According to a new report from IDC Australia , Australians are in love with their mobile phones more than ever, especially in the SMB sector. Up to 80% of SMBs in Australia provide mobile connections to employees or reimburse work-related mobile expenses, which reinforces that mobile technologies are entrenched in Australia's working culture.
The report titled as ‘Australia Small and Medium-Sized Business Wireless and Mobility Technology Adoption, 2008: The Need for Speed’, revealed that this trend is stimulated by the increased usage of mobile data. The report also showed the widespread availability of mobile broadband over 3G/HSDPA, which means using business applications on a mobile enabled laptop at an affordable cost has become possible for a large number of SMBs.
According to IDC Australia, Hardware vendors have started to offer 3G/HSDPA enabled notebooks and competition between providers is driving mobile data cost down. Software vendors also have started to offer mobile business applications optimised for high-speed mobile networks.
The IDC Australia study also found that: 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.
Almost 80% of SMBs are already using mobile email or are planning to use it in the next 12 months. IDC Australia expect a strong increase in mobile email usage as it becomes more common in the knowledge worker population.