Consumers prefer accessing content on their mobile phones via a mobile browser as opposed to using apps, according the results of Adobe System’s first quantitative mobile consumer study, conducted by its Omniture Business Unit, including newly integrated Adobe Scene7.

The study of 1,200 U.S. consumers measured mobile user preferences, characteristics, satisfaction levels and other experiential factors across four key consumer categories: consumer products and shopping, financial services, media and entertainment and travel.

Across all categories, Adobe reports that consumers prefer accessing content via the mobile Web as opposed to using apps for that purpose. Within the consumer products and shopping as well as the media and entertainment categories, 66 percent of respondents cited that they prefer the mobile Web for accessing content compared to 34 percent who cited a preference for downloadable apps.

The survey also demonstrated a huge opportunity for mobile commerce, with as much as 38 percent of respondents saying they had not purchased anything in the consumer products and shopping category from their devices in the last six months.

Additionally, the survey found that accessing maps and directions is the No. 1 mobile activity (81 percent) followed by three media-related activities: social networking (76 percent) accessing local information (73 percent) and reading news (68 percent). The top mobile finance activity is reviewing bank account information (67 percent).

This isn’t the first the industry is hearing of a consumer preference for accessing content via the mobile Web. Just last week, Orange announced the results of its annual “Mobile Exposure” report, which is conducted by TNS and measures how mobile media users across the UK, France, Spain and Poland are engaging with mobile content and the mobile Internet.

Mobile browsers won out in that report as well. According to the report, mobile browser use is most prominent in the UK, with 7 out of 10 mobile media users choosing to find information and content in this way, instead of using mobile apps. The results were similar in France, where 68 percent of users favor the browser over 60 percent who prefer apps. For certain content such as news, 73 percent of female mobile media users in the UK prefer to access the Web via browser rather than an application (65 percent for men).

The TNS report did find that in less mature mobile media markets, there was a preference for apps. Browser versus application usage in Spain is equal at 42 percent, while only Polish users favor mobile apps (45 percent) over the mobile Internet (39 percent).