The eWireless Report , released today by eMarketer, cites data from more than 100 research organizations and consultancies, offering examples of the gap in projections for a technology that does not yet exist. We once looked suspiciously at internet usage projections, but at least those projections began from a basis of internet usage at that time. According to the eWireless Report, the exact number of US citizens using wireless internet services today is still very much an unknown. Even the Wireless Data Forum in the nation's capital admits that only rough counts are currently available. Still, analysts have come up with some very different numbers covering the next four years.
Estimates also vary widely on the total value of wireless advertising spending in the United States.
By 2005, Ovum Research predicts that number to reach 484 million. ARC Group forecasts that wireless-banking users will grow to 331 million by 2004. Short messaging is sweeping the European wireless web by storm, with Germany leading the way and Italy right behind. In total, there were 15 billion short messages sent throughout the continent during 2000. The Japanese wireless data service known as i-mode offers cheap internet access with mobility.