Australia's so-called "mobile soft-porn pioneer," Hutchison, which carried Playboy-branded content on its 3 service, has found something other carriers launching adult mobile services may discover: few consumers are accessing adult content, but those few do it often.
"We were astounded by the overwhelming silence," Hutchison 3 head of content Amanda Hutton told Australian IT, adding that the company got very little feedback and most of the feedback it did get related to strict access controls. She said adult appeals only to a small but dedicated portion of Hutchison's customer base.
New Australian Communications Authority regulations ban X-rated or unclassified material on premium-rate mobile services and set strict identification and age verification guidelines for M15 and R18 rated material.
"Generally, we receive very few complaints," Hutton said, adding that other carriers are likely to follow 3’s lead. "If they don't," she told Australian IT, "there are other providers out there that will try to do it through premium SMS or MMS-type services."
In a related development, Opera Software has signed a three-year deal with Motorola, expanding a current deal to assure Opera's Internet browser will have be available on all Motorola cell phones.
To market researcher firm Jupiter Research, it means Opera is laying a big bet on the future. "Increasingly, phones are going to be a means by which people access the Internet. One of the most likely uses of a phone browser is search," Jupiter analyst Joe Wilcox told TechNewsWorld.com. "When you are out and about, you may want to search for a good place to eat or find out what movie is playing down the street."
The Motorola deal came on the heels of Opera's new partnership with Trolltech to provide a mobile Opera version for a new ZTE Smartphone built on the Qtopia/Linux operating platform.
"Partnering with Trolltech simply makes sense. We have a full-featured and cross-platform mobile Web browser, and Trolltech's Qtopia software provides a complete and customizable development platform and user interface for Linux-based home media and mobile devices," said Opera chief executive Jon S. von Tetzchner announcing the Trolltech deal. "Together, we can leverage our combined strengths and present a more complete product offering to the market."
