Mobile development is falling short of consumer expectations in urban China, urban India and Indonesia, according to online research conducted by Forrester.

By contrast, people in Australia, Hong Kong and Korea are more satisfied with current services, Forrester’s study suggests.

Mobile innovation in a growth market such as China could spur demand for even more sophisticated offerings.

“Even a small restaurant in the corner of a street provides WeChat payment or WeChat Wi-Fi service,” Xiaofeng Wang, a senior analyst with Forrester, tells Media Business Asia. “In Australia and Korea, there's no such environment.”

The results of Forrester’s study have been weighted to reflect the adult internet population in each market, defined as people who go online at least once a week.

Australia and Hong Kong rank low on Forrester’s gauge of mobile expectation, indicating that major mobile investments are less likely to be needed in these mature markets, although Forrester counsels companies to take their cues from the behavior of their target consumers.

Mobile expectation in Korea meanwhile, classified as moderate by Forrester, scores higher on its scale.

The need to invest is especially acute in Chinese and Indian cities however, as well as in Indonesia. “Your customers are demanding mobile and will be disappointed in a lack of service,” Forrester analysts wrote in a report published earlier this year. “It is urgent that you move forward.”

In China, mobile expectations are high across age groups, income brackets and different city tiers, Forrester discovered, highlighting the scale of the gap.

“Even consumers who are older, have lower incomes, or live in lower-tier cities expect a lot from mobile,” Forrester analysts concluded in the report, titled The New Mobile Mind Shift Index: China.

The findings are from Forrester’s Asia-Pacific Consumer Technographics Benchmark Survey 2014, which was carried out in March and April last year.