Hong Kong has the world's highest rate of mobile phone ownership after the small European state of Luxembourg, according to a global report on the popularity of telecom technology.
Eighty out of every 100 people in the SAR own a mobile, just shy of Luxembourg's rate of 87, a league table prepared by the Swiss-based International Telecommunications Union shows.
But Hong Kong residents are far less keen on computers and the Internet. There are 35 personal computers for every 100 Hong Kong residents, compared to 59 in the United States, 48 in Singapore and 46 in Australia, union figures show.
'This is not a very good penetration rate as compared with some of the very advanced countries, but Hong Kong is not at the bottom of the pile,' Assistant Secretary for Information Technology and Broadcasting Wallace Lau said yesterday.
He said the Government estimated that between half and 65 per cent of SAR homes had a personal computer. 'Obviously price has a lot to do with it - the cost of using a mobile, and the handset itself, has dropped significantly. People can buy a phone for a few hundred dollars, so they think 'why not have one?' ' he said. 'We would expect a much higher ratio [of computer ownership] soon, as computer prices have gone down and more and more people are now using the Internet for e-mail and e-commerce.'
Mr Lau said he expected the computer ownership rate to climb as technology improved and more people began to see them as tools for fun, not just work.
