In years gone by, the mobile phone was a device that was used by the minority, with most people relying on their trusty landlines to communicate with others. However, over recent years, the rising popularity and availability of mobile phones couples with their increasingly high tech features, has made them popular amongst many Australians of all ages and from a wide variety of backgrounds.

According to the results of a recent survey, the number of landline connections across Australia has been falling whilst the number of people who own or use a mobile phone has been rising. This gives an idea as to the growing popularity of mobile phones amongst consumers. In 2007 the proportion of the Australian population, aged fourteen or over, who owned or used a mobile phone was 83 percent. However, this has now increased to 87 percent. The data also showed that in 2007 90 percent of the population had a landline but this has now fallen to 80 percent.

One industry official said: “Mobile phone adoption has been increasing for many years now, with 88% of the Australian population now using or owning one, and this figure will continue to rise as young Australians are brought up in a mobile phone using culture. As a consequence of increasing mobile phone usage we are seeing a drop off in household fixed-line connections. As the world grows accustomed to person-to-person communication rather than house-to-household, the future of the household landline looks bleak.”

In the past, mobile phones were such simple devices that monitoring your spend was simple. However, over recent years these devices have become capable of all sorts of things, which means that users have been engaging with them far more, using them far more, and spending on them far more than they used to. This has led to an increase in overspending and a rise in the number of mobile phone users who experience bill shock.

In fact, the term bill shock is only a relatively recent one that seems to have come in since the plethora of smart phones led to more and more people spending more than the realised on their phone usage. With voice, texts and data usage to monitor, it has become all too easy for users to exceed their specified allocations – particularly in terms of data – and end up being charged a fortune.

According to a recent report, around 45 percent of Australian mobile phone users experienced bill shock last year, with the average overspend coming in at $40. It is said to be costing the country more than $557 million a year. The data comes from the State of the Mobile Nation report by Macquarie University.

David Gray, senior lecturer at Macquarie University, said: “The research shows that bill shock is consistently experienced by consumers signing up to traditional plans. They are being offered lots of choice but it’s not translating into value. Households are now wasting hundreds of dollars a year.”

Today, we all take our high tech mobile phones for granted, as these are devices that are used and loved by a huge proportion of the population. However, it wasn’t always this way. A quarter of a century ago communications giant Telstra launched the first hand held mobile phone in Australia and since then things have gone from strength to strength, seeing these phones go from being brick shaped devices with very basic functions to smart, slick devices that have become an essential part of our lives.

The device that was released by Telstra all those years ago was the ‘Walkabout TM’, which was a revolutionary and innovative device of its time. This brick shaped device weight three quarters of a kilo and cost a whopping $5200. These huge mobile phones could be used for nothing more than making and taking calls but quickly became a must have accessory for yuppies across Australia.

In their day, these devices, which would be classed as practically antique today, were looked upon with awe by those millions that didn’t have one. It was to be many years before the mobile phone became a mainstream accessory for the masses by which time it would have changed to a small, slender, high tech device with a range of capabilities.

Telstra’s Executive Director of Networks and Access Technologies, Mike Wright, said: “A hand-held mobile phone gave users a real sense of freedom, even though they were limited to about 20 minutes of talk time and 4-5 hours of stand-by battery life. Early users often reported quizzical looks and even disbelief when they used their phones as the technology was so cutting-edge. It’s amazing to reflect how far we have come in the past 25 years, where we now take pocket sized handsets with functions like streaming multimedia, video chat, mobile email and the lightning-fast speeds of our 4G network for granted.”

For many people in Australia, SIM only has become the natural choice for their mobile phone usage, as they are able to get better deals and great value for money when it comes to their mobile phone usage. More and more people have been considering SIM only given the difficult financial climate and providers are therefore keen to offer great deals to bring more customers in by catering for their demands.

For the many people that may be thinking of opting for SIM only in order to get greater value for money on their mobile phone usage, it has become increasingly important to compare deals. With the rising competition in the SIM only market coupled with the value for money available for those who shop around, it can really pay for mobile phone users to spend a little time doing their research before making a choice with regards to which plan to choose.

There are a number of things that those looking for a SIM only deal should look at when comparing plans. This includes factors such as the amount of data, texts and number of minutes that are included as part of the plan, the contract periods that come with the plans, and of course the cost of the plan. You also need to ensure that you are able to get network coverage for the provider that you are planning to go through.

Those considering SIM only plans are able to compare deals with speed and ease online, which means that they can see at a glance what’s available and can therefore make a more informed decision about the plan that they opt for.

There was a time when the types of things that kids in Australia would get from their parents by way of a gift included toys and clothing. However, these days kids in Australia are eager to join the mobile revolution and many are enjoying getting high tech smart phones and mobiles as gifts from their parents. Data has been released by My Mobile Watchdog website, which shows that even very young kids these days are sporting mobile phones.

The data showed that children as young as six years of age now have a mobile phone, which is good for parents in terms of them being able to get in touch with their kids around the clock – which means peace of mind for parents that are worried about their kids safety when they are not with them.

The data showed that mobile phones were amongst the most popular gifts for children in the Ipswich area and this is a trend that is taking place all across Australia. The report showed that there are twenty two percent of girls aged between eight and eleven and fifteen percent of boys of the same age who own a mobile phone in Australia, and this figure is likely to soar.

