A new survey shows strong interest of American cellphone users towards GPS applications over access to mobile Internet.

According to a new national survey by Leo J. Shapiro and Associates (LJS) among 450 Americans, about 24% of the consumers want to have a GPS-enabled cellphone while only 19% prefer mobile Internet access. More importantly, this study concluded the strong penetration of GPS among Americans.

A majority (60%) report recent use of a geographic website (e.g. map quest, Google Maps), with nearly everyone (94%) reporting they have heard of GPS. New GPS-enabled personal navigation devices are leapfrogging past early-adopter growth and surging almost directly into mainstream usage, with nearly one-third (32%) reporting having used a GPS-enabled device.

Also, most GPS owners do not have GPS-enabled mobile phones. Only 6% of the current GPS owners have this kind of cellphone while 90% have either a portable or car-based GPS device.

It would be interesting to see how this consumer behavior will shift in the coming years. If the proliferation of new mobile Web applications is to be used as the main basis, I'd say mobile Internet will overtake GPS in the next few years.

Via press release