Wireless Web Prospects

The number of people who have tried or used some form of wireless Internet through a mobile device has risen 145% from 55 million unique users to 134 million in 2003, according to The Face of the Web, the annual study of Internet trends by Ipsos-Insight. This represents around 40% of the total Internet population in the study's measured countries.

One key factor in the growth is the widespread use of wireless digital devices such as laptops, PDAs, and mobile phones. Close to 130 million households in the markets studied own a laptop, bringing the laptop-to-desktop-PC ratio to one laptop for every three desktop PCs. Furthermore, 8% of the household mobile phones have PDA functionality, enabling easier wireless Internet connectivity.

The report says that the mobile phone could lead to exponential wireless online penetration, with 'a mobile phone in every hand' increasingly becoming a reality. In 2003, the number of households with mobile phones grew by a whopping 100 million, or 30%-five times the growth experienced by the PC industry. As mobile phone penetration continues to increase, Internet-enabled handsets will likely become commonplace.

'Internet users are not bound by tethers anymore', said Brian Cruikshank, Senior Vice President of Ipsos-Insight's Technology and Communications Practice and co-author of the study. 'Wireless Internet trial and usage in leading-edge and advancing markets is rapidly expanding with double and, in many countries, triple-digit growth'.

Generally, activities performed by current users of wireless Internet are analogous to those carried out by users of wired PCs. Non-verbal communication, such as email and SMS (Short Messaging Service, or text messaging), top the list of activities carried out by mobile Internet users. At least one in ten users engaged in wireless photo messaging, gaming, instant messaging, or browsing. Overall, e-commerce usage is relatively low (6%), due to functional and security limitations with wireless Internet.

Wi-Fi or wireless fidelity, which offers Internet service at much higher bandwidth and permits broadcasting an Internet connection over a 300-foot radius, is thought by many to be the means of overcoming the current limitations with wireless Internet. On average globally, one in four people have heard of Wi-Fi technology, although awareness levels vary by region: they are highest in urban China, Japan, North America, Germany, and France. In urban China, close to one in ten people have accessed the Internet using Wi-Fi, while in Japan and the US, one in twenty people have logged on over wireless local area networks (WLAN).

The report considersVoice over Wi-Fi, which means the ability to place phone calls over the Internet wirelessly, one to watch for the future. It also suggests that in some developing countries, wireless Internet access may in fact become the primary access point, perhaps through a mobile phone/PDA device, jumping many phases of the technology evolution curve experienced by users of wired PCs. This is equivalent to the bypassing of wired telecommunication infrastructure in favour of wireless networks which has happened in many developing countries.

The Face of the Web 2003 study was conducted in October 2003 among a random sample of approximately 7,100 adults in 13 key markets - urban Brazil, Canada, urban China, France, Germany, urban India, Japan, urban Mexico, urban Russia, South Korea, South Africa, the UK, and the US. More information is available at www.ipsos-insight.com/tech/publications/fow.cfm

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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