InfoGin, which provides web-to-mobile content adaptation solutions, has announced the results of a trial held across five UK universities which reveals positive responses to mobile web surfing. 69% of respondents agreed that if InfoGins technology was implemented by their operator, they would surf the web on their mobiles more often and consider their phone complimentary to their regular PC surfing habits. At the same time, 71% of all users involved in the trial said they would be willing to pay an additional fee for access to a service that improved the mobile Internet surfing experience.
Prior to the trial, two in three students found surfing the Internet on their mobile such a poor experience that they gave up trying. During the trial period, 1,000 students from five UK universities accessed the mobile Internet through InfoGins Intelligent Mobile Platform. Users picked three random web sites and accessed them once using InfoGins platform and again without using it. As a result, 69% commented that the experience was useable or enjoyable when accessed through InfoGin.
3G handsets offering advanced mobile data services are prevalent, but accessing the Internet is still cumbersome, says InfoGin. Prior to the trial, only 18% of users found mobile Internet services to be satisfactory. 83% of all trial respondents agreed that as the Web offers more social networking and online community activities, it is becoming more and more important to be able to access the web while being on the move.
Today, mobile phone users are faced with a very poor experience when they surf the Internet on their mobiles says InfoGin CEO and Founder, Eran Wyler. We commissioned this trial to demonstrate how crucial it is for operators to be able to provide capabilities for end users to surf the real Internet on their mobiles. Students are typically early adopters of services such as mobile Internet, and the trial clearly demonstrates that operators should address such issues as download time, web page layout and rich web functionality on mobiles. Web surfing on mobile is definitely going to become an attractive service for the end users and one of the main revenue generators for operators in years to come.
The trial was conducted over a three month period, from December 2006 to March 2007 and evaluated by technology research company Vanson Bourne. 1,000 students from five UK universities, including Newcastle, Bath and Nottingham, were invited to take part in the trial to experience InfoGins web-to-mobile technology over an extended period of time. Of these, 100 were selected at random to answer user experience questions. 
The results of the survey overwhelmingly show that the students questioned were not happy with the currently poor experience of web surfing on mobiles says Vanson Bournes Graham Opie. However, a large proportion of them agreed that they would be happy to pay a monthly fee or receive advertising in return for an improved service such as the one they experienced using InfoGins trial portal.
The trial also found that two in three students considered access to study, research and university websites were the most important resources that they could view on their mobiles. Next on their list of important sites to browse on their mobiles were social and community sites, including Facebook (52%), news and current affairs sites such as the BBC (46%), sports sites (44%) and download sites to buy wallpaper and ringtones (31%).