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Tag: australia

  • Investment Banker Appointed CEO of Australian Health Tech Start-Up Sonoa Health

    Investment Banker Appointed CEO of Australian Health Tech Start-Up Sonoa Health

    health&

    Sonoa Health, a health tech startup based in Melbourne, Australia, has developed an innovated consumer health portal, Health&, which brings together data from online health records, medication prescriptions, wearable devices and more.

    Yesterday, the Company appointed investment banker John Stewart as its CEO. Stewart brings to the table more than 18-years experience in investment banking and corporate advisory, which has included working closely with the biggest names in Silicon Valley.

    Sonoa Health was officially founded four years ago and ramped up production for its consumer health portal early last year with more than 50 handpicked recruits. The portal will be launched later this year.

    Health& portal is designed to provide an intelligent interface between doctors and consumers, which displays consumer health information in one place and helps them to proactively manage illness. It is supported by a search engine containing animated, illustrated and written health content, which is derived from evidence-based resources and designed to boost health literacy.

    The unique algorithms at the core of Health& power a reasoning engine, which brings the logic of a doctor’s brain online and delivers truly individualised health information to consumers.

    The company has engaged nine medical professors, who are all members of the Order of Australia, to head its Medical Advisory Board. In-house, there is a young team of doctors, writers, developers, animators, illustrators and an entrepreneurial leadership team too.

  • Telsyte: Australia’s smartwatch market to exceed $400M by 2018

    Telsyte: Australia’s smartwatch market to exceed $400M by 2018

    smartwatches

    With some 370,000 smartwatches sold in 2014, Australians are warming to wearable computing with the market poised to exceed $400 million by 2018, according to new research from emerging technology analyst firm Telsyte.

    According to Telsyte’s Australian Smartphone & Wearable Devices Market Study 2015, the smartwatch market is expected to grow by at least 50 per cent in 2015 due to the arrival of an Apple Watch.

    Samsung, an early entrant in to the smartwatch market is the current market leader.

    Watch jewellery is a mature market with around 40 per cent (more than 7 million) of Australians (age 16 and above) wearing a watch almost every day. Notwithstanding the challenges, smartwatches have the potential to disrupt the traditional market as people consider wearable devices an extension to their smartphone and apps they use for fitness and communications.

    Telsyte Managing Director Foad Fadaghi says smartwatches will become more appealing to consumers as new stylish and featured devices enter the market, with the 25 to 44 year-old age group representing the best sales opportunity in 2015.

    “There is a lot of anticipation for the Apple smartwatch and our research indicates half of all smart fitness band users are looking to upgrade to a smartwatch, creating a potentially vibrant new product category” Fadaghi says.

    Telsyte research showed that over 800,000 smart wristbands such as those made by Fitbit and Garmin were sold in 2014.

    As with smartphones, consumers consider ease of use, pricing and battery life the most important attributes of smartwatches. Many current smartwatches have been criticised for their short battery life and limited unique usage scenarios.

    Telsyte’s research found the top three applications people want from a smartwatch are to (1) check the time and date (2) use it as an alarm clock or a reminder alert, and (3) read messages, including e-mail.

    Smartphone sales mature as hand-me-down devices shake up the mid-market

    According to Telsyte research, there were 16.8 million smartphone users in Australia at the end of December 2014 with sales of just below 5 million units in the second half of 2014.

    This was around 10 per cent less than Telsyte expected over H2, despite very strong iPhone 6 sales.

    Telsyte Senior Analyst Alvin Lee says the iPhone gained market share in H2 2014, but the overall share trends are likley to change again as an Android-users upgrade cycle in expected to commence in early 2015.

    However, Telsyte has recognised increased competition to Android device by older model iPhones, typically received through a “hand-me-down”.

    “The durability of handsets and the hand-me-down phenomenon is impacting the market, along with a flood of second hand iPhones cutting into sales of mid-tier Android handsets in the second half of 2014,” Lee says.

    Telsyte estimates 1.3 million iPhone 6 and 6 Plus units sold in Australia last year, with the iPhone 6 outselling the iPhone 6 Plus, at a ratio four to one. Despite this Telsyte believes the demand for phablets or larger form factor smartphones is growing and will represent around a quarter of smartphones in use by 2019.

  • Vodafone to launch "world first" converged solution of services and equipment in Australia


    A three-way initiative between Vodafone Australia, Cisco and Research In Motion (RIM) is to launch an integrated business communications services in Australia known as Vodafone Business One.
    Starting later this year, it will combine all telecommunication services – fixed and mobile, voice and data, services and equipment – into one managed service with single-point accountability on installation, technical support and fleet management and one monthly invoice.
    The service will be focusing primarily on small-medium sized businesses of between 10 to 100 employees.
    By using Wi-Fi-enabled BlackBerry smartphones along with Cisco Wi-Fi and IP-PBX in the office, Vodafone Business One customers will be able to make calls within the office zone at fixed-line rates, while making calls outside the office via the Vodafone mobile network.
    Both fixed and mobile calls will be covered by a single account-level service fee.
    BlackBerry smartphones can automatically select Wi-Fi as the preferred transmission method to send and receive calls and emails, as well as access other data applications, when in the office.
    Customers can choose to use IP phones or their BlackBerry dual-mode smartphones while in the office.
    Russell Hewitt, CEO at Vodafone Australia described the service as its most significant strategic play since the launch of 3G services three years ago.
    “With the announcement of Vodafone Business One, Vodafone has evolved from being a ‘mobile-only’ provider, to the world of full-service telecommunications services, enabling Vodafone to bring the principles of innovation and competition it has delivered in the mobile space to the fixed-line arena,” he said.
    Hewitt said the service offered a genuine alternative to spending money on traditional, fixed-lines with costly line rentals.
    Vodafone says that it will begin a progressive rollout of Vodafone Business One over the coming months to small and medium-sized enterprises in New South Wales before extending the service to customers in all major business centres by the end of the year.

  • Australian market first to get recordable Blu-ray player outside of Japan


    Panasonic is to roll-out sales of a range of Blu-ray recorders in Australia, making it only the second country after Japan to receive the devices.
    A 500GB Twin High Definition Tuner and VIERA Link model is to go on sale this month as well as various lower-spec recorders, the first 46” plasma TV and new 37” Full HD LCD TV models.
    Paul Reid, Panasonic Australia’s Director for Consumer Electronics Group, described the move as a “significant breakthrough” for Blu-ray.
    “Panasonic has led the way in home entertainment products and continues to bring innovation to the market with Australia’s first Blu-ray recorder for the living room,” he said.
    Other overseas markets, including Europe and the US, are to receive the new model shortly.