Australian Technology Blog

Will the iPhone see Australians embrace mobile Internet?

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Reports the iPhone has triggered a rise in mobile Internet use in the US raises an interesting question on its effects on the Australian market.

Early this year Three Mobile touted their own report which found Australians were reluctant to do surfing the net on their phones due to the risk of copping a monster bill.

Sadly this belief is quite fair when you see some plans charging up to $3,000 a Gb if you go over a 5Mb monthly allowance.

While Optus has sweetened their plans slightly by offering better usage allowances on their iPhone plans, all the providers have done little to improve their mobile phone data offerings.

This stingy attitude to data by the Australian mobile operators is going to continue to cramp the growth in the Australian mobile Internet market.

Until one of the players drops their restrictive plans and outrageous excess use charges Australians will quite rightly shy away from embracing mobile web surfing.

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The Sydney Apple Store

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Apple’s new store in central Sydney is certainly impressive. Ron Johnston’s opening speech mentioned how it’s their second biggest store after London and has the largest plate glass windows in the world.

The plate glass windows are the key to how this store works. It showcases Apple’s products beautifully and invites passers by to step inside and play with system.

That openness extends to the fact you can play with the systems. One of the things that’s always frustrated me with computer stores is that they don’t display what the systems are capable of. The Apple store does.

Also notable is the stock display; there’s no stack ‘em high clutter that’s typical of many computer stores. The stock is laid out beautifully and takes advantage of the space.

The attention to detail is reflected in the staff as well. They are friendly, trained and knowledgeable. Again this differs from most computer stores where the staff are commission driven part timers.

All of this gives the store an atmosphere of restrained competence. These products that don’t need a hard sell.

On the top floor is one of Apple’s masterstrokes: The Genius bar. It was mentioned that this is the biggest Genius Bar of any Apple store but I’m not sure about this. Once again, the geniuses were well trained and presented.

One impression I did have was this area was a bit spartan and I expect there’ll be more facilities like couches, water dispensers and possibly even a coffee vendor in this area for people waiting for their turn with trainers or geniuses. It could easily become a focal point for Mac fans to gather and simply talk Mac stuff.

Overall, the Apple Store is a very well thought out and set up operation, as it should be given Apple’s attention to detail and the fact this is the 215th Apple store.

It’s a great flagship for Apple’s Australian operations and is going to be very interesting to see the role the store plays in the iPhone release next month.

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The Australian iPhone release

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Apple’s announcement the iPhone will be released in Australia through Optus and Vodafone sets the stage for a good fight in the mobile phone sector over the next twelve months.

Leaving Telstra out of the deal is going to put a lot of competitive pressure on the big T, but their advantages in brand name, market position and mobile coverage gives them plenty of scope to fight back.

Another interesting angle on this is the pricing. The $199 and $299 US dollar prices will probably translate to around half the price of the comparable Blackberry and a third of the Nokia smartphones. This is really going to make the incumbents sweat.

So we’re going to see some terrific deals over the next few months and the carriers and handset manufacturers jostle for space in the market.

If you’re looking at buying a mobile phone the best advice is to wait a month or two.

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Telstra’s $0 plans

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Telstra’s new bundled plans offering a free laptop with their wireless plans is a good move to improve take up of wireless Internet.

It’s surprising none of the providers haven’t offered these deals sooner given entry level laptops are cheaper than mobile phones and these plans have proved an resounding success in the mobile industry.

As with all these deals, the devil is in the small print. You may be getting a “free” laptop but the cost of the wireless broadband will easily make up for this. The total price of the plan over the 36 month contract is $3,564 which would buy you a lot of laptop.

36 months is a long contract and we can expect to see prices drop and better deals appear as the other companies respond.

Also, a $700 laptop is a pretty basic beast many business users will find doesn’t meet their needs.

Overall, this is an interesting deal that’s going to radically change the business market. However I’d recommend most users sit and wait to see what other deals become available.

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Christmas technology problems

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Nothing gets tech people crankier than a call from a client or relative about a computer problem on Christmas Day. So at PC Rescue we’ve posted a quick check list on avoiding the common traps.

Merry Christmas and happy holidays from all of us.

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TIO annual report

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The Telecommunication Industry Ombudsman’s 2007 annual report is a less than proud moment for the Internet industry.

The headline is an 84% increase in complaints about ISP behaviour. But this is only part of the story, the details are even more disturbing.

The most notable jump was in complaints about excess data charges. This is only going to get worse as more people start using VoIP and downloading videos. It’s exacerbated by the swing towards ISPs counting uploads and downloads towards their download limits.

One item that jumps out of the report is the confirmation ISPs don’t keep proper records of conversations with customers. While the TIO points at smaller providers our experience is the bigger providers are not better.

The biggest increase was complaints about debt collection procedures where customers have been listed as defaulting on an Internet bill without any notice from the ISP. This probably relates to a couple of sizable and incompetent ISPs going broke late last year.

As we saw with the One.Tel liquidation, the record keeping of these companies is disgraceful and it’s highly unlikely they can prove any debt when challenged. Not that this stops them trying to recover what they claim is owed.

In the category of customer service, ISPs were by far the worst performer. The biggest category of complaint was inadequate or incorrect advice. This is barely surprising

Direct debit problems continue. Part of the problem here is with the banks who consider direct debit requests to be more important than their customers. The TIO points out this a breach of banking code of conduct.

Given ISPs can’t get their billing right and don’t give records it does appear that giving a direct debit authorisation to them is a risky thing to do.

This report is a wake up call to ISP and the entire IT industry. Things have to improve. Some of the areas we need to look at are;

• better training
• improved record keeping
• proper QA and procedures, especially for escalating customer complaints
• clearer and more concise bills

The silly thing is all of these would have positive return for ISPs. By providing better information to customers and staff, they will reduce costs and probably improve sales.

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