MANILA, Philippines—The adoption of wireless data applications and services among Asian mobile-phone users has to rise in order for the wireless industry to fully take off in the region, according to Peter Cohan, a high-tech management consultant in the region and author of technology books.
While acknowledging that cellular access is higher than Internet access in several Asian countries like the Philippines and Hong Kong, Cohan pointed out that people still do not generally use cellular phones for e-mail and other mobile data applications.
Mobile access in the Philippines, for instance, has been on the rise at 6 million subscribers in 2001, up from 4 million a year earlier, according to Peter Lee U, technology analyst at the Manila-based University of Asia and the Pacific.
However, a study by International Data Corporation showed that mobile commerce use in the region declined last year to 12 percent from 32 percent in 2000.
Consumer concern over security issues in the wireless space is one of the reasons for the slow growth of m-commerce, Cohan cited.
