebook – will be a big winner.

I have been using mobile Internet services on my phone for a while now and almost take it for granted. The Gmail mobile applet is great, Google Maps for mobile is super useful and Opera Mini makes non-mobile Web sites usable on a small handset. We are also seeing more Web sites starting to serve pared-down mobile pages for speedy access to existing content on the move.

Handset developments are seeing bigger better screens, a choice of connectivity options, some of which are very fast, and built-in GPS which will might have a good effect on mapping and location-based services. Even though it is possible to determine the location of a mobile handset without GPS, this is rarely used due to privacy and accuracy issues.

The mobile networks are doing their bit as well: affordable flat rate data tariffs are becoming more common and fenced-in network access is a thing of a the past.

Developers and agencies need to get on board with this sooner rather than later. Get into the habit of making your Web sites work on mobile devices, at least ensuring that navigation is usable and essential content is available.

Standards based coding will go a long way to achieving this, but it may still be necessary to employ transparent content negotiation techniques. Browser testing will become a bigger issue and mobile browsers, particularly variations of Opera and Safari, will need to be tested.

It makes sense for a Web site to reach the most number of users as possible, and with many more people experiencing mobile Web access, this is another source of eyeballs which should not be ignored.