A new study from dotMobi and ad agency AKQA Mobile shows a strong consumer preference for practical mobile content and a better mobile Web experience.

Consumers surveyed for the joint study named mobile-optimized banking and travel planning as must-haves on their phones instead of just entertainment and ringtones.

"It's clear that consumers want utility out of their mobile Web experiences," said Amy Mischler, San Diego-based vice president of identity and brand services at dotMobi. "They're looking for ways to simply make their lives more convenient."

Per the study on mobile Internet usage and attitudes, nearly two-thirds of the respondents said they would consider buying theatre tickets, takeout food and travel tickets through a mobile phone.

The same study showed that more than 90 percent of the respondents said they would be more likely to choose an airline with mobile check-in facilities versus one that didn't.

AKQA and dotMobi found that 39 percent of the participants are more likely to visit their personal bank on a mobile phone during the workday or at work, compared with 37 percent while on the move and 24 percent at home.

Participants are also most likely to visit mobile sites of Amazon, BBC Sport/ESPN, Expedia and Facebook while on the move and most likely to visit Monster and Playboy/adult sites on a mobile phone at home, according to the study.

Experience counts
In other results, more than 90 percent of the respondents said they were interested in learning about the mobile Web and 50 percent were unaware that there are mobile sites optimized for use on phones. Eighty-six percent said they were interested in knowing which sites were easily accessed on the phone.

Nearly one out of two respondents said that a poor experience on their initial use of the mobile Web made them reluctant to access either the site or the Internet on their phones again.

The respondents blamed poor site display and layout as key reasons for mobile Web dissatisfaction.

Two percent of participants in the survey who bought a phone in the past six months bought an iPhone. This means that brands that don't optimize their mobile content or services for a wide array of mobile phones will offer a substandard experience for most wireless consumers.

However, 63 percent of the respondents said they would be more likely to give up their money than their smartphone if they were mugged.

On the cross-cultural front, U.S. respondents were significantly more likely to say that it is very important for their next mobile phone to provide a good mobile Internet experience than their British counterparts, at 26 percent versus 15 percent.

The implication of that finding is clear: U.S. consumers consider the mobile Internet experience more important when buying a new handset than British consumers.

Connecting the dots
The survey was conducted online with 2,000 respondents in a panel provided by Research Now.

Survey partner dotMobi is the Dublin, Ireland-based provider of the .mobi domain name. AKQA is a leading international interactive and mobile agency.

For dotMobi's part, the survey findings call for mobile-optimized sites that are recognized as such with .mobi domain names.

"Consumers are largely dissatisfied with their experience because of poorly designed and formatted sites," Ms. Mischler said. "And yet there are lots of tools and utilities out there to promote quality sites.

"Consumers want to know which sites are mobile-friendly," she said. "So that means naming a site that's distinct from their .com equivalents and also that brands and businesses need to spend money to integrate their mobile sites into their ad efforts."

However, this strong consumer demand for services over the mobile Web raises a key issue of whether it's confusing to put both a brand's .com or .mobi domain name on consumer-facing promotions.

"Agreed that promoting a .mobi domain makes it crystal clear to the consumer that the site is optimized for mobile -- something that's essential to avoiding a bad mobile Web experience for the user -- but over 50 percent of respondents don't realize mobile-ready Web sites exist," said Sarah Keefe, vice president of marketing at mobile analytics firm Bango. "Is promoting a .mobi going to confuse them even more?

"The question is, with limited space on TV or print ads, would you promote both your .com address and your .mobi alongside other details such as a phone number for people to call?" she said.

"In an ideal world, your .com site would detect mobile users and present the mobile-optimized Web site. But we don't live in an ideal world, so brands must grapple with what makes sense for the consumer. When you want to simply target mobile users, promoting the .mobi alone makes sense."