Google Android good for Australia

MOBILE phones powered by Google are poised to whet Australia's insatiable appetite for wireless devices, pushing the market beyond $2.4 billion in two years.

A prototype of the Google Android mobile by Qualcomm on display at the Mobile World Congress. Photo: Albert Gea/Reuters
Google entered the mobile world late last year with its Android operating system.
Smartphone makers say Android could slash the development time of the phones from 18 months to six months, leading to a flood of cheap models. About 30 mobile phone, chip and software companies globally have signed up to adopt Android. The list includes LG Electronics, High Tech Computer, Motorola and Samsung - all partners of Australian telcos. The phones will carry their own brands instead of Google's, an arrangement the search and advertising giant is happy with.
Yesterday, highly anticipated prototypes of Android mobile phones were unveiled at the World Mobile Congress in Barcelona. Operating systems that compete with Android include Nokia-backed Symbian, Microsoft's Windows Mobile, Research In Motion's BlackBerry and Mac OS X, which powers the Apple iPhone. Taiwan's HTC plans to launch smartphones based on Android this year with LG following suit next year. All this should be music to Telstra and its rivals' ears, says Warren Chaisatien, managing director of Sydney-based research firm Telsyte.
He estimates that 10 million mobile phones were shipped in Australia in 2007, creating a market worth around $2.4 billion. Mr Chaisatien said Android-based phones are a boon for local operators as the use of smartphones is expected to double quickly. Smartphones offer advanced capabilities such as email, internet access, and other PC-like features. Last year, about 800,000 mobiles shipped locally were smartphones, Mr Chaisatien said, constituting 8 per cent of the total market. "We estimate that share of smartphones will double by 2010 in Australia. "In three years, one in six mobile devices shipped will be a smartphone compared with one in 12 currently," he said. Leading carrier Telstra welcomed the news. "There's a growing appetite in Australia for the all-in-one mobile device and this is reflected in the fact that Telstra's revenue for non-SMS data is now higher than for SMS," Telstra spokesman Peter Taylor said.