Although the number of US mobile phone users who will access the internet from their device is projected to exceed 70 million in 2009, mobile commerce in the US has not reached maturity levels yet, a market research firm reveals.

Mobile users in the US are more willing to search for weather forecasts, read news, find movie times and access their banking accounts than getting involved into m-commerce activities, data indicates. Capital constraints constitute the main reason why US retailers refrain themselves from developing or expanding m-commerce initiatives, with 44.4 percent of those involved in the research mentioning this obstacle, according to research conducted by the RIS News publication. Other impediments cited by US retailers are related to consumer privacy, security, PCI compliance, the lack of sufficient internal skills and the immaturity of m-commerce vendors or infrastructure.

Data released by a Billing Revolution study conducted by market research firm Harris Interactive indicates that in spite of such impediments, US customers are still willing to buy items on their mobile phones, involving small amounts of money. These include movie/event tickets (mentioned by 58 percent of respondents), hotel rooms (43 percent), fast food (43 percent), tickets for travel (40 percent) and games (34 percent).

Data has been published by market research firm eMarketer.