• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, August 16, 2012

When it comes to accessing mobile content, people are most frustrated by the connection speed of their devices and ability to find what they are looking for, according to Adobe's 2012 mobile consumer survey.

The wide-ranging study also found that about 40% of mobile users have clicked on ads, and Android phones are the most popular across age groups, among other findings.

The survey, conducted by Keynote Services in March, categorized preferences based on gender and age. The participants were split almost equally between male and female. Age groups were split into young (18–29), middle-aged (30–49) and older (50–64) groups, with the highest number of participants coming from the middle-aged group.

The younger age group reported the most time, at three to five hours per week on mobile Web sites (28%) and applications (28%). By contrast, the older age group spent less than one hour per week on both mobile sites and apps.

Asked where they would most like to see improvement in consuming mobile media, speed and navigation were the areas people cited most often, along with a category dubbed “other.” That echoes a Pew Research Center survey released earlier this month, which found that half of smartphone users say they experience slow Internet download speeds at least once a week.

Across industry categories including media, travel and financial services, travel had the highest “negative-to-neutral” ratings for both the mobile Web and apps, especially among older users.

The study also offered user data on the ad front. The survey showed that 42% have clicked through on mobile Web ads and 37% on in-app ads. That means that study participants at some point have clicked on a mobile ad, not necessarily on a regular basis. It also means the majority are not yet clicking on mobile ads. Men are more likely to click on in-app ads than women (42% vs. 32%).

Google and others have often pushed marketers to create mobile-optimized sites to capture more interaction on devices. But in relation to ad landing pages, at least, the Adobe study found users were mostly satisfied with the experience. About three-quarters said landing pages for Web and app ads were tailored to mobile screens.

The report also looked at m-commerce habits. It found that people are most comfortable spending in the range of $1-$250 on their mobile device (just over 40% overall). When shopping via mobile apps, Android tablet users reported the highest satisfaction rate at 88%, followed by the iPad, at 71%.

The report also underscored the reason that Facebook is now so aggressively trying to monetize its mobile audience. It's by far the most popular social network among mobile users, with 85% accessing the service on their devices compared to 35% for Twitter and 21% for Google+.

Other key findings from the study:

*Android smartphones are the most popular by ownership percentage (58% young, 50% middle, 38% senior) across all age groups.

*Apple tablets (iPads) are the most popular with young (27%) and middle-aged (31%) groups. However, the Kindle Fire is the leader among seniors (22%).

*Scanning QR codes is becoming a mainstream activity: 38% of young and 40% of middle aged groups have scanned in the past three months.

*Location services are on the rise, driven by consumer incentives to check in. Younger demographics are more likely to check in (35%) versus seniors at 18%.