Phone data services getting the cold shoulder

Bad news on the mobile data front - consumers are too impatient to put up with data hassles and businesses aren't showing as much appetite for rollouts, research has found.

According to a report from analyst house IDC, mobile data is experiencing slower than expected uptake in the corporate world.

The report found just six per cent of businesses in western Europe polled said they are interested in deploying mobile applications including m-commerce and push-to-talk, while fewer than 10 per cent said they are interested in business-centric apps such as salesforce automation or CRM on handhelds.

Separate research has found that the picture may be equally bleak for consumer data services, with a survey conducted by NOP for mobile firm Olista finding that 64 per cent of customers will give up on using a data service, such as downloading ringtones, if they don't get the service to work straight off.

The survey also found just two per cent of consumers will ring customer services to solve their problems.

Still, there's one mobile data service that will continue its mushrooming growth – text messaging. A recent report predicted that the SMS phenomenon will be worth $50bn by 2010.