A gentle fisking
February 14th, 2012 at 2:00 pm by David FarrarDanyl at Dim-Post blogs:
Last time I looked, smart-phone penetration in New Zealand was around about the 5% mark. But I guess Key’s kids and all his staffers have them, so that’s everyone in the world of the Sun King.
This was in response to this comment from the PM:
“It really doesn’t matter if there is a street frontage there … We are living in an age where kids have iPads and smartphones. That’s the modern generation … and they actually don’t want to walk in, for the most part, and be in a very long queue and be waiting for a long time.”
So is Danyl right that only 5% of Kiwis have a smart phone, basically John Key’s kids and staffers?
The World Internet Project New Zealand disagrees, and hey as they actually surveyed 1,255 random New Zealanders, I tend to go with their numbers, being:
Usage of smartphones and other handheld wireless devices has grown apace, from 7% of Internet users in the 2007 sample, to 18% in 2009 and 27% in 2011. This is clearly a strong trend that will continue into the future.
So not really 5% and just some staffers and kids then, and hasn’t been for the last five years. Note that WIPNZ found 86% of NZers aged 12 or older are Internet users, so the smart phone penetration rate for all over 12s would be 23%. Also note the survey was six months ago.
Related posts:
- World Internet Project
- 2009 World Internet Project
- Why politicians don’t get the Internet
- More mobile phones than people
February 14th, 2012 at 2:23 pm
He did write “last time I looked…”. Clearly that was not very recently.
Vote:February 14th, 2012 at 2:25 pm
Fair cop. I was citing a presentation I saw ‘recently’, which – searching my calendar – was actually several years ago.
Vote:February 14th, 2012 at 2:26 pm
To be fair Danyl may also have been looking at one of the surveys that excluded the latest Symbian devices from the “Smartphone” classification – despite most having supported internet connectivity for a very long time.
Despite having Opera, Firefox and whatever the embedded browser is on my Nokia X6 alot of surveys I’ve participated in still won’t count this in the ‘smartphone’ category.
Vote:February 14th, 2012 at 2:32 pm
hell they are the essential item for any teenager now. over christmas 2degrees offered $200 smart phones without a plan. My 14 year old daughter got one – but now most of her friends have them as well. My next phone will be a smart phone, as will my wifes and also no doubt Miss 11 when we get her the next phone.
I guess in 24 months nearly everyone will have a smart phone. That is certainly the growth area for cell phone companies as the voice / text market is now essentially satuarated with 112% cell phones to population
Vote:February 14th, 2012 at 2:33 pm
You don’t need a smart phone to get access to online government services. A 10 year old computer will do just fine.
Vote:February 14th, 2012 at 2:42 pm
http://blog.jericho.co.nz/new-zealand-smartphone-penetration/
Tends to say the number is around 800K/ 4.5M and climbing fast.
Vote:February 14th, 2012 at 2:46 pm
To be fair the PM did sound like a bit of a dick referencing smart-phones as opposed to “the internet”. He sounded like the CEO of some corporate. (This opinion is based on the soundbite on NatRad this morning).
Vote:February 14th, 2012 at 2:57 pm
Smartphones are great for surfing information and there is definitely a case for making m versions of most government websites with existing services – but there are precious few government eServices that would justify building mobile apps for. I think the smartphone bit was an off the cuff comment by Key that the media have got overly hung up over (happens a lot – I’m surprised he manges to order a pizza without the Herald writing it up).
It’s interesting that Key has singled out AirNZ’s check in kiosks and mentioned passports as an example. other examples of this kind of solution is the self service check outs at the supermarkets or the range of self service options at modern bank branches. They still need staffing – but the staff are there to provide second tier support to users with their self service rather than laboriously pressing buttons on their behalf, you can have one staff member for 4-5 customers.
Compare process for passport or visa application:
1)
–> Download and print form
–> Fill in form including payment by credit card
–> Photocopy documents at work when nobody is looking
–> Go to pharmacist to get stupid tiny photo taken
–> Book and visit JP to get likeness authorised
–> Go to post shop and post to govt
–> Data entry person takes information I wrote by hand and plugs it into a computer (probably with transcription errors)
–> Application processed
–> Form sent to archive company for paid storage
–> Passport sent to me.
2)
–> Walk into govt office on my lunchbreak to fill in form on kiosk – passport scanned, fingerprint scanned, picture taken, payment processed via eftpos, likeness verified by staff – walk out ten minutes later – job done
–> application processed
–> Passport sent to me.
