Hm… I was talking to someone just yesterday and I mentioned my feeling that the same might be happening in Japan, at least as far as college students are concerned. There was a time, a few years ago, when interest in computers peaked: lots of people were buying, more and more kids were getting computers at home, some had laptops, some schools were requiring all their students to buy laptops, etc. But more recently, I’ve noticed a slowing down, maybe even a drop off: students all have cell-phones, and while all students at the various schools I work at have their own school email, I would guess slightly more than half used it only rarely, and that was probably for the 2 or 3 classes where they had to, like computer class!
Does anyone have any facts and figures on this?

Regarding the article linked to below, to say that about 36 percent of U.S. households were not online, and only 2 percent intended to subscribe to an Internet service this year, is not the same thing as saying (as the article does), The vast majority of U.S. households that are not online have no interest in the Web. There are surely other factors, like cost, or the growth of other technologies such as cell-phones, blackberries or whatever. TechWeb | News | U.S. Hitting A Ceiling On Internet Households:

The vast majority of U.S. households that are not online have no interest in the Web, an indication that Internet penetration has stalled, a market research firm said Friday.

A survey of 1,000 U.S. homes showed that about 36 percent of U.S. households were not online, and only 2 percent intended to subscribe to an Internet service this year, according to Parks Associates. The percent of households without Web access extrapolated to 39 million homes.

“We’re starting to hit a wall as far as Internet penetration goes,” John Barrett, director of research at Parks Associates, said. “We’re getting down to the people who just don’t want it.”