Web Directions Year round learning for product, design and engineering professionals

Well, it didn’t take long for, as we predicted, the first reports of “unexpectedly high debt from bills for excess data usage” for users of “fast web-browsing phones, such as the new Apple iPhone” (Sydney Morning Herald.)

I’m not sure whether this affects a lot of people, or only a few – but it is a story you’ll be seeing in every newspaper, on every current affairs show and more in coming weeks.

Ironically, even as at least one carrier (Virgin) has introduced not entirely unreasonable data plans ($70 plans including 1GB of data, or $100 for 5GB of data), the message this presents is “the mobile web is expensive”. How much will this impact the adoption of the mobile web in Australia? My prediction is very significantly.

So I hope Telstra, Optus and Vodafone are enjoying the taste of their goose stew. Shame they might other wise have been eating golden egg omelettes in perpetuity.