The first edition of the Mobile Internet World conference is now in the history books. It was certainly well-worth my time to participate. Attendance declined a bit today, but I enjoyed most of the sessions more than yesterday. The highlights of sessions I attended are included below. Tomorrow, I’ll post a summary of overall themes.

Mobile Internet Now & Tomorrow – An Operator View (Alexandre Froment-Curtil, Head of Vodafone live! and Mobile Internet, Vodafone Group Marketing)

• The Eurpoean mobile Internet market has 100 million active subscribers using data services and shows 80% YOY growth in mobile music revenues.
• Key factors in DSL / Broadband growth were content availability, pricing simplicity and network speed. Mobile internet growth will probably depend on the same factors
• Vodafone’s marketing slogan is “Take the Internet Out – It’s now on your mobile … make the most of now.”
• Vodafone is very bullish on this market. They believe that mobility will transform the Internet. Mobile will become the dominant tool for Internet access.
• 4 babies are born every second in the world; 32 phones are sold every second (8 phones per baby!)
• The customer of tomorrow will:
• Be highly connected
• Use multiple interfaces / devices
• Access at all times of the day
• Maintain an online identity – live in the online world
• Successful services will integrate four dimensions of customer’s life (content, space, people, time)
• Vodafone is confident about the role of operators
• In conclusion:
• The journey has begun – we have begun to experience success
• There is one internet – different ways to experience it
• Operators must build on customer trust and offer a converged and open service environment

The Evolution of Mobile Broadband (Ray Dolan, SVP Strategy and Market Development, Qualcomm Enterprise Services)

• Convergence in the wireless world depends on
• Network evolution
• Mobile device evolution
• Service escalation
• New, powerful processors will put more power in the handset. The Snapdragon processor is 1ghz, dual core, low power consumption.
• The iPod blurs the boundary between PC and phone.
• We must deliver increasingly powerful services for customers.
• UMB and WiMAX will likely co-exist.

Mobile Internet: Realizing the Business Potential in the New Multimedia World (Pankaj Asundi, Vice President Media and Content, Ericsson)

• The “My Life” video was a great depiction of potential of global interaction via online connection, as told by person in the future recalling digital interaction events of the past.
• We must think how services may affect users in their lives.
• “Digital natives” are those that grow up in connected world.
• The rich digital lifestyle is changing consumer behavior.
• We must sure people get what they want, when they want it. Users must be at the center of the design process.
• The mobile media value chain is transforming rapidly, including advertisers, media companies, aggregators, carriers and consumers (acting both as generators and consumers of content).
• Multiple industries (telco, web and new media) are addressing consumers (same wallet, same attention span) from three different angles. The three industries need to come together.
• Participants in the value chain must:
• Reach the user across multiple channels and platforms.
• Engage the user by richer and more compelling services.
• Monetize the user by leveraging customer insight and adapting musiness models.

Marketing in a New Mobile World (Larry Weber, Chairman and Founder, W2 Group)

• Software vendors will take over the mobile industry, as they took over the computer industry in late 1980’s.
• The mobile device is becoming the primary user device – not the laptop or PC.
• We are too technically focused. We must focus on creating environments on mobile. Transactions will come after creation of environment.
• Mobile advertizing is the next frontier. One third of the $120 billion in TV ads are DVR’d and skipped. This will drive a big shift from TV to mobile and social media on the web.
• We must not focus on mobile as a single medium. The challenge is to bring many media types together.
• Demographics are no longer the most important advertizing factors. Behavior is key.
• Brands will need to engage with specific audiences they wish to reach. The mobile device and be the ultimate method for carrying on dialog with consumer.
• The phone is a social device. The killer app is conversation. That fundamental concept begs to be leveraged.

Executive Roundtable: Mobile Internet Ecosystem (Panel discussion led by Berge Ayvazian, CSO Yankee Group, Conference Co-Chair)

James Pearce, Vice President of Technology, dotMobi (.mobi domain)
Donovan Neale-May, Executive Director, CMO Council
B. Craig Cumberland, Sr. Director Technology and Applications Marketing, Nokia
Lawrence (Larry) Moores, Vice President, Global Marketing and Product Management, Real Networks

• The ecosystem includes everything from the handset to the rest of the world.
• Customer expectations goes ahead of technology adaptation – continues to challenge technology.
• Consumers are suffering “function fatique and feature frustration” on handsets, while not necessarily getting functions they want.
• Developers are a critical part of the ecosystems. One positive thing about Android is that it puts developers at the front of the queue.
• A large percent of smart phone users are active users of mobile Internet.
• SMS has not yet been leveraged to its potential.
• We are still struggling with compelling user experience – just not there yet.
• Content licensing or Digital Rights Management are big problems

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How Carriers Drive Revenues from the Mobile Web Today (Jon S. von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera Software)

• Opera’s vision is to provide the best Internet experience on any device.
• 26 million people have downloaded and used Opera Mini
• Widgets are a method of providing special user experience within a web brower. Over 1500 widgets have been developed for the Opera browser. WC3 is working on widget standard.
• Examples of carriers successfully using the Opera browser include T-mobile, KDDI and Vodafone.

Content Adaptation: Wired to Mobile (Brendan Benzing, InfoSpace, Inc.; Eran Wyler, InfoGin)

• Search and navigation will be starting point for all mobile media.
• No one portal will serve needs of all people.
• Search should be optimized for the phone.
• Content can’t just be transcoded. It must be understood and translated to the small screen.
• InfoGin handles javascript and Flash and copes with sites optimized for Internet Explorer.

Venture Capital Activity in the Mobile Internet Ecosystem (Paul Schaut, Independent Advisor – was CEO of Internet bubble company)

Bob Geiman, Polaris Ventures
Jeff Glass, Bain Capital
B. Lane MacDonald, Alta Communications
Dinesh Moorjani, IAC Search and Media

• Key trends and challenges
• Is the mobile Internet different than the Internet?
• Will new brands be created or will existing brands move to this space?
• Will carriers let new brands emerge in this space?
• Can you build your own brand in this space?
• Without the right capacity, services become meaningless – are investments happening to enable this?
• Carriers would rather that video streaming not happen on the cellular network. New networks are needed.
• The tremendous number of permutations of handsets, operating systems, code bases, etc., is not solved yet.
• The one-to-one interface of the mobile is attractive for targeted advertizing. Its potential is enormous.
• Carriers hold the bulk of power in the industry – determination of who wins depends largely on them.
• The iPhone has increased general awareness of the potential of mobile devices, but Apple is not friendly to companies who want to chart their own destiny.
• The Google-led Open Handset Alliance is generating buzz but it is too early to tell about success. Google becoming a dominant force in mobile doesn’t necessarily foster innovation, because they can squash startups.
• Advice to Startups:
• Startups need to balance working through carriers and selling direct to consumers, providing multifaceted distribution channels
• Think about mobile’s strong opportunity in developing markets.
• Learn from those who have gone before you – figure out what is working – refine the model to get scale.
• If you are trying something that is not working, find new ways leverage what you have ; build strategic assets.
• Pay attention to the folks in the value chain that can say yes or no along the way. Have a value proposition that can satisfy needs of everyone who can say yes or no.

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