Computer and Internet Usage in Australia - Report Example

Executive Summary The current age has often been referred to as the information age or the Computer age owing to endless possibilities through which an individual can transfer information freely. One particular reason leading to the information age is the public acceptance of the computer and the internet. In this context, it becomes necessary to read and analyze a country’s data in the field of computers and internet and find useful trends in it. These trends can be of useful to the Government for the purpose of planning as well as to the business for marketing and strategy setting and the public in general. This report aims to find useful trends in the internet and computer accessibility in Australia. It is found out that the internet has grown rapidly in the last one decade in Australia. At the same time, broadband has made significant inroads in the Australian internet environment. Internet is used by the public for communicating, for entertainment, as a source of news and to purchase items online. Introduction The access to internet was first given to Australian universities via AARNet (Clarke, 2004). Australia with its estimated population of 21,431,800 in the year 2008 has significantly grown in terms of computer and internet usage since then. Australia has high penetration of internet users in the world. As per the Australian Bureau of Statistics, 78% of the households in the country had access to a computer while 72% of total households had internet access at the home (Pink et al., 2008) in the year 2008. Although the country has shown significant improvements in the trends, there still is a significant digital divide amongst the Australians. Almost one-eighth of the population of Australia had never used internet. At the same time, 25% of the population is still not having a broadband connection at their home. The CCI Report on the internet in Australia has shown some interesting trends (Ewing and Thomas, 2010): In-spite of growing internet usage, there is still a digital divide existing in the country. Internet usage is more prominent in the younger, highly educated and higher income individuals rather than home-makers, older or lower educated people. The internet provides the population of the country with a useful tool to keep in touch. Besides, e-mail is the most used form of online communication although voice calls over the internet are still quite low with only 3 in 10 doing this. The penetration of internet has led to a change in the media usage patterns of the Australian population. About 70% of the people visit an online news service to get updates on any breaking news, either local or international. Increased use of internet has led to maximum affect in the usage of television. Internet has emerged as a preferred source of entertainment with downloading or listening to online music, surfing or browsing the internet and looking for information about artists or local restaurants as the most popular activities. The internet users of the country also agree with the fact that the internet is a very useful tool to be used in political campaigns. Internet users believe that the web shall be free but call for a stricter regulation for the content and access of the internet to children. Australians are avid online shoppers with 61% making online purchases (ROI, 2010). Australians also use internet to know more about products, and special schemes. Recent Trends in the Internet and Computer usage The graph below shows the proportion of total households in Australia having computer and internet access. Figure 1: Proportion of households having computer and internet access (Source: Pink et al., 2008) As can be seen from the graph, the proportion has shown an increasing trend over the period of time. At the same time, the percentage of households which have a computer and but no internet is decreasing. This indicates that the internet is growing at a much faster pace as compared to the computers. The rate of increase in the broadband connection shows a significant jump with the proportion of households having broadband increasing by three times over the last 5 years. The graph below shows the penetration of internet and computer as per the remoteness of the area: Figure 2: Computer and Internet according to the remoteness of the area From the picture, it is clear that computer and the internet are still not prevalent in the interior parts of the country. This points to the existence of a digital divide between the rural and the urban parts of the country. This means that the Government of the country needs to take certain steps to improve the connectivity and knowledge about computers in the regional parts of the country. The usage of internet is very skewed with the younger age group being the most prominent users. The percentage is almost similar till the age group of 25-34 but it keeps on decreasing slowly after that. The age group above 65 is the minimum usage group. The diagram below shows the graph of percentage of people in the age group using internet: Figure 3: The usage of internet with age group (Source: Pink et al., 2008) Relation between Per Capita Goss National Income and Internet Users The table below shows the per capital gross National Income along with Internet users over the period of 2000-2009: YEAR Users Population % Pop. G.N.I. p.c. 2000 66,00,000 1,95,21,900 33.80% $19,992 ('00) 2007 1,47,29,191 2,04,34,176 70.20% $21,650 ('06) 2009 1,69,26,015 2,12,62,641 79.60% $32,220 ('06) Table 1: Per Capita GNI and Internet Users The correlation coefficient between the variables: number of internet users and the per capital Gross national Income taken as it is 0.7525. The high positive value indicates that the number of internet users keeps in increasing with increase in the per capita Gross National Income (Anderson et al., 2009). The various reasons for which people use internet can be shown as the diagram below: Figure 4: The purpose of using internet The usage of internet as per the occupation of the population is shown in the graph below: Figure 5: Number of internet users (in’000) according to their occupation As can be seen from the graph, professionals and managers use internet almost equally amongst all the three places. However, the workers access internet mostly outside. Conclusion To summarize, the usage of computer and internet has increased significantly in Australia over the last few years. The population of Australia is more comfortable with the usage of internet and it sees internet as a major source of entertainment. Internet has also emerged as a preferred buying destination especially in far flung areas. However, there is still a significant digital divide in terms of the ages and the remoteness of the place. Bibliography Anderson, D.R., Sweeney, D.J., and Williams, T.A. (2009). Statistics for business and economics, 10th ed. Cengage Learning, pg 116. Clarke, R. (2004). Origins and Nature of the Internet in Australia. [Online]. Available at: http://www.rogerclarke.com/II/OzI04.html#8589. [Last Accessed on 2nd August 2010]. Pink, B., and Statistician, A. (2009). Household Use of Information Technology [Online]. Available at: http://www.ausstats.abs.gov.au/Ausstats/subscriber.nsf/0/9B44779BD8AF6A9CCA25768D0021EEC3/$File/81460_2008-09.pdf . Australian Bureau of Statistics. [Last Accessed on 3rd August 2010]. Ewing, S., and Thomas, J. (2010). The Internet in Australia. [Online]. Available at: http://cci.edu.au/publications/digital-futures-2010. CCI News Publications. [Last Accessed on 3rd August 2010]. ROI. (2010). Internet Access Patterns in Australia. [Online]. Available at: http://www.roi.com.au/index.php/internet_marketing/how_australians_use_the_internet_-_latest_market_data.html. [Last Accessed on 3rd August 2010]. World Bank. (2008). Population Total. [Online]. Available at: http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.TOTL [Last Accessed on 2nd August 2010]. Read More