Full or tailored mobile web- where and how do people browse on their mobiles?

Mobile Internet is still a fairly new phenomenon and will be changing in the near future. Today, owners of advanced phones can access full web sites and sites tailored for the mobile with their mobile phone browsers. In addition to this, increasing number of other phone applications connect to Internet. A global online survey and a set of interviews were conducted in Hong Kong, London and New York in late spring 2007. 390 mobile Internet users took part in the study and in addition, 23 face to face interviews were carried out. This study revealed some interesting usage patterns of mobile Internet users: full web and mobile tailored web are used for slightly different reasons. Also the user profiles and usage patterns are different in different countries. In Asia, mobile Internet has hit the mass. Users are often female with non-technical background, where as in Europe and North America users are still early adopters. This leads to differentiation in the activities users do. Asian users often use mobile tailored operator portals where as European and American users are more familiar with full web and newest gadgets.