Developers should use this information to design applications that match the preferences of these users, researchers say.

What are some examples of how developers and vendors might use multi-mode technology? For one, when driving to a place that they've never been, half of wireless Internet users would prefer to view a map on a mobile device rather than have driving directions spoken to them on a mobile phone (20 percent) or have directions sent to them in text format for viewing on the screen of a mobile device (18 percent).

Most wireless users (73 percent) would like to be able to speak contact information into a device rather than entering it via a keyboard. More than half (56 percent) are also interested in answering SMS or e-mail messages by placing a call or recording a voice reply. About two-thrids would like to read or listen to an e-mail message from their mobile devices.

In-Stat says the current limitations of speech recognition technology are the major impediment to multi-mode offerings. This technology will have to improve and developers will have to create applications using technologies such as SALT before multi-modal technology sees much adoption. (Speech Application Language Tags are extensions to HTML, XHTML, and XML that enable voice recognition and synthesized audio output. The technology supports mixed modes, such as audio and text, depending on the device you're using -- see http://www.saltforum.org.)

Researchers predict services using multi-modal technology will start to appear in 2003 and 2004.