The report is sobering news for proponents of Near Field Communication (NFC), a technology that enables two-way interactions between a mobile device and a bank, credit card provider, retailer, or government agency. A shopper, for instance, could wave a smartphone over an NFC reader at a store to pay for a purchase.

Swipe and Go

NFC garnered major media buzz last month when Google launched , an NFC-based mobile payment system that's built into the Android 2.3 operating system. Phones need special NFC chips to use Google Wallet, although a limited edition of the service may soon be available to non-NFC-enabled phones as well.

Google Wallet trials will take place this summer in San Francisco and New York. NFC technology is widely used in Japan and South Korea, and is being introduced in some European cities.

The report shows that US consumers aren't enthusiastic about mobile wallet services, at least not presently.