Senior executives at Google told The Times this week that the company’s mobile division is expected soon to become the biggest driver of new business. The mobile operations are run from London by Nikesh Arora, the vice-president of European operations, who was poached two years ago from T-Mobile, the mobile-phone operator.

Google’s increased focus on mobiles spells more bad news for Microsoft, which is struggling to compete with Google on many fronts. MSN, Microsoft’s search engine, ranks third in the world behind Google, which is in first place, and Yahoo!. Microsoft shares edged up 3 cents to $22.10, despite the decision by Bill Gates, the co-founder, to step back from day-to-day involvement in the business by 2008.

Google is reorganising the way it presents search results on the internet to conform better with mobiles, according to Deep Nishar, the company’s director of wireless products. It is also testing dozens of new search-related products to be used solely on mobile phones and other pocket-sized wireless devices.

“You only have to look at the global trends for mobile use and PC use to see where our business is going,” said Mr Nishar. “In India, mobile-phone ownership outweighs PC ownership by a ratio of two to one. And there are five million more mobile-phone users coming online every month. By the end of this year there will be more mobile phones in India than in America.”

Mr Nishar added that China also presents a massive untapped market. “In China there are 3.6 million mobile-phone users, but very few homes have a PC.”

In Britain there is one mobile phone for every person, while in some parts of Scandinavia mobile ownership is almost double that rate. “Looking at these numbers, it becomes very obvious that in the future people will want to access information on the web with a device they carry with them,” Mr Nishar said.

The Google director would not divulge how much money the company is pouring into its mobile division, but said: “Mobile is absolutely getting very significant investment.”

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