A survey of Global 2000 companies suggests that they are in no hurry to deploy mobile applications.

In a poll of attendees at its recent GigaWorld conferences in the US and Europe, market research company Giga Information Group found that more than one-third of respondents have no mobile strategy at all, while a similar proportion do not know how much money they spend on mobile applications and communications.

Of those organisations that have deployed or plan to deploy mobile applications during 2002, an overwhelming majority (87%) have done or will do so in order to offer mobile access to simple, employee-facing applications such as email, calendaring and information retrieval. Sixty-two per cent have no current plans to deploy external or customer-facing mobile applications.

Giga's survey reveals that the cost of the support infrastructure is the most common obstacle to investing in mobile applications – almost half (47%) of respondents cite this. Worries about coverage and service availability are also a common concern, cited by 37% of respondents.

According to Giga analyst Brownlee Thomas, this lack of interest in mobile deployments may also be due in part to users' disillusionment with next-generation mobile services, such as GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) and 3G, which have been slow to take off. The need to cut back on technology investments has also been a factor, with mobile applications low on the list of purchasing priorities.