3 and SIME organized a mobile business round table on Thursday, October 7, 2009 at O-Baren, Stockholm that went by the tag line, “because your mobile is more important than your pinky” , which many people really voted to be. On a loose survey conducted at SIME last year, many people felt that they would lose their pinky in lieu of their mobile phone, startling but true.
Read event information here
It was a gathering of like minded people from the Swedish mobile circle talking about how the mobile industry has undergone changes, and probably why now is the best time to get into the sector. From the pioneering Scandinavian region, to the developing markets of India and Africa, mobile seems to the common uniting point for people. No one is ever found without a mobile in the hand, and if at all that is a yardstick to go by, what should marketers, developers, telco’s and OEM’s do to embrace the revolution. The main topics of focus was:
- Geeks vs the Markets
- Mobile Marketing, the hype to reality. How steep is the graph really
- The Asian tilt of the market
- And the walled garden of the telco’s.
The event got into motion with the following video (in Swedish only, thanks the viral company)
» Continue reading ‘3, Android and SIME: Mobile Business Round Table, Stockholm - Post Event Summary’
Because your mobile is more important than your pinky
SIME together with tre (or 3, the telecom company) is organizing a mobile business round table (and what’s the spice without a hint of pint) tomorrow in Stockholm.
And it goes by the tag line “because your mobile is more important than your pinky” which is not just a random WTF statement, but rather a line that was made at SIME last year. During one of the panels, when the moderator of the day, Ola Ahlvarsson made a quick survey of the audience if they would trade their mobile for their pinky, there was a sizable number that were perfectly fine in losing their pinky in lieu of the mobile phone, and if that’s the market demographics your mobile business is targeting, you got some die hard users of the gadget.
Event information:
Date: Thursday October 7, 2009
Time: 1700 - 1900
Venue: O-Baren Restaurant, Stureplan, Stockholm
(View Map / Karta)
And the facebook event invite can be found here
So are you going to O-Baren to learn more about the mobile business? We think you should.
Welcome!
I had a chance to catch up with Sixto Arias, Co-founder of Movilisto, Founder of Mobile Marketing Association Spain and Managing Director of Mobext (Havas Digital) and it was quite enriching to see what he has to say on mobile internet and marketing. Excerpts from the quick informal chat:
- Mahesh (M): Hola Sixto. Thanks for the time. You are pioneering the mobile internet. What can we expect to see in the next 5 years?
- Sixto Arias (SA): As I see it, there are 3 important developments in the mobile field. 1. Everything is becoming finger / touch oriented. People want to touch since its more intuitive. The iPhone is leading the way, and all the phones in the future will have something taken from the iPhone’s model. 2. The Applications / Apps are the equivalent to the browser in the mobile world. 3. Obviously its the location that is going to make the phone world win. GPS, triangulation, they all would make the phone in your pocket become more powerful than you can imagine
- M: How about in the developing nations? Do you think they will surf the internet on the mobile first than on a PC ever?
- SA: Yes, truly. Mobile is getting ubiquitous and internet is going to become an extension of the phone. So in countries with infrastructure and cost barriers, adding the internet quotient achieves greater economies of scale than finding them laptops, finding internet connections etc.
- M: Do you think the companies today are using the mobile phone for business enough? As a tool to find more customers, and market new products and services?
- SA: No, not at all. People do not even think of the mobile as much as they think about the traditional TV ads. And they pay millions for something they cannot even measure the output. The web made it easier, but the mobile will make it more personal and relevant than the web, since its the most personal asset and location makes it even more a killer than the PC in the house.
- M: How do you think advertisements on the mobile will look like?
- SA: Its going to be a hybrid model. Apps will have small ad’s next to them / below them / above them etc. But interactive ads which are connected across platforms promoting cross platform interaction will emerge. So when you are watching that ad of BMW, you can also download a Java / AIR app to your phone and interact with it (press 5 for option 1 etc) making it more personal, tailor made. No clear model has been developed but interactivity and cross media platform seamless communication is going to be the key.
- M: Thank you so much for the time. Looking forward to your time tomorrow on stage.
- SA: Yes, the pleasure is mutual. Its been long since I went for a SIME (3 years I think), but I love the people, energy around the event. And Barcelona is going to be great. I go up on stage at around 11:20 to talk about mobile marketing, mobile internet - an extension to what we spoke today. So yes, thank you.
I felt quite good after the interview and I could totally relate to what he was saying. Mobile is truly a revolution in India with 350M mobile subscribers (7M new subscribers per month being added), and internet being accessed from the mobile (despite lack of good 3G, failure of iPhone and infrastructure issues) only increases by the day. And its awesome that he has some time on stage tomorrow.
