Motorola Report Highlights Life and Love Online in Britain 10/6/00 Over 40% of the British public would consider meeting someone whom they had previously only chatted to online, according to research carried out by MORI for Motorola's sixth annual British and Technology report. Motorola launched its first research into The British and Technology in 1995. The aim then was to establish a comprehensive, ongoing study that would explore how people are meeting the challenges and opportunities presented by modern technology. This year the research covers a range of technology-related areas including PC usage, the Internet, mobile phones, and digital TV. The emphasis is not merely on usage but also on attitudes towards and expectations from technology. Among the trends highlighted were: Amongst Internet users, online banking has increased to 20% in 2000, compared with only 4% in 1998. There has been an increase in female online shoppers from 8% in 1999 to 23% in 2000. The top three pieces of technology that the British public could not do with out are a mobile phone (20%, the desktop computer (18%) and e-mail (7%). 38% of people feel that technology can help to save energy costs in the home, 37% feel that it makes the home safer and 32% think technology helps to reduce environmental waste. 69% of the British public wanted to be contactable by their family at all times. In the last five years Internet use has changed considerably and become more pervasive in both work and home. Only 15% of those who do not regularly use the Internet gave not wanting to use it as the main reason. A further 8% do not know how to get access. If they had access to a 24-hour virtual teacher, 45% of regular Internet users would like to study for a professional qualification and a tenth would like to either improve their cooking, study car maintenance or learn parenting skills online. The report shows that the British public is comfortable with the increasing role that technology plays in their lives. Over 80% of respondents believe that the more technology is used the easier it becomes and 35% think that IT makes their job more enjoyable. The advances in technology have enabled many full and part time employees to work remotely from the office, but one in five feels that they are now working more than two years ago. As life becomes increasingly more hectic and itinerant, the British public is looking for ways to deal with life on the go. Almost a fifth of respondents would choose to shop electronically via a portable device such as an enhanced mobile phone, and nearly a quarter of respondents would like to be able to email friends and family and view information such as travel and weather reports through a mobile phone. Although there have been significant developments in technology over the last five years, the way people use PCs has hardly changed. The main use of the PC is still for word processing, but playing games (44%) has now exceeded spreadsheets as the number two use (41% in 2000 compared to 54% in 1996). Even five years ago substantial numbers of people were comfortable using services online, with 55% happy to fill in government forms, 46% wanting to conduct home banking and a huge 55% comfortable with the idea of casting their vote online in a General Election. In 2000, 75% of respondents would like to be able to access local or Government services electronically. For more information on the report, visit www.britishandtechnology.co.uk/press   The research took place between 6 and 10 January 2000. A total of 1,005 confidential face-to-face interviews were conducted by MORI with adults across Great Britain. Respondents constituted a representative sample of the British population aged 15 plus and no bias was made towards users of technology or any other group.