I know which I’d prefer.
The luddites can still follow process 1 if they want, but I’d argue they should pay a higher application fee for all the waste in the process that i don’t have.
Vote:February 14th, 2012 at 3:12 pm
The latest figures from December 2011 point to > 40% penetration:
“Smartphones now account for 43% of the New Zealand mobile phone market.” http://billbennett.co.nz/2011/12/20/samsung-top-phone-brand-in-new-zealand/
NZ ranks 10th in the world for smartphone ownership at 1.8 million smartphones, 42% penetration per capita
Vote:http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/2011/12/smartphone-penetration-rates-by-country-we-have-good-data-finally.html
February 14th, 2012 at 3:17 pm
I (like a few remant CDMA users) will have to get a new phone this year.
What qualifies a phone as a ‘smartphone’? My current one is a bit smarter than I bother to use it for. I’m wary of being loaded with up with more comms costs than I need. I also value phoneless time.
Vote:February 14th, 2012 at 3:25 pm
Last time I looked (which was only two or three years ago), the Ministry of Health had some critical business applications that exchanged information with the health sector via floppy disk and the postal system. I think they were buying stocks from some third world place since they’ve been obsolete for 15 years or longer.
Vote:February 14th, 2012 at 3:41 pm
The other advantage of small kiosk type solutions is that you can build it on premise within existing technology so you don’t have to worry about the privacy, security and authentication nightmare of online cloud hosted web services and the millions of dollars of IT spend they need. Having whole government services online is like a giant sign saying “hack me” to the smartest IT brains in Russia, China and Romania – half the savings you deliver get eaten up in new IT security costs. With a kiosked solution the hacking and fraud risk is limited to what an walk in customer can do in person while being watched by a staff member.
Plus you could do a bunch of these smaller projects (and the savings add up) they are easy to kill off if they are not working and the scale and nature of the job suits smaller NZ based IT companies rather than American IT giants offering nirvana solutions. The billion dollar spend for the new IRD system could fund literally hundreds of these little IT projects that would transform the public service and provide fantastic opportunities for the NZ IT sector.
Disclaimer – no I am not a vendor of kiosk software – but I have worked as a Business Analyst in the online services area for government and private sector.
Vote:February 14th, 2012 at 4:40 pm
No surprise really. All I’d expect from someone still sulking after his team was thrashed at the last election – DIM is just another poor-loser lefty.
Vote:February 14th, 2012 at 4:45 pm
And it’s not smartphone usage now, it when govt dept start offering the ability to do things via smartphones what the pick up will be.
Also for young people the % will be higher compared to people on super.
Vote:February 14th, 2012 at 5:19 pm
Cheap smart phones are $99 now. It doesn’t have to be an iPhone to be a smart phone. What a douche.
Vote:February 14th, 2012 at 5:31 pm
Danyl needs to get out more if he thought for even a second that this was a credible figure.
Vote:February 14th, 2012 at 5:57 pm
Hell im blue collar ,63yo worker and have a 2.3 Andriod LG.One dosnt need to have $55000000 stashed away to keep up.
Vote:Only problem is the pathetic battery life but instal the andriod assistant app to monitor things
February 14th, 2012 at 6:50 pm
Heck, the “dumb”, mid-range prepaid purchased years back that I threw out last year could even surf the internet.
I’d say that 95% of phones can, but most people wouldn’t know.
Vote:February 14th, 2012 at 7:25 pm
Thanks for the tip plebe, a great little app. Seems I have the same phone (and am the same generation). To conserve battery life I switch off stuff when not in use eg bluetooth, wifi, 3G, GPS. Still works as a phone! But can charge in the car or from a PC/laptop as well as at a pwr pt, so not a big issue.
Vote:February 15th, 2012 at 4:54 am
I suspect Danyls post was more about knee jerk reaction to the potential loss of civil servant jobs rather than any particular problem with the use of new technology by Govt. departments.
The knee jerk anti-key reaction coming in close second.
Vote:February 15th, 2012 at 11:28 am
Great, more human jobs replaced, eventually everyone can be on the dole while computers/robots run things
Vote:February 15th, 2012 at 11:30 am
Pete G. Get an eye fone. You’ll love it.
The most worrying is the potential loss of jobs by Why he had to go to Google is beyond me. There is enough local talent to build the required system, a lot of whom have had experience in Redmond or Palo Alto.
Vote: