The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) and research partner, Lightspeed Research have released the results of the latest UK, French and German Mobile Consumer Briefing reports on mobile internet usage.

The research shows high interest in mobile websites, with an average of 28 per cent of European mobile consumers expecting to access websites once a week or more using their mobile phone over the next year. British mobile consumers emerged as the most likely to use the mobile internet regularly, with 36 per cent stating their intention to do so over the next 12 months, followed by Germany at 27 per cent and France at 20 per cent.

Free access to mobile sites emerged as a major driver for usage, with 56 per cent of consumers in France and the UK, and 35 per cent in Germany, stating that they would be very unlikely to use websites which charged them a fee. Fast load times and simple viewing and navigation were also key among consumers.

News, weather, social networking and mobile search were cited as the sites mobile consumers were most likely to access over the coming year, with maps and directions being the most desired content in the UK and France, and headlines in Germany.
On average, 30 per cent of mobile consumers (30 per cent UK, 25 per cent France and 36 per cent Germany) were willing to receive alerts from websites of interest on their mobile phone, with 38 per cent preferring these via SMS rather than email.

Mobile search engines emerged as the most popular means of accessing websites on the mobile handset in all three countries, followed by bookmarking in the UK and France, and alerts and notifications in Germany.

“The survey results have shown that there is a clear and growing market opportunity for the mobile internet,” says Peter A. Johnson, vice president of market intelligence at the MMA, and author of the study. “The high usage of the mobile device for accessing websites is opening up as a key channel for advertisers. To make the most of this opportunity, site owners and developers need to ensure their websites are well-designed for mobile, user-friendly and easily discoverable using mobile search engines.”