But, judging by the focus on multimedia, carriers these days appear to believe that wireless users will pay for song downloads before they demand affordable e-mail services.

According to researchers, like Gartner, the time for widely available and useable e-mail on mobile devices is near. Carriers appear to be closer to getting the message -- certainly not by wireless e-mail though -- that users are not willing to pay premium rates for services they already have at home on their PCs.

E-mail Wants To Be Free

According to industry observers, the turning point will happen when carriers let go of the revenue they currently get from data transfer long enough to allow e-mail to establish itself as a ubiquitous activity everybody uses.

To date, operators have followed the policy that it is better to fly the airplane empty with a few rich passengers rather than with a full load of people who paid discount.

At Gartner's Wireless & Mobile Summit in Los Angeles, analysts like Ken Dulaney pointed out that carriers are "reluctant to permit widespread messaging access to their networks without collecting fees from those who send such messages, such as spam."

But, said Dulaney, that reluctance has its limits. "[They] will lose this battle the same way that telecommunications companies lost the battle against an open Internet."

Gartner predicts wireless e-mail applications will be built in to all smartphones by the end of 2008.

Cool Tool

E-mail represents the challenges facing carriers and users alike. Carriers are investing boatloads into 3G networks and users are wondering why music downloading is being marketed more heavily than messaging.

RIM's Blackberry strategy has shown that, despite high costs, e-mail is a feature people want and need. Still, Blackberry is a business-oriented device that not all businesses and few individuals are willing to invest in.

All that e-mail data transfer is pricey. But if money were not an issue, more people would go for it.

Charles Golvin of Forrester Research said his firm has found that more than 10 percent of cell phone owners use some sort of data service . Will data services find some sort of traction in the marketplace? "Yes, I think so," he said, "but it will be different kinds of services for different segments."

He pointed to text messaging as a technology that has been neglected by carriers in their marketing.

"It's not just a cool tool for teenagers but has a real value proposition for other users," he asserts. Luckily, operators are starting to get it, Golvin explained. Carriers that try to entice users to download songs on their mobile phones only by offering the song wirelessly "are fighting a losing battle."

In the end, wireless services will be customized around the needs of the customer .