Session Description: “Social media is changing the most social of devices, the mobile phone, at a time when more and more mobile devices aren’t just phones anymore. Just as PCs replaced minicomputers and laptops displaced desktops, we are seeing the beginning of handheld devices doing much of what full-fledged computers used to do. Handheld devices are the key to the next generation of social media; we’ll explore the ramifications of this switch.
Panelists:
Peter Adderton (Amp’d Mobile)
Marco Boerries (Yahoo)
Shawn Conahan (Intercasting)
Larry Shapiro (Walt Disney)
Cyriac Roeding (CBS Mobile)
Liveblogging:
Shapiro: The integration across multiple modes (mobile, online, etc.) is inevitable.
Conahan: A company like Sprint is competitive with MySpace. People will stop using Sprint’s PIM (personal information manager…buddy list, contacts, etc.) and use MySpace as their list. Then, that customer will use LNP (local number portability) to jump to a competitor.
Adderton: The carriers are just a few years away from realizing that all they have is a dumb pipe for providers like Yahoo.
Shapiro: The carriers could, if they act correctly, occupy a middle ground between being a dumb pipe and providing content. They could provide value added services.
Boerries: If we cannot create experiences for the consumer that makes the consumer use this (holds up phone) device multiple times a day…then we don’t create consumer value.
Rafat: Why do exclusive deals? Why should a consumer care how much Cingular or Yahoo has invested? What’s the value, long-term?
(Asks for show of hands in the room of about 200+ people who has ever switched their carrier as a result of exclusive content. One hand went up.)
Audience: What are some examples of successful mobile-phone based social network apps (from both from a UI as well as a revenue perspective)?
Roeding: We have a fantasy sports app. It’s about a lot of data, it’s about smack talk, and the only medium you carry with you is your cell phone. The combination of TV and mobile is very interested. 52% of to 64% of people have their phones with them when they watch TV. Cross-platform (TV/mobile/internet) are going to be very interesting.
Audience: The iPhone will let people browse .com not .mobi, what does it mean?
Boerries: The iPhone will change the mobile landscape, they will set a new standard for user experience. The only time you’ll see “Cingular” is when you’re connected to the Cingular network.
While I don’t usually argue with an entire audience, the comment / question from “Audience” that was “The iPhone will let people browse .com not .mobi, what does it mean?” surprised me a bit. The .mobi domain is as much about the context of mobility as it is about the technical aspects of a site. But dotMobi’s VP of Technology, James Pearce, wrote about this much more eloquently than I can on our blog at http://dotmobi.typepad.com/dotmobi/2007/01/what_does_the_i.html.