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April 30, 2009
Open Mobile Summit (Early bird ends this Friday ): Unleashing the Internet - the end of an carrier-dominated era
When I was in London earlier this month, I met with an old friend Robin Batt, who explained the rationale for her conference, the Open Mobile Summit, which is coming up in London in June. I believe Robin is on to something special and I wanted to make sure her work is known by the people who read my blog.
Robin explained how over the past 2 years there have been great strides towards open-ness in mobile. That all of these different initiatives, opening the iPhone to third party development, the mobile broadband explosion in Europe driven by opening access to the Internet from mobile devices, the moves from Google, LiMo and Symbian to open the mobile OS, Verizon’s open announcement last year – are all part of an open mobile revolution.
The revolution is taking place as Internet and wireless worlds continue to collide. There are echoes here of the first Internet revolution, and its impact on both telecoms and content / media. Until now mobile Internet hasn’t taken off, because the value chain has been tightly dominated by the carriers (sound familiar?). And no one likes to play in a walled garden, especially me. :)
Now a number of factors are breaking down these barriers and paving the way for an open, Internet –style ecosystem on wireless. That means huge disruption to the existing value chain, business models and relationships. And huge opportunity for those able to leverage it.
Robin’s an industry consultant who decided to organise this event last year when she realized that all the ‘mobile web’ events were missing the mark. Mainly because they just look at the mobile web companies and applications.
Whereas what is happening affects the entire mobile and converging Internet ecosystem…from carriers through to handset OEMs, PC and consumer electronics manufacturers, wireless software companies, Internet giants, media companies, mobile web and applications companies.
The open mobile revolution is tearing apart the very fabric of the multi million dollar mobile communications industry…and a new ecosystem needs to be built - and monetized – in it’s place.
So, the Open Mobile Summit was born. It brings together just about all the players across these converging worlds – at the senior business strategist level – to explore the changing dynamics of the mobile industry, Internet content and indeed the emergence of mobile as the next mass media.
The first event ran in San Francisco last November – and sold out, despite the downturn and industry-wide travel freezes in effect. The next event is in London, 10-11 June.
My advise for friends who hope to generate revenues from mobile ‘anything’ to get to this event….for a critical perspective into where the value is going to lie in mobile. And to meet with some of the most powerful people in the converging industry.
The early bird expires this Friday May 1st. There are also 4 remaining heavily-discounted passes for ‘friends of Jef.f’ To take advantage, just use VIP code FOJ when you register.
This is a going to be a great event. Hope you can make it.
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Tags: OpenMobileSummit, Mobile Internet, Robin Batt
Posted by jeff on April 30, 2009 12:04 AM | Permalink
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