Moderated by Staci Kramer, the next panel was all about mobile:
- Peter Adderton, CEO Amp’d Mobile
- Marco Boerries, SVP Yahoo!
- Shawn Conahan, CEO Intercasting
- Larry Shapiro, EVP, Walt Disney
- Cyriac Roeding, EVP, CBS Mobile
This was a very lively panel, but frankly, it was so representative of the state of the industry:
The only clear thing in wireless market is an utter lack of clarity by people working in the space. Don’t get me wrong, everyone is pretty smart and accomplished, but they have yet to agree on anything, let alone standards, we’re saying yet to agree on what is the optimal course of action, so while we like to believe that wireless entertainment will be a $78B they’re saying it will be.
Unlike all of the other posts, I won’t even try to polish my notes, and this post is far more stream of consciousness based on comments and what not. Cleaning it up means I am changing way too much from what was said, and that is not something I want to do.
Boerries: Expect Yahoo! to shift most of its communities and social networks onto mobile, the pace of this happening remains to be seen.
Adderton: social media on wireless is about giving consumers choice, but that is at odds with companies and their desire to boost their bottom line.
Boerries disagrees, stressing consumer experience and needs.
Is social media a buzzword? Yes, all members agree, but ultimately it involves with the commucation that spawns from content, and this is why wireless is naturally a fit for “social media.”
Evolution of wireless communication from mere text messages to more.
Adderton: Demographic, content, platform come together, give choice and enable it, don’t editorialize it. Carriers are a couple of years away from doing so.
Comcast: great presence leveraged to create own middle ground…
$1T buying and investing in networks, handsets => we don’t have the consumer in mind… we cannot create experiences… why would they use this device, if we don’t address consumer needs, we’ll spend another trillion in networks…
Adderton: Yahoo! is friend or foe?
Boerries: Yahoo! is a partner, we compete with some, and not with others.
Example of how carriers are midguided, the famous “Vote” that on wrong carrier does not even count… perfect example of backwardness of model.
Advertising value chain not defined…
Roeding: Most successful wireless application is CBS Sportsline, sports is perfect, since it’s about a lot of data interacting with community exchanges…
Mobile is a pipe that is individualized, cross platform is the holy grail: TV/mobile/internet… only medium you can carry with you is wireless.
Adderton: iPhone will change the landscape… it’s an MVNO, I had no clue what that was, if you’re like me, here you go. But iPhone will change the landscape, in terms of user experience, and create standard for carriers and other platforms.
As the exchange flowed back and forth, Adderton sort of joked: Content companies don’t advertise Amp’d deck…
Like I said, this was a free for all, and that’s a good thing. Look for the video when Paid Content publishes it, I suppose.
Some related posts on HipMojo.com:
- Wireless Entertainment and Mobile Advertising
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