Australians are increasingly embracing the use of mobile applications and many are willing to pay for them, a new survey has found.
The 2010 Australian Mobile Phone Lifestyle Index was conducted by the Australian Interactive Media Industry Association (AIMIA), which describes itself as the nation’s peak industry body for interactive content and digital media
“Now that almost half of Australians have data included in their payment plans and the smartphone has become mainstream, this trend will continue and we’ll see more opportunity for application developers,” said John Butterworth, AIMIA CEO.
Almost half of the respondents (47 percent) said they had data included in their payment plan, compared to 31 percent last year. The amount of data included in their plans has also increased: 62 percent had more than 50 megabytes, up from 43 per cent a year before..
About 41 percent of survey respondents said they had downloaded and installed an application on their mobile phone, and 52 percent paid money to do so.
Games were the most paid-for applications at 84 percent. Other applications included maps and navigation, 22 percent; news and weather, 19 percent; photos, videos and movies, 16 percent; and books at 15 percent.
Respondents typically paid between $1 and $6 for their apps while 38 per cent said they paid $10 or more.
To no-one’s great surprise, the numbers who had purchased a Nokia or Motorola handset fell, while those owning an Apple iPhone increased. The top handset brands were N
The study showed a steady increase in the use of mobile commerce, with 24 percent using their mobile phone for banking at least on a monthly basis, up from to 19 percent last year.
