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 Low Demand for SMS, WAP A new study by Sydney research firm APT Strategies Pty Ltd shows that more than 40% of Australian mobile phone owners do not understand wireless Internet, the data services it offers, or what the benefits are. As a result of this, APT chief analyst Marc Phillips believes that third-generation (3G) license investments made by Australian telecommunications companies (telcos) are vulnerable.Phillips believes that Australian telcos, which bid over A$1 billion on 3G-spectrum in April this year, face a longer return on investment periods than was initially anticipated. The study, in which 1,000 Australian Internet users who own mobile phones were interviewed, found that only 55% of respondents understand the difference between short messaging service (SMS) and wireless application protocol (WAP). This highlights a general lack of awareness and signals a major problem for tele-communications carriers, which are increasingly dependent on data services revenue. "Australian telecom companies were assuming that our 'tech savvy' nation, where 1 in 2 people owns a mobile phone, understands WAP and its offerings - but they were wrong," Phillips said. He believes that the high penetration and early introduction of the Internet within Australia is part of the reason that SMS messaging is used less than in countries like Japan. "Wireless technology like SMS has rocketed in countries where the Internet has only been initially available to a small percentage of the population. When wireless started in Japan, for instance, there was only a 2% penetration of PCs in households there. So SMS had little competition. "But when it began in Australia, around 42% of households already had a PC, and around 26% of those were connected online. Keying in messages via a mobile phone is fiddly and inconvenient, and so most people would prefer to send e-mail messages from home or work. "For the Australian business sector, a lot of people say that SMS messaging is not a professional tool - and they have no need for it." Upgrades Unlikely APT research showed that WAP is also failing to convince Australians, with 42% of respondents not using a WAP device to access the Internet because they did not know it was available, and a further 39% of respondents indicating that they had no demand for WAP technology. Consequently, the researcher has forecast that Australia's telcos will struggle to meet their projected average revenue per user (ARPU), as there is little motivation for Australians to upgrade existing mobile devices in the short- to medium-term. "With more than one third of respondents [36%] stating that they were neither likely nor unlikely to upgrade their mobile phone in the next 12 months to access the Internet or use WAP, Australian telecommunications carriers must pursue innovative advertising and marketing strategies to improve take-up rates of next-generation handsets, particularly as they increase financing relationships with handset vendors." On the other hand, the comparative domination of the Internet within Australia continues, and is borne out by a new international survey of Internet readiness by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). Its rankings of 60 countries put the US on top, with a score of 8.73 out of 10 and Australia second with 8.29. Then came Britain with 8.10 and Canada with 8.09. Nordic countries took four of the next five spots after Canada, with Singapore being the only Asian country in the top ten - in 7th position. Phillips believes that in places like Australia, where SMS and WAP usage is low, carriers should be stimulating consumer and business demand for these technologies - because they are considered to be the advance guard of 3G data services. For those who do regularly use mobile technologies such as SMS, Phillips believes that their reasons for doing so vary according to culture. "In Scandinavia, the motivator to use the technology had been sending jokes, in the Philippines it was political events like President Estrada's ousting; while in Japan, it was a combination of dating and e-mail," he said. by Neil Munro, Sydney (July 2001 Issue, Nikkei Electronics Asia) |
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