Smartphones are well on their way to ubiquity. According to a forthcoming Global and European Edition report, PhoCusWright's European Consumer Travel Report Third Edition, 69% of U.K. and French travelers with mobile phones, followed by 57% in Germany, accessed the mobile web in the past year – about a 10% increase across markets from the prior year. Travelers are connecting more frequently as well. Just about half in France and the U.K., and over one third in Germany now log on at least daily. But when it boils down to mobile web activity specifically related to travel, growth is nowhere near as robust. In fact, in Germany, despite the increased appetite for smartphones, the percentage of mobile web users who engage in several travel-related activities, such as mobile check-ins and mobile booking, fell substantially. The two trends seem contradictory. The answer to this puzzle lies in the shifting mobile audience in Europe. Consider the first consumers to purchase an...