Wireless phone leaders Nokia, Motorola and Ericsson recently warned of slower sales growth, although the industry still expects to sell about 500 million phones this year. Softer demand is partly due to the economy, but consumers have not clamored for high-end Web phones. There was a lot of thought that people would be going nuts over getting stock quotes, horoscopes and sports scores. It hasn't really been the case. Consumers in Asia, Europe and the USA have strong interest in the wireless Internet but say it's still hard to use, according to a recent survey by consulting firm Accenture.
Networks are only partly to blame.
Devices need bigger screens, better graphics and easier ways to input and retrieve information. Palm, a leader in handheld computers, says pouring money into unproven technologies might be a bad bet. I'm not going to bet our company's future. A few of us will go out and buy that, but John and Jane Six-Pack don't have the money or the initiative. Carriers trumpet 3G as the means for portable video, slick graphics and speeds about 20 times faster than today's phones.