While it’s not true for all mobile applications, many services enabled by the mobile Internet are meant to be as close to the traditional Internet experience as possible. That’s where efficient and elegant device design and browser-power come in.

Sure, Microsoft announced plans last week for a new, mobile version of IE6, but it also only made an emulator of the forthcoming mobile browser available because the browser requires a more powerful handset–Redmond says IE6 needs new devices.

On the same note, Research In Motion is also ramping up its mobile Internet strategy with souped up devices like the Bold. Key partnerships like online social networking powerhouses like MySpace are only half the battle–the other challenge is keeping customers in your wheelhouse even after they discover the iPhone or Android’s G1.

As competition ramps up and clear choices between the top Internet-enabled devices become more difficult to sort out, the industry will increasingly look to side-by-side reviews of devices like those CNET and Gizmodo carried out this past week. As our weekly columnist and Rethink Research Director Caroline Gabriel points out in this week’s Special Report: CNET compared a half dozen handsets as they ran a full length movie, TV episode and audio track. The iPhone 3G, BlackBerry Bold, Samsung Instinct, LG Dare and HTC/T-Mobile G1 were all equipped with a 4Gb MicroSD except the 8Gb iPhone and all were running on 3G networks. According to the CNET review, the Bold blew away the competition on download speeds, performing at 13.9Mbps for the movie and 9.59Mbps for audio. The G1 came in second, with ratings of 5.99Mbps and 5.08Mbps; iPhone was third with 5Mbps and 2.79Mbps; the Dare performed at 1.49Mbps and 1.31Mbps; and the Instinct scored 0.79Mbps and 0.74Mbps. Read more here.

At the same time Gizmodo carried out a similar review with a very similar lineup of handsets–but the results were vastly different. Apple’s iPhone, Google’s Andorid G1 phone and the Blackberry Bold finished in the top three spots–but in that order. Read more here.

Finally, Google has given voice-enabled search another go on the mobile platform. Google’s voice search launched on Apple’s iPhone, though, not G1. Read this week’s Mobile Internet Watch to find out why.

More Industry News:

• Gizmodo grades 8 Handsets on Browsing: -A to F
• New handsets needed for Microsoft’s Mobile IE6
• T-Mobile USA increases data plan prices
• Clearwire shareholders approved planned WiMAX merger
• mHollywood: Nokia opens research lab in Tinseltown
• T-Mobile USA taps Yahoo for search

Microsoft’s mobile efforts are dominating headlines this week as Redmond attacks the mobile internet from multiple all fronts: browser, operating system and search.

First up, Redmond confirmed that a reworked version of Internet Explorer 6 will soon be coming to mobile phones. While the company promised to upgrade the mobile browser some time ago, it just released an emulator of IE6 for mobiles yesterday. While early reviews give the updated browser kudos on improved usability, the early-stage emulator version of the browser is not without hiccups. Check out this post from Arstechnica for more.

While Windows Mobile remains Microsoft’s most visible contribution to the mobile internet movement, reviewers have panned most of the devices running on the OS–until now. GigaOm gives SonyEricsson’s new Xperia handset a glowing review and ends with this advice: “If your company insists that you need a Windows Mobile phone, then Xperia X1 is an obvious (and perhaps the only) choice.” Ha. Read on for the entire review here.

Finally, Microsoft is grabbing headlines for nearing a deal with Verizon Wireless to handle the carrier’s mobile search offering. According to a Wall Street Journal report that cited unnamed sources, Verizon Wireless is close to accepting Redmond’s terms because the company will pay the carrier between $550 million and $650 million over five years as part of the deal. Reportedly, the figure is twice what Google was willing to pay Verizon Wireless. Read this week’s Mobile Internet Watch for more on this development.

More Industry News:

• Nielsen: 98% of iPhone subs use mobile data
• Sony’s Xperia gets good marks
• iSuppli determines T-Mobile USA’s G1 BOM is $150
• Japan’s DoCoMo buys $2.7B piece of Tata
• 3UK’s dirt cheap Facebook phone by INQ
• Twitter finally looks to monetize
• Loopt looking to cash in or cash out?
• Obama to put his “own stamp” on the FCC
• VZW releases BlackBerry Storm data prices
• iPhone over-the-air downloads on the way?

Independent analyst Andy Seybold penned a column today over at FierceWireless entitled, “White Spaces Decision Will Haunt FCC” and a healthy discussion has erupted in the comments below. Seybold argues that the FCC’s decision to allow devices to make use of the unlicensed white spaces spectrum will result in ”thousands of people [finding] their ability to watch TV… compromised and their ability to hear what is happening at concerts… interrupted by interference caused by these new white space ’smart’ devices.”

One commenter writes in: “As a sound mixer who regularly relies on wireless microphones to bring all of you your television programming… Television Production, Sports, Conventions, Theaters, Stage, Churches… rely on hundreds of thousands of existing RF microphones… I think we are in for lots of bad sound and interferrence. Momentary splats, buzzes… constantly intruding into your life.”

Certainly an interesting read. Did the FCC rush to make a decision on this one or will white spaces prove to be fertile ground for future wireless start-ups and subsequent competition?

White white spaces remain controversial, it’s not too surprising that the economy had an impact on T-Mobile USA’s bottom line this past quarter (with a little help from AT&T Mobility, which reportedly snagged a few converts.) T-Mobile’s post-paid net additions were only 293,000 for the quarter an all-time low for the carrier.  

Finally, check out this week’s Mobile Internet Watch by Rethink Research’s Caroline Gabriel to find out how LG is teaming up with Microsoft to help Windows Mobile take on Symbian.

• Qualcomm, Amobee team for mobile ads
• Nokia launches web services for the emerging market
• CC: Green light for White Spaces
• AT&T offers GPS exercise app
• Amdocs to acquire ChangingWorlds
• Analyst: Mobile video infrastructure market to ramp up
• Analyst: 82M LBS social networking subs by 2013
• Analyst: White spaces decision will “haunt” FCC