Webfreetv.com has launched Europe's first mobile streaming portal in Austria. GPRS-enabled handset owners will be able to watch television on their telephone in 2002.
Internet television content can be watched via a GPRS enabled handset or PDA, with Windows CE operating system support. The mobile portal is in test phase, accessible to the public.
On the webpage mobile.webfreetv.com the user can request a password via email and when registered surf without restrictions. At present four channels are offered: Business, sports, cinema and music.
According to current GPRS tariffs of the mobile operators, users can watch four transmissions of two minutes for approximately E0.36. The next step will be the development of the channels and a focusing on B2B format in the corporate communications sector, a Webfreetv spokesman said.
Integral: Austrian Internet audience now 2.7m
Feb 21 2001: The number of Internet users in Austria grew by 49 percent, or 850,000 people, in 2000. According to the Austrian Internet Monitor, there are now 2.7 million Internet users over the age of 14 in Austria. This means that Internet penetration there is well over the EU average. Despite the major expansion of the online consumer base, ecommerce has not yet taken off in Austria. Only 6 percent of Austrian Internet users bought goods or services online in 2000. The most visited site in Austria last year was that of state broadcaster ORF, followed by messaging site Sms.at, and Oebb.at, the website of the Austrian rail service.
Forrester Research believes that mobile gaming should be a priority offering for operators in Austria, Belgium, Germany, and Switzerland.
Forrester Research: Mobile gaming not for all Europeans
Nov 06 2001: Forrester Research believes that mobile gaming should be a priority offering for operators in Austria, Belgium, Germany, and Switzerland.
These countries have high mobile penetration, and high games console penetration so Forrester believes that mobile gaming should be high priority for operators in these countries.
The research firm believes that operators in six other countries (Ireland, Italy, Scandinavia, and the UK) should give mobile gaming medium priority, and rely on revenue-sharing partnerships with major games companies rather than developing their own mobile games.
Operators in the remaining Western European countries should designate mobile gaming as low priority and focus on offering easy SMS games to entice new users.
original article:
Nua Internet Surveys: Mobile gaming not for all Europeans
http://www.europemedia.net/shownews.asp?ArticleID=2397
More than 80% of Austrian teens have mobile phone, use internet
04/04/2001
About 80 per cent of Austrian children have access to the internet, according to a survey by the Austrian Internet Monitor that asked children aged 10 to 19 about their using-behaviours on the internet.
Fifty-two per cent go online at school, 50 per cent have an internet connection at home and 10 per cent reach the internet elsewhere.
Three-quarters (700,000) of children have already used the internet. Even in the 10 to 13 age group, current and repeated use of the internet reaches 59 per cent. In this age group the high affinity of girls to new media is remarkable: 75 per cent of boys and 73 per cent girls surf the internet frequently.
In the AIM study, those in the 14 to 17 age group are called the "power users.” With a percentage rate of 92, the girls outpace the boys, who have an internet penetration of 87 per cent. Comparatively, the total population average shows 50 per cent of Austrian men and 31 per cent of women surf the internet frequently.
What are they doing on the internet?
Sixty-one per cent of Austrian children use the internet for searching information or generally for fun. Close to 60 per cent like to send short messages (SMS), 53 per cent use the e-mail functions of the internet. Fifty per cent of the interviewed boys (in contrast to only 23 per cent of girls) download their music from the internet, 40 per cent of the boys (15 per cent of girls) like to download other data and 40 per cent of boys (23 per cent girls) go directly to specific webpages.
The mobile penetration in this age group
In the tested age group, 73 per cent of the Austrian children have their own mobile phone. Already 54 per cent of kids (aged 10 to 13) use a mobile for themselves. Eighty-six per cent of the teens (aged 14 to 19) possess a cell phone. On the majority (85 per cent) use pre-paid phone cards for their mobile and 57 per cent of the teens are subscribers.
