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March 13, 2009
Give me a latte and a download please
Here at the J. Alfred Prufrock School of Coffee Spoon Economics, we have been trying to devise a way to calculate an exchange rate between Wi-Fi access and cafe lattes.
We believe this will become an important instrument over the next few years, as the growing popularity of the Apple iPhone and competitors like the Blackberry Pearl and the Palm Centro place more pressure on the nation’s diminished financial resources, and force the less fortunate members of society (basically, in this environment, all of us) to extract more value from our purchases.
Other financial research institutions seem to have missed the link between the usage patterns of these devices and the cafe latte, and for that matter the cappuccino, the macchiato, the flat white and the ristretto or short black.
The connection becomes obvious only if you own an iPhone, or examine the statistics that reveal the average user of this device is 94 times more likely to download an application than other mobile phone users; accesses Google Maps more than 10 times more frequently; and routinely browses the Web, sends and receives emails and Twitters; You Tubes and uploads images from the iPhone camera.
By last September, despite significant limitations on the AT&T 3G network, iPhones were generating 7.8 per cent of all smart phone traffic in the US, having almost doubled over the previous month.
As iPhone-like devices penetrate to about 50 per cent of the market in two to three years, a significant number of users will be confronted by alarming phone bills, due to the parsimonious voice and data plans offered by Australian carriers. In those circumstances, we believe the Prufrock data could be a vital factor in the preservation of their financial well-being.
Our research for this project has taken us to several cafes in St Kilda and South Melbourne over the past few weeks, and we are confident that it reflects the experience of many iPhone owners in cities around the country.
Take, for example, our experiment on March 3, over lunch at Gas in South Melbourne a couple of weeks ago for instance, Bleeding Edge consumed 11,107kB (10.84MB) of our 150MB data allowance in a remarkably short time, checking our email, reading The Age’s bushfire coverage and checking the 774 ABC Melbourne’s Twitter updates. Perhaps by then the heavy caffeine intake resulting from our research had gone to our head, because we also downloaded two application updates.
Unfortunately Gas, like most of the establishments at which we regularly buy coffee or take meals, does not offer free Wi-Fi to its regular patrons.
We spent the equivalent of seven cafe lattes on this particularly extravagant lunch, and while the meal (Middle Eastern influence) was, as usual, delicious, it imposed a significant cost on our data allowance.
Had we chosen to dine, instead, at another of our regular haunts, the Grocery Bar in Fitzroy Street, St Kilda, the downloads would have been free.
Even before the introduction of the iPhone, the proprietors of the Grocery Bar introduced free Wi-Fi as a service to regular customers. It does not advertise the service, and customers generally take care not to abuse it, but judging from the number of iPhones and notebooks on the tables during the average afternoon there’s no doubt that it is a considerable attraction for road warriors.
The Grocery Bar pays about $60 for a 25GB monthly ADSL2 service from Internode. Last month was the first time the Grocery Bar used its full allowance, although a good deal of that is used by the business.
On an average weekday it serves about 150 coffees at its tables at $3 each. Our economists are trying to establish the exchange value of that trade, which in many cases also includes meals, against the free data. It is by no means a simple task, but we are optimistic that we will come up with a reliable index.
The value to the customer is likely to increase, with the imminent release by Melbourne-based VoIP provider Freshtel (freshtel.net) of an iPhone VoIP application that allows users to make mobile calls via Wi-Fi at a fraction of the cost of mobile capped plans.
The application, which is already available on some Nokia handsets, cuts the cost of a landline call to 5c per minute, and 30c per minute, without flagfall, to mobile numbers.
We’ve been trialling the service on a Nokia N85 and an iPhone, and the quality of the calls is indistinguishable from calls placed on the mobile network. It could be a financial lifesaver for Telstra iPhone users who have been denied access to a reasonable capped plan, and will be reflected in coffee consumption patterns.
We are confident that it will be a significant factor in supporting the legitimacy of the Prufrock Index.
WINDOWS 7: Windows users interested in the development of Microsoft’s Windows 7 operating system will be given a preview at the next monthly meeting of Melbourne PC User Group monthly on April 1 at Melbourne University.
Posted by cw at March 13, 2009 06:31 PM
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Comments
CW
I worked for one of the 4 BIG banks. First the Tea ladies went, then progressively over the years the supplied coffee degenerated to floor sweepings. Folk took to taking their coffee breaks in the coffee shop next door. Then as we moved to open plan the managers moved into the decreasing number of conference rooms for all sorts of private time. This left the team leaders with no choice but to have team meetings in the coffee shop. Then came internet "hot spots" and the IT folk took to working in the coffee shop. Often we would see a team of 10 have a one hour meeting meeting for the price of 10 cups of coffee, or an IT person sit for 4 hours for the price of a couple of cups
I suggested that the coffee shop owner should stop charging for coffee and charge rent on the table!
bb
Posted by: bryan at March 15, 2009 10:05 PM
Guys,
A full listing of laptop friendly cafes in Melbourne featuring free wifi and power outlets can be found here:
http://www.laptopfriendlycafes.com/melbourne
enjoy!
Cr@iG
Posted by: Craig at April 14, 2009 02:10 AM