The wireless Web has arrived, making it possible to get vast quantities of Internet content over the tiniest portable devices, but most consumers do not seem too impressed, an international survey released this week showed.
For all the hype over the cutting-edge technology that provides any time, anywhere connections to the Internet, the survey found that adoption rates have been slow, even among the most wired people.
The survey - conducted entirely online - of 3,189 residents of the US, Britain, Germany, Finland and Japan by the consulting company Accenture, found only 15% of consumers who owned a mobile phone or other portable device were using it to connect to the Internet.
There were big differences from country to country. The survey found that 72% of Japanese mobile phone owners were using their devices to connect to the Internet, compared with just 6% in the US.
Less than 1% of those surveyed were shopping online with their wireless devices, one of the biggest expected uses for the Web-enabled gadgets.
Most of those surveyed said they liked the idea of a wireless Web, but in practice they found it was easier to access the Internet from a personal computer. Often, they objected to the cost of the wireless service or found that the small screens on most wireless devices made it difficult to read text. Some said the service was too slow.
Because mobile phones are not equipped with a full set of letter keys, people using them to send messages must tap the number keys multiple times to indicate a specific letter. The relatively simple task of buying a book online required 366 key strokes from a mobile phone, versus 143 from a PC.
That put up a barrier that was too great for most people, even those living in Finland, widely regarded as the most mobile phone friendly country.
One exception to these general findings, however, was Japan, where Accenture found much higher wireless Web usage.
