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Australia set to become

biggest user of

mobile phones

SYDNEY: Australians, well-known sun lovers and leisure seekers, are also among the world's most eager users of technology.

Expert say the nation's desire for an easier lifestyle is one of the reasons for their hunger for mobile phones, computers and CD-ROM's.

By the end of the year, Australia is set to become the biggest user of mobile phones per capita in the world. It currently has the world's second highest penetration rate of personal computers (PCs), behind only the United States.

"When Australian's see an advantage in using the technology, they adopt it very quickly," said Graham Penn, technology analyst at market research firm IDC Australia, the local arm of the International Data Corporation.

"I think if Australians find a technology useful they jump in and buy it because it is not a problem economically as we are reasonably affluent and the technology is becoming cheaper for consumers," Penn said Australians like services provided by technology to enhance everyday life, not for the technology itself, said Mark Balnaves, director of the Centre for Communications Policy Research at Canberra University.

"We spend a lot of time on passive leisure activities, which is why Australians have a higher proportion of televisions, radios, VCRs (video recorders), CD (compact disc) players and now computers that most other countries," Balnaves said.

A recent survey by consultants Reark Research show that 98.6 percent of Australia's 6.2 million homes have at least one television and more than 77 percent have a VCR.

Penn said Australia had 24 PCs to every 100 people, second to the United States, which has 30 PCs to every 100. Europe averages between 14 to 18 PCs to 100 people.

"The US has a higher PC penetration rate than Australia, due mainly to the greater availability of on-line services, making a more compelling reason to have a PC in the home," Penn said. But he added this would change over the next 12 months as more on-line services became available locally.

IDC said there were 3.7 million PCs in Australia at the end of 1994. It forecasts 4.5 million for the end of 1995.

Australia is seeen to be among the world's top five users of the Internet in absolute terms, with over 250,000 subscribers surfing the net, Penn said. Other estimates put the number of Australian net trekkies at around 500,000.

Robyn Linley, a communications lecturer at Wollongong University, said Australians like communications-related technology, which is one of the reasons the country is a big user of the Internet and mobile phones. There are more than 2.3 million cellular phone customers in Australia.

This puts the local mobile phone penetration rate at about 13 percent of Australia's population of 18 million people. The rate is estimated to grow to more than 20 percent by the end of the year, based on current growth rates.

Computer software and telecommunications companies are seeing more demand from consumers than from businesses.

"I think the functionality of technology is driven more by the home than industry," said Leighton Jenkins, marketing manager at Microsoft Corporation's Australia operations. The US software giant is also expecting strong demand in Australia for its much-vaunted Windows 95 PC operating system, which is due for release on August 24.

"My gut feeling is that it is likely that we will go very swiftly, we (Australians) tend to get take these things up a little bit quicker than other countries," Jenkins said.-Reuter