Biomimic Marketing

The new trend in Marketing. Getting a touch of nature into your technology products. Imitate and mime biological structures, gestures and movements and merge it with the latest 3D animation methodoligies - The Result: “Biomimic Marketing”.

Biomimic Marketing in Action - Watch this example from AT&T:

1stAveMachine-CelebrateSpring from MotiongraphicLAB on Vimeo.

Another example of Biomimic Marketing is BMW’s Concept Car “Gina”:

Global Internet Users

Globally there are almost 1.6 billion Internet users, half of them from Asia – 738 million users. Most of the asian internet users are from China.
Note: Compare 1.6 billion to over 4 billion mobile phone subscribers globally - who will win?

Apple is Re-Thinking Mobile Advertising

Apple is entering the mobile advertising business and aims at high emotional and interactive ads. Here is a great example of an iAd of Toy Story. After a click on the small banner within an iPhone App you won’t leave the app directing you to a website. The user experiences a smooth change to a branded environment, the iAd. It opens like a regular app, but due to the new multitasking you can still keep the other app open.

The Toy Story iAd then shows an overview with several options and buttons. One option is to watch a few in-ad videos, play in-ad games or open the in-ad shop and buy the product right away. This might redefine mobile advertising and opens completely new ways to market products on a mobile devices.

Understanding the “Mobile First” Strategy of Google

During the Abu Dhabi Media Summit 2010 Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google Inc. hold a keynote and talked about the key strategy of Google “Mobile First”.

Here are some of his key statements during his speech:
United Arab Emirates & the middle east is the region with the fastest growing internet penetration with our 100% per year. One third of the population is under the age of 14 years, so five years from now they will play a major role for the digital industry.

When Google recently launched new social products the most relevant and interesting elements and features were on the mobile version. Our smartest engineers, who are building our applications, are starting with the mobile part of the application rather than the desktop part. Google calls this trend “Mobile First”. That’s a huge shift for our generation, executives and corporations.

Mobile Web adoption is growing eight times faster then the adoption of the desktop internet ten years ago. So it is not even bigger, the change is even quicker. There are more smartphones right now than there are personal computers. Half of the internet connection are on mobile devices. And in many countries Mobile is the primary way to access Google, e.g. Indonesia, South Africa and Nigeria.

Hans Vestberg about the future of connected devices

At the inaugural Abu Dhabi Media Summit 2010 I met Hans Vestberg, President and CEO or Ericsson. He gave a speech about the future of mobile media and communication and gave an outlook of key trends.

The biggest opportunity field for Ericsson is the business of “connected devices” or how we would call it “the internet of things”. “We think that the networks are now developing. Our vision for 2020 is that there will be over 50 billion networked devices”, says Hans Vestberg during my interview with him.

The Healthcare, Energy, Logistics and Media Industry will be using connected devices soon. Chipsets are getting more and more affordable to be implemented in any device. Mobile phones won’t be the only devices with a sim card anymore.

Vestberg says that we are moving from “People to People” communication to a new era of “machine to people” and “machine to machine” communication.

See the full interview here:

About Hans Vestberg:
Hans Vestberg has been President and CEO since January 1, 2010.

Mr. Vestberg had been Chief Financial Officer from October 25, 2007, until the end of 2009. He was named Executive Vice President in 2005 while serving as head of Business Unit Global Services, an office he held since 2003.

From 2002 to 2003 he served as President of Ericsson in Mexico. Between 2000 and 2002, Mr. Vestberg was CFO for Ericsson in North America and Ericsson’s controller for the Americas. Between 1998 and 2000, he was CFO of Ericsson in Brazil. Since joining Ericsson in 1991, Mr. Vestberg has also held various managerial positions in China, Sweden, Chile and Brazil.

Hans Vestberg was born in Hudiksvall, Sweden. He earned a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the University of Uppsala, Sweden, in 1991.

Review Mobile World Congress 2010

The GSMA today reported that more than 49,000 visitors (I was one of them :-)) from 200 countries attended the 2010 GSMA Mobile World Congresss, the premier event for the mobile communications industry. The four-day conference and exhibition attracted executives from the world’s largest and most influential mobile operators, software companies, equipment providers, Internet companies and media and entertainment organisations, as well as government delegations. 54 per cent of Mobile World Congress attendees hold C-level positions, including more than 2,800 CEOs.

Here are my highlights in pictures:

“It’s a hugely exciting time to be in the mobile communications industry and the extremely strong attendance at the 2010 Mobile World Congress underscores that,” said John Hoffman, CEO, GSMA Limited. “The innovation that is the hallmark of our industry was on display front and centre this week, from the insightful presentations in our conference programme to the demonstrations of new devices, technologies and services in the exhibition halls. Once again, Mobile World Congress stands out as the must-attend event for the global communications industry.”

During the event, leaders from companies including Alcatel-Lucent, BBC, Bharti Airtel, China Unicom, Ericsson, Huawei, KDDI, RIM, Samsung, Spotify, Telstra and Vodafone, among others, discussed and debated the trends and issues which are shaping the mobile industry today and into the future. In a Mobile World Congress first, Google Chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt delivered a Mobile World Live keynote to a standing-room only crowd in Barcelona; the session has also been viewed by more than 35,000 people to date via the Mobile World Live portal. To access the replay of the Mobile World Live keynote, as well as interviews with the industry’s leading executives, please visit www.mobileworldlive.com.

