According to a 2007 report from In-Stat, few of the more than 800 respondents to a mobile handset survey who did not own a multimedia handset had any desire to purchase one. In addition, In-Stat analyst Bill Hughes says that while there has been a recent increase in the number of multimedia devices sold in the United States, "the growth in multimedia handsets has more to do with operators pushing multimedia handsets to the market, rather than a strong desire by consumers to adopt multimedia handsets or use multimedia services." For example, he found that more than 80 percent of users with handsets that have these capabilities rarely, if ever, use the features.

And when compared with the rest of the world—Japan, India, South Korea and most of Europe—the United States has historically lagged in utilizing mobile devices for anything more than making phone calls or checking e-mail. "I hesitate to call the U.S. a laggard, but it’s a different cultural environment," Hughes adds.

As to the iPhone’s success, Hughes hedges a bit. "I believe the iPhone will be moderately successful," he says, "but I don’t believe they’ll get 1 percent of the phone market."

5. Carrier, Content and Network Issues
From a historical viewpoint, there’s been a lot of frustration with wireless carriers—and most businesses have been reluctant to partner with the carriers to develop mobile solutions.

Most of the frustration with carriers stems from three areas: inconsistent networking standards among competitors, the two-year customer lock-in agreement, and the slower speeds on those networks. "The mobile networks are incredibly bad quality in the United States compared with Europe and the more advanced countries in Asia," says Web usability expert Jakob Nielsen, a principal of the Nielsen Norman Group.

Verizon Wireless’s launch of its EV-DO (or Evolution-Data Optimized) 3G service last year has certainly helped spur growth in the consumer realm, but enterprises still aren’t sold. And because AT&T is the exclusive wireless carrier of the iPhone, there’s been much grumbling about the two-year contract and the fact that the iPhone will run on AT&T’s EDGE-based data network, which many analysts point out has slower speeds than 3G and has been called ancient by some. "The bigger problem is the AT&T network," writes Pogue in his iPhone review. "In a Consumer Reports study, AT&T’s signal ranked either last or second to last in 19 out of 20 major cities. My tests in five states bear this out. If Verizon’s slogan is, 'Can you hear me now?' AT&T's should be, 'I'm losing you.'"