Mobile Internet Conference, Berlin -Take 2

Random Friends vs Regular Buddies

A lot of talk about mobile communities on the second day of the conference, with emphasis on the importance of ‘random friends’ as well as regular friends in order to aid the process of discovery and also on how mobile web differs from standard web, in that it allows creation at the point of inspiration.

Growth Forecasts

Thomas Husson from Jupiter Research provided some interesting stats on mobile internet trends and forecasts, including that:

• 60% of users never browse the internet on the phone
• 59% of European mobile users want to access maps and local information on their phone
• Only 20% of European mobile customers have a 3G phone but over 50% are expected to have one by 2010
• 40% of European mobile users are expected to regularly access the mobile internet by 2012

· Also, Thomas made the interesting comparison of time spent by an average consumer on different media versus the ad spend on that media, noting how there was a big gap within newspaper (little time spent and high spend) and mobile (high time spent and low spend).

Mobile Advertising Priorities

Antoine Couret from Bouygues Telecom made a good point that what is free on the traditional web cannot be premium on mobile internet and he stated the 3 priorities advertisers currently have for mobile spend:

• Large, qualified audience
• Interactive media
• ‘Certified audiences’ -I think relating to the uni-personal nature of a mobile (as opposed to a PC which can have multiple users)

The Power of Recommendations

Jesus Pindado from Mystrands cam at things from a fresh perspective, emphasising both personal recommendations and 'attention' as key factors to keep in mind. He went to stress that 'attention data' (what the user is eyeballing and when) has real value and has to be protected accordingly in order to be monetized.

Other general comments about the usability of the mobile internet referred to how google can act as an effective icebreaker for users and how transaction-based services act as a deterrent (too complex on a small screen).

Mobile Internet Conference, Berlin -Initial Musings

'Hand'-set no more

One of the more interesting insights from Day 1 of the conference was the idea that mobile handsets are 'not just for the hand' -with new uses for mobile devices (Mobile TV to name but one)-creating new needs for handset manufacturers to consider within their product design...maybe the term 'handset' will eventually cease to be associated with mobile.

Device Connectivity

This links to an important discussion on Day 2 around the connectivity of devices -everyone agrees that all devices (cameras, gaming consoles etc) will feature connectivity in the near future, accessing whichever is the best Value-for-Money network available at any given time, whether Mobile, Wi-Fi etc.

Connection Cost

In a discussion around the barriers to stimulating growth in the mobile internet, the cost of data transfer came up time and again...various operators presented their vision on Day 2, outlining how flat rates was the way to go...with prices ranging from €10 to €30 a month for 'unlimited' data transfer...still, if we look at countries like Korea with a €4 monthly flat rate it would seem there is still some way to go in Europe...

Mobile Advertising Inventory

Antonio Vince Stabyl, CEO of Gofresh, made an excellent point about the sheer lack of mobile advertising inventory as a real barrier to getting ad agencies and their clients to pump more of their advertising dollars through the mobile medium...a clear business opportunity all but a few seem to be grasping

Social Networks and Stickiness

He also made a good point about the mobile phone address book being 'the' preferred social network for every user -again, not always exploited to its full potential. Through their itsmy.com portal, Antonio's company offers a range of UGC categorised into different channels and he noted that the key thing in creating a 'sticky' mobile community was the ease of uploading photos/video etc to the medium..make it difficult and you make it likely for members to shop around for an alternative.

Shozu -One to Watch #10

London-based Shozu has reason to be pleased with itself. Last year, it scooped a GSMA award for 'Most Innovative Mobile Application' and has since been somewhat of a benchmark when it comes to sharing and uploading content from mobile to web as well as share content purely with other mobile users.

Shozu also recently raised $12m in new venture financing (Series C funding) and is supporting the growth in partners and integrations with other social networking or multimedia sharing sites. The list of partner sites is long, from Picasa to Flickr, from YouTube to Seesmic and from Facebook to Blogger.

They also recently announced that they had struck up a deal with 3 for its one-click mobile-to-Web image uploading service for mobile phones to be amongst a handful of applications featured on 3neXt, a new mobile applications community website from mobile operator 3. The site is designed to aid consumers in finding innovative mobile lifestyle applications that fit 3's focus on mobilising the Internet, as reflected in 3's X-Series phones introduced last year.

ShoZu currently supports 250 Symbian, Java, Microsoft Windows Mobile-based and BREW devices available from multiple manufacturers. The ShoZu service can also be used with select WiFi-enabled mobile phones such as the Nokia N80 in Europe and Dash in the U.S., permitting multimedia files to be routed over users' home, office or WiFi connection (or AirPort connection for Mac users) rather than the cellular network to reduce data transport costs.

I'm looking forward to listening to and exchanging views on Shozu's future plans with its CEO, Mark Bole, who will be presenting next week at the Mobile Internet Conference in Berlin. I will, of course, keep readers posted on salient points of the presentation.