Highlight of FindingsBack

1. Personal Technology Adoption among Hong Kong People

1.1 The present survey has found that, of ten personal technology tools measured, about one-seventh (15%) of the respondents did not possess any of these hi-tech products at all, about one-fifth (22%) currently owned just one. Slightly more than one-third of them (35%) possessed five or more of these hi-tech products. Taking the average, the number of items possessed by each respondent was 3.3.

1.2 When "mobile phone" was singled out as a stand-alone item, and the other nine items grouped together as "computer-related items", the possession rates were 82% and 65% respectively.

2. Present and Future Usage of Personal Computer and Mobile Phone

2.1 As on the present and future usage of personal computers, results of this survey showed that "information search", "clerical work processing" and "communicating with others" were the most frequently cited answers. It is anticipated that the usage pattern of personal computers would remain more or less the same in the year ahead.

2.2 "Communication" topped the list as far as the present and future usage of mobile phones was concerned. However, for all non-voice communication functions, such as connecting to the Internet, sending and receiving short messages (SMS), downloading and entertaining, an upward trend in their future popularity was observed, especially for Internet browsing via mobile phones.

3. Proficiency Level and Attitudes towards Information Technology

3.1 It is found that people in Hong Kong generally regarded themselves as not proficient in IT, as their average self-rating was 4.1 based on a scale of 0 to 10, with 10 indicating absolutely proficient, 0 indicating absolutely not proficient and 5 being half-half.

3.2 Respondents tended to evaluate other Hong Kong people as more proficient than themselves, as the average score given to Hong Kong people as a whole was 5.9, which was 1.8 points higher than the average of individuals.

3.3 Cross-analyses show that people who possessed MP3 or PDA/Palm were most confident about their IT proficiency, their self-rating was 5.8 for both sub-groups.

3.4 This study also found that more than half of the respondents considered IT important to themselves, as contrast to nearly one-fifth who believed in the opposite.

3.5 Concerning the government's policies on promoting the development of IT, one-third of respondents (33%) were ignorant about the matter. Of the remaining two-thirds, many expressed satisfaction.

3.6 Forty-five percent of the respondents said the Internet had improved their life quality, but an even higher proportion (69%) said mobile phone had made life better.

4. Special Topic - Downloading Service

4.1 Results of this survey revealed that downloading service was not yet popular, slightly more than one-third of respondents had used it before the interview. "Computer software" was downloaded most frequently, followed by "music files".

4.2 These current users, on average, downloaded material 4.0 times per week. A majority of them did not need to pay, close to half of them were not willing to pay any way. Among users who were willing to pay, the median cost they would like to pay for downloading a ring tone, a screen logo, and a picture message were all HK$2.0 per item, while the median affordable cost for games were HK$5.0 per item.

4.3 The critical factors they used when selecting downloading service were, in descending order, the "service charge", the "speed of downloading" and the "ease of use".