Despite being judged the fourth most digitally-savvy nation in Europe, it seems that 40% of the UK adult population don’t know their wi-fi from their waffles.
Research carried out by Freedom2Surf revealed that half of all women and one quarter of all men didn’t have the slightest clue what WiFi was, exposing a very strong gender, knowledge and awareness gap in the UK.
Not surprisingly, the kids were waaay down with that WiFi thang, with Freedom2Surf’s WiFi Report revealing that the 16-24yr old age group were well hip to the technology, with almost 30% connecting to the Internet via a WiFi hotspot more than once a week.
Looking at the amount of time people spent connected via WiFi, the report found that 40% of regular users spend 10 minutes a day on average connected to a hotspot, while a further 40% spend at least an hour in a single session.
Around 10 per cent of users surveyed connect three to four times a day for at least 20 minutes at a time.
The research discovered that WiFi usage is set to increase, with over a third (35%) saying that they expected to spend more time wirelessly connected in the coming year.
A smaller group (15%) expected their usage to increase dramatically in 2005, with the 16-24yr age group expected to increase its usage the most (52%) compared to 34 per cent of the 35-44 age group.
The biggest barrier preventing UK consumers connecting to hotspots was found to be the lack of regular access to a Wi-Fi enabled laptop (40%).
Cost was also perceived as a major factor, with 30% citing price as the biggest barrier.
Greater uptake has also been hampered by consumers expressing bafflement as to where hotspots are actually located along with the perceived complexity of set-up and payment for WiFi hotspot services.
Silver surfers (UK consumers aged 55+) were revealed as being the weakest Wi-Fi user group, with just 11 per cent of the old ‘uns having used a hotspot.
Geographically, London takes the honours as the King WiFi hotspot of the UK with a higher awareness and usage of WiFi (hardly surprising since there are more hotspots in London than anywhere else in the UK) whilst residents oop North in Yorkshire are the least Wi-Fi savvy.
Naturally, ISPs like Freedom2Surf don’t do surveys out of the goodness of their hearts, and predictably rounded off their report with a ten-ton size plug for their new low-cost Wi-Fi service, Freedom2Surf Hotspots.
The company will be partnering with BT Openzone to offer customers access to a network of 1,300 hotspots in the UK, with rates claimed to be “up to 50% lower than those offered by BT.”
These prices work out at 10p (€0.14/US$0.18) per minute (occasional use), £4.50 (€6.60/US$8.5)for a daily voucher (60 Minutes), £15 (€22/US$28) for a weekly voucher (5 hours) and £30 (€44/US$56) for a monthly voucher (20 hours). Payment can be bought on a Pay as You Go basis by purchasing vouchers with a credit card.
Compared to our American counterparts, these prices still seem outrageously steep to us, but Chris Panayis, managing director of Freedom2Surf, clearly doesn’t agree: “The use of WiFi hotspots is becoming increasingly mainstream particularly among the younger age group, and it is encouraging that many of the consumers we surveyed are planning to significantly increase their use of WiFi this year.
“With service providers like Freedom2Surf already acting to reduce the cost and complexity of connecting to WiFi hotspots, the next challenge for the industry is to boost awareness of where hotspots are located and continue to educate consumers on the flexibility that WiFi hotspots provide people who need to connect to the Internet on the move.”
A UK train operator has claimed that its passengers will be able to wirelessly access the Internet on all its trains by May 2007 after widespread passenger take-up of the service.
GNER’s chief operating officer Jonathan Metcalfe enthused about onboard Wi-Fi, claiming that it would make the travelling experience “more enjoyable” for consumers and that it would “encourage more people to choose rail instead of driving or flying.”
Napster may have a new headache on its hands, with a DRM hack recently surfacing.
The tool is reported to be unable to circumvent Napster To Go songs using Janus DRM (WMA DRM v10) which is different from the DRM applied to Light and Premium songs.
The open source Web browser FireFox, has experienced a humongous surge in popularity over the last year according to a report by Nielsen//NetRatings.
“FireFox gives Web surfers a simple tool that blocks unsolicited windows, is less susceptible to virus attacks and offers a unique means of navigating multiple sites within a single browser”, Cassar added.
Although Microsoft is expected to adopt many of FireFox’s features in its new Internet Explorer version 7.0 (expected this summer), the browser’s exponential growth may force lazy coders to ensure that their sites are also compatible with the upstart browser.
The BBC has moved a step closer to establishing a ‘public domain of audio-visual material’ with the launch of its ‘Creative Archive’.
The hope is that soon-to-be launched pilot download schemes will help fuel creativity activity across Britain, with clapperboard-toting types using the footage in personal projects, classroom presentations and their own arty-farty creations.
Stratospheric iPod sales send Apple executives into raptures of hugging joy, with profits almost quadrupling in a year.
The Power Mac desktop computers were among the worst performers, with year-over-year shipments declining by 19 per cent.
Although sales of iPods increased by 16 per cent, revenue from the product dropped by 16 per cent after Apple added the lower-cost iPod Shuffle to its range.
New research from Strategy Analytics reveals that 257 million camera phones were shipped worldwide, representing 38 percent of total handset sales in 2004.
“Nokia led the pack, with an 18 percent worldwide market share, followed closely by Motorola at 17 percent, and Samsung in third position at 13 percent,” he continued.
These ‘Pixel Wars’ are expected to drive higher megapixel handset demand to 3 in 10 sales worldwide in 2005.
There has been much rumblings of discontent from content suppliers to the mobile phone industry, and, as the globally dominant brand, Vodafone have been taking a lot of the flack.
Feeling the pressure, Vodafone have tried to placate their grumbling partners in the short term by dishing out a sizzling barbeque of buzzwords, liberally doused with PR doublespeak.
It looks like Tim Harrison, Head of Games at Vodafone Group Services, had been smoking pure Moroccan Buzzword when he came out with this piece of baffling industry-speak: “Having pre-agreed, pan-regional marketing and distribution capacity will allow us to run multi-territory co-marketing more easily, improve efficiencies for our partners and benefit the industry as a whole.”
Google is making its local-search service available to mobile-toting users, offering maps and driving directions optimised for the wee screen.
Telephone numbers are displayed as a hyperlink, and if the users’ phone supports the facility, clicking on the link will dial the listed telephone number (unlike some local search services, there is no additional charge for this).
Local search services are set to be the big hot potato of 2005, with the Kelsey Group reporting that local search ad spending hit US$162 million (£85m/€125m) in 2004.
TComm has launched a mobile TV service capable of delivering live, streamed and downloaded audio/video content to mobile phones.
Subscribers currently have a choice of six premium channels with another eight channels rolling out over the next 60 days.
Tony Johnson, the Content Manager of TComm (UK) Limited, was on hand to lavish praise on his own service: “With content from UK and US production companies such as 2 Minute TV, Fearless Music, Sandy Frank Entertainment and Hungry Biker, TELLYfone sets a new standard in content provision for the mobile phone market.”
A special promotion is offering free access to the service throughout April, after which access will be on a paid subscription basis.