Australia is set apart from other regions by its large size and low population density (approximately two people per square kilometer). This statistic can be deceiving and hide the fact that Australia is predominantly urbanized. Over 85% of Australians live in populated centers of over 1,000 people, leaving just 14% of the population officially classified as rural or remote. Most urban centers are concentrated along the eastern seaboard.

Australian consumers rely heavily on telecommunications services. Fixed telephone density is 97%, mobile penetration exceeds 65% and broadband, in nearly 5% of all homes, is experiencing explosive growth. Australians show a healthy appetite for new technology and are considered to be early adopters. They expect high quality service and place great importance on reliability and availability.

The strengths of the Ericsson Mobility World regional center reflect the demand of developers in creating applications for Australia's population. The center has GPRS technology and market development expertise. Developers are able to borrow Sony Ericsson handsets at the earliest possible time, when the devices become available, to support companies in a timely manner throughout the development cycle.

Ericsson Mobility World in Australia has excellent account coverage with all major operators. The company is the largest provider of telecom services to operators in Australia. By working with Ericsson Australia, local operators are able to tap into a deep resource pool and exploit new cost efficiencies. This results in an unequaled channel for developers to reach operators.

Ericsson's operator customers in Australia and New Zealand include Telstra, Telecom New Zealand, Vodafone, Hutchison, Telstra-Clear, AAPT, and Optus. Ericsson boasts end-to-end mobile solutions across all major standards, and currently supplies 60% of the mobile infrastructure in Australia (based on subscriber numbers).

The marketing and partnering expertise offered by Ericsson Mobility World is also of great value to Australian developers. As with other regional centers, Australia offers access to the application catalog and global marketing, as well as promotional opportunities. An example of this is the promotion of Jumbuck Corporation's WAP chat application. Ericsson Mobility World Australia helped to launch the application earlier this year by including a marketing insert in the R600 box in order to encourage the use of the phone’s GPRS capability.

The center also coordinates events and showcases to support applications. In July, Ericsson Australia presented Accelerate 2002, an expo featuring eighteen Ericsson Mobility World developers and their range of market-ready mobile applications in the areas of business, consumer and machine-to-machine.

In October, Ericsson and The Australian newspaper ran a national competition called Frontier, to find the best, market-ready mobile data applications. The judging panel consisted of representatives from Ericsson, Telstra, Vodafone and the telecommunications industry group, ATUG. Both activities proved a great success and will be continued in the future.

The average member in the Ericsson Mobility World Australia program is a small company with fewer than ten people. Most of them have commercial applications on the market today, however adaptations for newer technologies, such as MMS, are generally only in the trial stage.

Ericsson Mobility World has established application and content marketing agreements with a few top quality developers in the Ericsson Associate program. Partner Managers in Australia are assisting many of these companies to reach the markets in North America and Western Europe. At the same time, given its proximity to Asia and the advanced state of the market there, Ericsson Mobility World Australia is also working to help some of these developers break into key accounts in Asia.

Meanwhile, Ericsson Mobility World has been active in helping a number of developers launch their applications locally and has a growing list of success stories. Sarah Phan, Program Manager at Ericsson Mobility World in Australia says: "We've built up a list of case studies with particular emphasis on GPRS. These developers have received direct support from us to either develop and test their applications or to help market them to an operator." Phan says she anticipates working with new, promising developers and the latest mobile technologies.

Contact Ericsson Mobility World Australia, New Zealand, Pacific to find out how it can help you with your applications, or how you can become an Ericsson Associate.

Region	Australia
Website	http://www.ericsson.com.au/developers/
Contact address	Ericsson Mobility World The Tower Melbourne Central 37/360 Elizabeth Street Melbourne VIC 3000
Local centers associated with the region	New Zealand