Stand outs from MWC – Mobile Execs speak

Another year of Mobile World Congress has come and gone. We asked a few mobile industry execs to give us their thoughts on what the stand outs were.

Mobile Wallet and Automated Tickets

The outstanding application for me at Mobile World Congress this year is using the phone as a mobile wallet and automated ticket. The marketing implications have already proven to be enormous for this application as millions of people in Asia are already using this on a daily basis.

Major uses of this technology mean that with just three clicks on your mobile phone you can select the train ticket you prefer. The amount is then debited automatically from your mobile wallet and then the ‘ticket’ is sent to the handset automatically but not as a barcode ticket but as an invisible transmitted wave. The user then simply has to waive the handset near to a reader similar to the Oyster card. This system can be used for purchasing cinema tickets, concert tickets, vending machine products, car parking, purchasing goods from retail stores, airline tickets and also for gym or loyalty card membership.

The beauty of this being done through your mobile phone is that you can check the status of any of your accounts at any time through access via the mobile internet. The only sad thing is that while this has been an established business in Japan and Korea for a number of years, in my opinion, the UK network operators (with the exception of O2) are being remarkably slothful.

Craig Massey – head of mobile marketing
Glass
http://www.glasspartnership.co.uk

Signal-to-noise ratio

After another successful Mobile World Congress my main remark would have to be that there appeared to be a better ‘signal-to-noise ratio.’ We also noticed a higher quality of attendees – those who were truly interested in the industry and the products and services accompanying it. This shows how the mobile world has matured from a business point of view.

There also wasn’t a great deal of innovation that actually stood out in my opinion. I didn’t spot any themes or revolutions in any of the usual areas (such as content, technological breakthroughs, handsets etc). It seems as if many are commoditising, even the iPhone is becoming mainstream on any device. I did notice higher interest in mobile advertising and one exception that attracted attention was the Modu launch and BD activity. It’s too early to say where this is heading though.

The trends we did pick up on focused on end users and what the industry predicts they want. This includes smart phones, navigation systems (GPS) and value added services. Tying into this is the ‘green’ movement, and how networks and products can and should be environmentally-friendly and conserve energy. This is something that will increasingly become important and a trend to watch, as pressure to conform rises.

Gadi Maoz, COO of EMEA, Comverse
www.comverse.com

PR Perspective

From a PR perspective there were just several stars in an otherwise ‘flat’ show. Firstly, Google’s Android managed to create some under current buzz. Rumours flew around the show floors of where it was being ‘let out’. From the manufacturers it was Sony Ericsson’s EXPERIA X1 which seemed to drive an excited media and a large amount of footfall to the SE booth……I wonder if any of the 100’s of reported robberies delivered an EXPERIA into the hands of a thief. The Zeemote JS1 mobile game controller generated some much needed positive news for the mobile games market and some good old PR cheese ensured that Modu Mobile raised some weary eyebrows

Andrew Durkin, MUSTARD PR
http://www.mustardpr.com

Mobile World Congress 2008 was a great success.

– A strong push by the industry towards LTE and next generation networks.
– Drive towards better Linux based mobile platforms with LIMO and OHA.
– Exciting new handset announcements from almost every manufacturer with greater use of touch screens and other user interfaces
– Integrated chipsets delivering functionality, speed and size improvements
– Massive increase in the number of applications being designed especially for mobile devices with strong focus on mapping and advertising

Tim Haysom, Chief Marketing Officer, OMTP
http://www.omtp.org