Mobile Thought Leaders Debate Canada’s Position in Mobile Leadership
Think beyond Canada may well have been the over-arching theme that came out of the panel discussion Monday night. Titled Canadian Leadership in Mobile and Communications, three panelists and one moderator held the interest of the 200+ attendees for MobileMonday – Toronto’s October meeting.
With Randall Howard, from Verdexus Capital, as the moderator, panelists included Robert Ferchat, former CEO and Chairman of Bell Mobility, Karna Gupta, former CEO of Certicom and Steven Woods, Site Director, Google Canada, discussing and mostly agreeing on the state of Canadian mobile, what they see as the future and where (they think) the money is.
State of Canadian Mobile
The discussion opened on the subject of Nortel and RIM. Several minutes were spent paying tribute to these two shining examples of Canadian leadership and innovation past and present. The conversation then turned to the high rates we pay in Canada for mobile service. Knowing this, what can we do – where is the next opportunity?
The future
Robert Ferchat reminded the audience that everything happens in multiple dimensions and suggested we back up and see what is going on at 50,000 feet, then at a strategic level, then at the human level. How do you make things happen? Mobile is growing up and will grow with Internet speed and reach.
Don't reinvent. Take an idea where others left off. Partner. Combine an invention you see that exists now in a different way to make something new and better. Look globally.
Hot area for the future: Make your creation technology agnostic – the consumer doesn't care about the technology, they just want to access the information.
Karna Gupta sees the future in applications. He advised developers to be aware of app clutter – what is really of value? How does the user know what is useful? Quoting that only 30% of smart phone users download apps, why are the remaining 70% not doing the same? Free yourself from the blinders of only looking locally. Look globally to see what other countries need, and build it. To be good in Canada is not enough.
Further – be efficient. Write once and deploy to many other systems/platforms.
Hot area for the future: 1) Location-based services that are context sensitive. 2) Financial - electronic wallet. Transactions. 3) Healthcare (not just for healthcare professionals) – the public want to see/have copies of their scans/x-rays, for example.
Steven Woods stated that there will be one Internet. Not the Internet and the mobile Internet, one Internet. Canadians are highly engaged on the web, connected and social. Find a way to make that same experience happen in mobile. Make it easy.
With the new carrier entrants into the Canadian market, you won’t recognize the mobile landscape in this country in 5 years. Hot area for the future: 1) Cloud services. 2) Web-based mobile applications. 3) Google Web Toolkit (GWT).
Show me the money
At one point Randall Howard wondered aloud who in the audience worked for a start-up. About 50% of the room raised their hands. Beyond the excitement and experience, many are working towards a big pay off financially. The panel weighed-in on where they think the money is in mobile:
1. Re-occurring revenue streams – the monthly fee a subscriber pays for your service.
2. Secure mobile (financial) transactions.
For an in-depth look at the event, please view the video of this presentation, including audience
Q & A, available on the MobileMonday Toronto website. www.mobilemondaytoronto.com/media
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