CHICAGO Expectations for wireless technology continue to slide as evidence gathers that consumers are not particularly interested in making purchases through mobile telephones.
The Chicago management consulting firm A.T. Kearney Inc. said Wednesday that its latest Mobinet Index poll found only 12% of mobile phone users interested in buying things with them down from 32% in the year-earlier poll.
The decline was most dramatic in the United States, where the figure dropped to 3% from 34%. People in Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, and the United Kingdom were also polled.
Kearney is a subsidiary of Electronic Data Systems Corp. of Plano, Tex. Its partner in the poll was Cambridge Universitys business school, the Judge Institute of Management.
Consumers have not been convinced that mobile technology has advantages over traditional channels, the study said.
The most popular reason for not intending to buy by wireless (26% of respondents) was lack of interest or need. Other reasons included concerns about comfort and ease of use (19%), data security (16%), and lack of time (16%).
James Van Dyke, a senior analyst with the e-commerce research firm Jupiter Communications in New York, faulted the study. Limiting the survey to mobile phone users might pass over people who have a great online relationship with their financial institution, he said.
He noted that in a Jupiter poll last fall of U.S. online consumers, 16% of respondents said they would be likely or very likely to make payments by mobile phone. The figure for transmitting money to friends and family members was 9%.
