Click below to
find interesting
information from our
December 2010a
newsletter
relating to:
Roaming
Travel
Mobile phones
Roaming
Optus/Telstra
unlocking
iPhones
Optus has
started to
unlock iPhones
to help use
other
(non-Optus) SIMs
(such as vRoam's
vSIM)
overseas. Prior
to the iPhone 4,
Optus (along
with all other
Australian
networks) locked
iPhones to their
network.
Starting
this month,
Optus has begun
pre-emptively
unlocking its
customers
iPhones and
sending them a
text message
confirming it.
The unlock
process is
different for
iPhones than
most other
handsets, as the
network unlocks
it from their
system (rather
than a code
being needed on
the handset).
The iPhone then
needs to be
re-synchronised
with iTunes to
complete the
unlock.
This brings
Optus into line
with Telstra,
which started
unlocking
iPhones at no
charge (but only
on request) two
months ago.
Vodafone is yet
to follow suit.
Great news for
vRoam customers
using our vSIM
cheaper
post-paid
alternative.
Travel
International
travel
booming
The
Australian
dollar has taken
some wild swings
in the past few
years. A decade
ago, our dollar
bought around 50
US cents (see
the graph,
above) whereas
for the past few
months it has
been flirting
with parity.
No wonder
then that
Australian
outbound travel
is booming (and
that inbound
tourism has
slumped).
Australians are
taking the
opportunity to
see the world
while it is
cheaper than
ever to do so.
Exchange
rates courtesy
www.xe.com
Mobile phones
Mobile phones
and gender
We've been
curious lately
about what
mobile phones
people purchase,
and why they
choose those
models.
We
chanced upon
recent research
(from
advertising firm
AdMob) that
shows one reason
why - gender.
Apparently
Android handsets
are (very)
predominantly
sold to male
users, whereas
Apple iPhones
are more evenly
balanced (see
right).
While this
may be
temporary, and
driven by
idiosyncratic
factors (the
main Android
market is the
USA, and
Motorola's Droid
handset has been
advertised with
heavily-male-friendly
concepts - think
stealth fighter
jets and
robots), so may
well even up in
time, we find
some parallels
in history -
early internet
and PC usage,
for instance,
was strongly
male-skewed.
Androids
haven't been
seen much so far
in Australia,
but expect a
large number of
models next year
(in stark
contrast to the
single-model
iPhone).
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