The survey, conducted by cellular payment vendor Valista, found that only about half of the respondents at the cellular industry show thought services like mobile video or mobile gaming would be the most frequently downloaded content over the next three years.
Evidence of that lack of faith was evinced in the survey results, which found only about one in five respondents had downloaded content to their phones in the last week. Nearly 30 percent had not accessed mobile content in the last month, while a surprising 15 percent admitted to never having downloaded mobile content before.
According to the survey, ringtones were cited as the most popular download.
“We were surprised to find out that people working in the industry are not downloading content,” Valista's CEO, Raomal Perera, said in a statement adjoining the survey. “The fact that only 18 percent of the respondents downloaded content in the past week underscores the need to improve the process of discovering, downloading and paying for content.”
Perera said the same survey was conducted at a similar mobile conference in London, where the numbers were considerably higher. Fifty-three percent of the Londoners questioned, for example, said they had downloaded content to their phones in the last week.
Proliferation of mobile content in the U.S. likely won’t take off until the 3G cellular data services, already running in several European countries, expand across the nation.
The 3G technology provides ultra-fast download capabilities for mobile phones. Although its ubiquity in the U.S. market still is a way off, earlier this year mobile giant Cingular announced plans to install the technology in at least 15 cities by 2006. Lucent, Motorola, Ericsson and Siemens also have been working similar programs.
A number of adult companies have been working to capitalize on the future of mobile content. Xobile, for example, offers 50,000 two-minute mobile features from more than 5,500 adult films, and claims more than 6000 new signups a month.
