Mobile phone users in the UK ditch their handsets annually in search of greater functionality and true web access according to the findings of a new report by the research consultancy Teleconomy.

Yet Teleconomy also found in its report, Consumers and the Mobile Web – Challenges, Opportunities and Change in Mobile Media Usage and Consumer Perceptions - that untargeted advertising was regarded as an invasion of personal space and extremely intrusive.

“Our research found that the mobile phone represents a very private device” commented Sue Peters, Principal Consultant at Teleconomy, “and works on a number of levels, empowering the user and radically altering both their behaviour and use of different mediums.”

In what is a warning to mobile focused marketers, the report found that the privacy associated with the mobile phone meant that only a limited number of companies will be privileged enough to share the consumers’ own space. Consequently, the report suggests the importance of this space in developing long-term customer relationships cannot be underestimated and only a few brands will win.

Disappointment with mobile Internet capabilities suggests that consumers are yearning for a much higher level of services and contributes to the high churn in handsets each year, which are also regarded as disposable items because of the rate of theft. However SMS is currently faster to access than logging on to the Net.

The report also revealed that mobile is an important factor in reaffirming or redefining people’s identities, particularly teenagers, a key target market for mobile companies.