One industry official said that when it came to the number of parents that were buying mobile phones for their kids, the numbers had been increasing year on year in Australia. She said: “There has definitely been an increase in parents buying prepaid phones for their six to 10-year-old kids this year. We’ve also seen a lot more parents buying plans for their older kids aged about 12-13. I can’t imagine it getting lower than six but you never know.”

Many Australians these days have a mobile phone contract, with reliance on these devices having increased over recent years. However, this is an industry that tends to get a lot of complaints due to factors such as poor coverage or poor service levels. It seems that Australians are no longer prepared to put up with these pitfalls with a recent report claiming that around half of Australians are planning to switch provider next year.

A study that was carried out by Macquarie University and SIM-card provider amaysim showed that around forty six percent of consumers are planning to switch provider next year. Consumers are said to be losing hundreds of dollars a year by failing to switch to a better provider or deal but half of those polled said that they found it difficult to switch to another deal.

Worrying, whilst only a quarter of those polled said that they were happy with their mobile phone service provider, around one third said that they planned to continue with the same provider even though they were not happy with factors such as service or cost.

Dr David Gray, a senior lecturer in marketing with Macquarie University’s faculty of business, stated that satisfaction levels in Australia were lower than in Europe. He said: “With so many consumers planning on switching next year, mobile phone providers need to wake up and start listening to their customers if they want to keep them.”

In Australia, as in many other countries around the world, the range of high tech smart phones that have hit the markets over recent years have helped to revolutionize our lives in many ways, giving us more freedom, flexibility and convenience when it comes to communications and entertainment and enabling us to stay connected no matter where we are.

As the nation’s love affair with these smart phones continues it has been revealed that many people are now choosing their mobile phones over the landline ones. In fact, it was revealed in a recent survey that well over two million Australians have ditched their fixed line phone service in favour of their mobiles.

Data from Roy Morgan research has shown that in total just under two and a half million Australians aged fourteen and over have now ditched their fixed line phone in favour of their mobile phones. In total there are now twenty two million mobile phones that are active in the country, which equates to more than one phone for every man, woman and child in the country.

Analysts have said that smart phones are now becoming popular amongst the older generation whereas at first they were gadgets with a high concentration of users and fans in the younger age groups. One analyst said: “What we are seeing now is that smartphone usage is becoming very reflective of the general mainstream population.”

SIM only deals and plans have become a popular way for many consumers in Australia to save money on their outgoings, gain greater control of their mobile phone spending, and get better value for money on the running costs of their mobile phones. It has now been reported that TPG has replaced its SIM Only No Contract mobile plans with a range of ‘Super Value’ contract-free mobile plans to provide consumers with great value for money.

These new month by month packages all come with an inclusive data allowance and officials from TPG claim that the new plans “offer the best value anywhere in Australia”. TPG has also said that customers on the $17.99 per month ‘Super Value’ deal and above will be able to benefit from being able to make unlimited calls to other TPG mobile and home phones. With the entry level plan costing $9.99 consumers get $2000 worth of calls to TPG mobile and home phones.

TPG’s General Manager of Sales & Marketing, Craig Levy said: “TPG is laser focused on delivering value to our end consumers, these plans are built with 100% consumer value and savings in mind. We believe this product will change the mobile landscape in Australia. We are not aware of any other provider giving unlimited mobile to fixed line calls of some type at this price point in the consumer space.” He added: “Dollar for dollar, we believe these plans offer the best value anywhere in Australia.”

Source – iTech Report

Over recent years, smart phones have become more and more popular in Australia as well as in other countries around the world, with an ever increasing range of high tech smart phones hitting the markets. With the range of new phones using different operating systems vying for the top place in the marketplace, something of a battle has broken out between the ever popular Apple iPhone and Android phones.

According to a recent report Australia has now seen Android phones take the lead over iPhones, with the Android platform from Google overtaking the Apple iPhone Operating System for the first time in Australia. Sales of Android based phones have exceeded sales of iPhones, reflecting the growing popularity of Android phones amongst consumers looking for high tech mobiles.

At the start of August this year nearly forty three percent of smart phones that were sold across Australia were Android phones according to recently released figures. This compared to sales figures of just over thirty two percent when it came to the Apple iPhone. These findings were revealed in figures from Kantar’s ComTech WorldPanel.

Androids have been overtaking iPhones in countries around the world, and the recent trend in Australia is similar to that seen in other parts of the world, where Android phones have overtaken iPhones in terms of sales and popularity.

Source – Bendigo Advertiser

The benefit for travellers using the C2-03 is that they are able to use either a special roaming SIM card or a local prepaid SIM from a foreign mobile network provider to access data or making outgoing calls when abroad whilst at the same time keeping their Australian SIM Card to call and text on their regular mobile number.

Any travellers that are regularly travelling from country to country on the same day will find the ‘hot-swappable’ capabilities of the SIM cards, which allow them to switch cards without having to turn their phone off a huge benefit.

The features that are included on the new Nokia C2-03 include the slightly dated ‘series 40’ phone software which doesn’t really provide support for app downloading, a resistive touchscreen (pressure sensitive), which make speed typing unviable and a regular multi-tap keyboard rather than a QWERTY one so it more closely resembles a standard mobile handset rather than a smart phone.

Accessing data on this new handset can also be a bit limited as it accesses the older 2G mobile network as standard, although depending on where it is used it can sometime access the faster 2.5G and EDGE networks.

Additional features include the ability to use a micro-SD car to increase the memory capacity of the handset up to 32GB, a music player with 2GB storage and a selection of great built-in apps like Facebook, Twitter, Nokia maps and email access.

Source – AUSBT