• by February 22, 2001

Good timing! The Internet World Wireless show is in full swing in New York, but Accenture, formerly known as Andersen Consulting, released a study today that says only a tiny fraction of people use the mobile Internet and even fewer shop on it.

While use of the wireless Web varied widely among users surveyed in the U.S., U.K., Finland, Germany and Japan - with the highest usage in Japan and the lowest in Finland and the U.S. - users in all five countries overwhelmingly view wired PC connections as the most viable option at present for accessing the Internet.

In fact, the study found only 15% of the more than 3,100 respondents access the Internet through a wireless device, and on average, less than 1% use it to make purchases. On a country-by-country basis, the U.S. had the highest incidence of wireless purchasing, with 12% of wireless web users actually making a purchase online compared to 9% in Germany, 7% in Japan, 6% in the U.K. and 5% in Finland.

Accenture's Richard Siber said that because of current device and access limitations - including screen size and slow transmission speeds - widespread Web surfing and shopping has "yet to arrive." In the U.S., U.K, and Finland, more than 50% of the respondents said they simply saw "no compelling reason" to access the web through their mobiles.

Despite these limitations, however, the study showed roughly 40% of respondents in the U.S. and Europe still find the concept of the mobile Internet either "somewhat appealing" or "very appealing," while fewer than 20% of the respondents considered it to be "unappealing."

When asked what types of location-specific services, products or information they would like to receive on their wireless devices, respondents across the five countries generally zeroed in on weather, restaurant, local community and travel information, as well as email and news headlines.