The Government has offered Australia's three mobile operators, and vividwireless, renewal of their existing spectrum allocated on 15 year licences in the late 90s and early 2000s at set prices, while the Government expects to rake in $3 billion.
Despite some notable exceptions of late, the smartphone
of choice for business users is still the Blackberry. As for the rest
of us - well most of just want a mobile phone and in tough times don't
want to pay a premium for an all singing and dancing slightly too big
for your hand gadget.
When times are good and the money's rolling in
everybody wants to buy out the entire stock of items on display in an
Apple store. When money's tight there's nothing in those stores that
people can't do without.
One might argue that the same thing in tough economic times applies to
the computers and electronics industry generally. Well yes and no.
Certainly people will put off buying new computers as long as they can.
But businesses need them for productivity, kids need them at home to do
schoolwork, families need them to get information from the web and they
still keep getting cheaper.
People will certainly stop paying through the nose for 50 inch HD TVs
but they be able to justify buying a cheap 32 inch LCD TV because
sitting at home and watching it is the cheapest form of entertainment.
I'm not saying by any means that bleak prospects for Apple in 2009 are
a certainty. The market may have bottomed, real estate prices may start
trending upwards again and the global economy may come roraing back.
However, if we do happen to be headed for a prolonged deep recession
then Apple is one company in the IT industry that will feel it more
than most. Along with Apple, we can only hope that yesterday's awesome
bounce in global markets was not simply a flash in the pan.
David Bass
| ComOps, a leading Australian provider of business software products and services, has won a competitive tender to deploy its Salvus safety, r…
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