Sales of mobile phones are booming in Australia with one research Company describing us as being “In love” with the mobile gadgets ahead of a drop of the amber liquid.
IDC Research claim that Australians “love their mobile phones more than ever” especially in the SMB sector. They also report that up to 80% of SMBs in Australia are providing mobile connections to employees or reimbursing work-related mobile expenses reinforcing that mobile technologies are strongly entrenched in Australia’s working culture.
The report titled, Australia Small and Medium-Sized Business Wireless and Mobility Technology Adoption, 2008: The Need for Speed, revealed that this trend is stimulated by the increasing usage of mobile data. The report also showed the widespread availability of mobile broadband over 3G/HSDPA means that using business applications on a mobile enabled laptop at an affordable cost has become possible for a large number of SMBs.
“Hardware vendors are starting to offer well priced 3G/HSDPA enabled notebooks and competition between providers is driving mobile data cost down. Software vendors are still largely missing in the picture but are starting to offer mobile business applications optimised for high-speed mobile networks as they realise the huge potential of the mobility market” says Jean-Marc Annonier, Research Manager for Small and Medium Business Markets at IDC.
“Coverage is a critical factor of churn, even more important than cost. The last thing business owners want to experience after investing in mobile technology is to find out that mobile employees aren’t able to work due to a lack of coverage,” adds Annonier.
The IDC study also found that:
– The “prosumer” effect is significant. Australians are strong technology adopters and tend to use personal devices in their work environments even if they do not get reimbursed by their employers and sometimes without the knowledge of their IT departments.
– Mobile email is still the killer application. Almost 80% of SMBs are already using mobile email or are planning to use it in the next 12 months. IDC expects a strong increase in mobile email usage as it becomes more common in the knowledge worker population.
