skydeck

Highlights from the Mobile 2.0 Event

October 17, 2007 | 1 Comment

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My first Mobile 2.0 was an overall positive experience. Thank you Mobile Monday and The Open Group.

The organizers of the event, Daniel Appelquist, Mike Rowehl, Rudy de Waele and Peter Vesterbacka, did an excellent job of pulling together a veritable Who’s Who of mobile into an intimate, cohesive, and on-schedule performance. While the venue was standing room only, the approachable setting and laid-back atmosphere of the community allowed me to ‘do business’ while enjoying the whole experience: Productive business networking, a plethora of perspectives on the mobile industry, and the chance to see and meet (in person) the forces that are driving change in our market. For the price, it was a bargain.

Photo by: Rudy de Waele

A number of blogs have done a very nice job of producing a general summary of the event agenda. Instead of that, I’m going to focus on a few highlights and key take-aways, followed with some thoughts for next year’s conference and ideas for improvement.

Highlights:

• User Experience, Usability, and Design panel: “Get rid of the keypads”, Kelly Goto.
  Apple started it, but where does it end? Beyond the incorporation of a touch screen, what are all of the other ways that one can pass information to / from a device (sound, temperature, movement, pressure, distance, object angle, etc). Its time to re-visit this.

• Seams in User Interface: “Identify the seams in a product’s user experience. Where do they need to be? Where should they never be?”, Christian Lindholm
  This has nearly universal application in design, but is underrepresented in the practical application. How close to zero seams can/should a product be?

• The Equation to Go Viral = [Design panel says “If you want consumers to use something, it needs to be on-deck or viral”] + [Rich Wong from Accell Partners and other VCs say “Best investments today are off-deck”]
  The VCs hammered home one point. They believe the best investments are those that don’t rely solely on the carrier, and are off-deck. To make off-deck fly, you need viral, community support.

• Don’t think mobile apps. Think mobile web apps.
  Mobile applications are too difficult to build for the entire variety of existing (and future) devices. In many cases, they also need to be on-deck to fully function, creating an even bigger challenge. Improvements in mobile browsers will reduce these barriers, and offer access to the phones. Think iPhone.
  

• What would you remove today?
  • The distinction between SMS and MMS, Risto Lahdesmaki
  • The cost of data (please!), Christian Lindholm
  • Personal data management, add personal life management, Carlos Domingo
  • The keypad, Kelly Goto

• You can’t live with ‘em, you can’t live without ‘em: On the Emerging Technologies Panel “We need to embrace, not fight the carriers… Don’t fight their data rate plans”. On the VC side, “My goal is to work with people who want to deride the carriers” Voytek Siewierski
  For now, I vote with the VCs. Businesses behave rationally to protect their own interests, and those of their shareholders. The carriers are no different… as the next point shows.

• Sprint’s honest truth: “My company makes $11B in operating profits, and why would we want to share that with the people in this room! … If we started giving this away, our shareholders would have a problem with that… We don’t want to be a dumb pipe” Russ McGuire, Sprint (only major USA carrier that I saw in attendance)
  This shouldn’t be a surprise to any entrepreneur.

• Most interactive presentation: Kyte.tv: It was fast, fun, interactive, and easy to use. It also provided on-going entertainment, by broadcasting the attendees photos and videos in the background. Check it out.
  Kyte’s product is simple, easy to access, and available to use without a formal account. This is a competitive space, but their focus on simplicity will go far.

• One Click. We need to get consumers to a point where they have ‘one-click’ access on their mobile, to the things that they value… this requires an open platform.
  

• Open, open, open. Things are “so closed, people can’t even give failing a shot” Enrique Ortiz, eZee
  We agree, and so do the event’s organizers.

• VC conundrum: The VCs said, “the best investments are off deck… don’t build something that relies completely on the carriers”… but the investments they said they are looking for were quite carrier dependent, including “build an EVNO… Enterprise Virtual Network Operator… to disrupt and improve network offerings to enterprises”.
  Do major corporations really need a middle-man, between them and the carriers? Would the EVNO even work with smaller businesses? We’re skeptics.

• Show me the $. Should I get paid for giving companies (e.g., LinkedIN, Facebook, Google) access to my professional and social networks? Seriously. Someone has to feed the social network hubs.

• Tomi Ahonen kicked things off with flair, presence, and a top-hat. During his engaging keynote, he gave many interesting factoids regarding the advances of web and mobile in progressive Asian nations (e.g., S. Korea) . Two interesting nuggets were:
  • Almost every Korean under 30 is registered in the virtual community of Cyworld
  • Cell phones in Japan are able to translate text real-time via the camera and display it in the user’s language on their mobile device’s screen

• Just the Facts, Please. During his speech, Tomi’s voice over impressed the point that nearly half (44%) of the population of Japan or S. Korea (I can’t remember which) “regularly” or “actively” clicks on mobile ads. He went on to use this to support his arguments for mobile advertising.
  Fine, but the facts need to be true. The slide was that “44% of people have clicked on an interactive mobile ad”. This is VERY different from “actively” click.

Final Thoughts:

Overall, it was a very well organized one-day conference, peppered with industry specialists, and heavy on bloggers, who were oftentimes blogging out loud. It was savvy, down-to-earth, and light hearted, with high-level discussions covering the major topics of today. However, there were a few things that I think could improve the event for next year.

• There was a noticeable lack of hard data, real-life examples, or case-studies used by the speakers and panelists to support what they said or claimed, or to help ground the thoughts they were discussing. By adding these in, generated from their typically vast networks personal experience, it would help the audience to better understand and remember their messages. This thought was also voiced to me independently by two people I met at the event.

• The lobby, lunch, and coffee breaks were some of the highlights, because they helped the attendees address some of the biggest reasons they came: To network for business development, discuss their own ideas, and get feedback. The panels and moderators were well stocked, and did hold the attention of the audience. However, I could help but think… would people prefer to sit and listen for 8 hours, or interact? Maybe next time there could be a combination of the standard panel discussions & keynote speakers, with moderated small group sessions that report back to the group at large.

Posted by: Dan
Categories: Mobile Market