Even though three-quarters of those polled by AppTrigger believe that mobile services and offerings have improved, fully 57% have not taken advantage of any of them. That means 43% of users are driving all the adoption of new technology. The data shows that most people use their phones just as phones and not much else. What happened to convergence?

I guess merging your phone, camera, music player, FM radio, and PDA into one device doesn't have the luster it used to. Many phones on the market -- even non-smartphones and non-media phones -- have these capabilities built in and can be had for less than $100. Despite all the technology packed in there, the bulk of people never take advantage of it. What gives?

AppTrigger polled some 500 mobile phone users in the U.K. in January. The survey examined what applications and services the pollees were using. AppTrigger's conclusions? "The mobile marketing industry is suffering from a lack of new services adoption. Nearly half (48%) of users said that they have never received a sports, retail, or entertainment promotion from their mobile operator. Of the 52% that have received promotions, 62% said that it was as infrequent as 'a few times a year' or 'almost never.'"

I have received several promotions via SMS over the years from both Verizon Wireless and AT&T. They were invitations to check out one service or another. I didn't take advantage of them. I do use a lot of mobile services, though. Not all of them are offered by my current operator. Many I discovered on my own and come from off-deck providers. I consistently use my mobile device's telephony, messaging, e-mail, Web browsing, camera, music player, mobile blogging, and calendar features, among others.

The data does show some trends according to age brackets. Let's take a look:

*Within the youth market (16 to 24 year olds) 62% said that they download music or games;

*The 'young careerist' market (aged 25 to 34) said they are more likely to use their phones for PDA tools (diary, contacts and e-mail) and checking Web sites (62% and 69%, respectively);

*The mainstream age market (aged 35 to 44) make commercial transactions with their phones (39% said they conduct transactions such as topping up their balance);

*The mature age group (aged 45 to 55) were most likely to use their phones for checking Web sites;

*Only 22% of mobile phone owners in all age groups said they have used Location-Based Services (LBS).

So it looks like the real target market is the 35- to 44-year-olds. They are the ones using the more advanced tools and services. But the real question seems to be, how to get people to use what's already in their pockets.

"Mobile operators are missing a trick by not combining traditional services with new IP services to create new innovative services," said Patrick Fitzgerald, VP of marketing for AppTrigger. "However, the lack of mobile marketing is a side effect of a greater illness. If operators were equipped with the appropriate tools and technologies to link promotions, via applications, into their networks quickly and push them out to market, they would be able to capitalize on this lost opportunity."

Lost opportunity, indeed. I pay for data services each month. With the commoditization of voice features, it is imperative for operators to start bringing in more money on the data services side of their business. That ain't gonna happen if they fail to let their customers know what's available.