More than 20,000 people visited the inaugural App Planet, a focused event designed to bring together the many critical elements of the broad mobile application ecosystem together in one location. Google, Motorola, RIM, Sony Ericsson, Vodafone and WIPJam each held application developer conferences (ADC) within App Planet. Overall, more than 6,000 developers attended Mobile World Congress this year.

Speech at M-Days 2010

M-Days is the biggest Mobile Media Conference in germany and one of the most relevant in Europe. I will be hold a keynote and present a few insights from the open think tank focusing on the future of Mobile Media Mocom2020.com as well as from my book “Mobile Future @mocom2020“.

The topic of my session at M-Days is called: “Mobile Trends 2020, Mobile Commerce and App-Video-TV. What comes next in Europe?”

From the M-Day programme:
Mobile Trends 2020, Mobile Commerce and App-Video-TV. What comes next in Europe?

The Google/Admob acquisition sends out a clear signal to the market: mobile is different and mobile is hot. The advance of touchscreen devices, app stores and new advertising approaches/formats are all coming together in a new kind of interactive mobile internet, a brave new place where new content, new experiences and even new mobile search services will set the bar. Mobile Trends 2020, Mobile Commerce, Mobile Video and TV.

• Overview of the mobile trends 2020 and key-apps
• Overview of mobile commerce of today - applications and options that drive ARPU, customer acquisition and retention
• Paying for content - why now and why not?
• Implementation and integration - an overview on the implementation of a full service mobile commerce solution - the lessons learnt and shared
• Overview of the mobile TV and video landscape of today
• Content: Why is Disney channel the most popular channel on mobile TV in Europe? And why are CNN so small compared to BBC? Viewing behaviour on mobile TV differs from normal TV.
• The power of the iPhone in driving creation and consumption of video and mobile TV services via mobile

Speakers include:

Mocom 2020 - The next ten years! Key trends for Mobile Media and Communication
Ahead of Time, Monty C. M. Metzger, Managing Director/Trendscout

MOBILE COMMERCE ? CHANGING THE RULES
Service2Media- mobile innovation company Netherland, Peter Broekroelofs, CTO

M-App: iPhone Puts Mobile TV In The Picture
Rubberduck Media Lab AS, Ola Svartberg, CEO
Karin Du Rietz, pertains top 50 Women in mobile content

Heroes of the mobile screen and mobile search analytic
Moderation: MSearchGroove, Peggy Anne Salz, Founder and Chief Anaylst

Interview: Monty Metzger about the “mobile media” think tank Mocom2020

I presented the book “Mobile Future @mocom2020″ at the Mobile Media World 2009 in Toronto. Here is a video interview filmed by Bnet.tv

Social and Mobile Media in Numbers

Making of Mocom2020

Get some insights and background information about the open think tank about mobile media and communication.

Lauri Hirvonen talks about history & future of dotMobi

Interview with Lauri Hirvonen, Senior Business Development Manager at NOKIA and founding member of dotMobi. He talks about the history, present and future of dotMobi at the mobileinnovationweek.com in Toronto.

Dom Sagolla to publish a book about Twitter

Dom Sagolla was one of the first emloyees at Twitter and is now publishing a book about the micro-blogging service, called 140 Characters: A Style Guide for the Short Form

Dom writes about the definitive history of Twitter, from an insider’s point of view, about the new grammar rules for short-form writing, and a catalog of writing styles and includes inspiring quotations from comedy to poetry from some of the best writers.

Here is a Video Interview I recorded at the Mobile Innovation Week in Toronto.

Speaking at Mobile Media World in Toronto

I will be speaking at Mobile Media World 2009 in Toronto next week. The event is part of the Mobile Innovation Week and features a selection of the leading experts in the mobile and telecommunication industry.

I will be speaking about key trends for the next decade of mobile media and will presented my latest publication
Mobile Future @mocom2020: A collaborative vision of the future of Mobile Media and Communication

How Nokia will impact the Computer Business

The consumer electronic market is changing rapidly, key-players are changing their positions and trying to catch the consumer in their digital life. Mobile Phone Manufacturer and Computer Companies are getting closer and closer. The new niche of Netbooks already became a big boom, documented by my friend Sascha on NetbookNews.de (Netbooknews.com).

Since a few years computer manufacture offer notebooks and laptops with integrated 3G Sim cards sometimes in combination with data-plans by a mobile network provider. Netbooks are low-cost laptops optimised for surfing the Internet and performing other basic functions. Pioneered by Asustek with the hit Eee PC in 2007, netbooks have since been rolled out by other brands such as HP and Dell.

But also the smartphones become more and more powerful and merge into small “mini computers”. So the gap between a PC and a mobile phone is almost disappearing and the fight for this market between the industry leaders has started.

Nokia just annouced its first laptop computer, Nokia Booklet 3G.

Nokia’s Executive Vice President for Devices, Kai Oistamo, summed it up simply as follows:
“A growing number of people want the computing power of a PC with the full benefits of mobility. We are in the business of connecting people and the Nokia Booklet 3G is a natural evolution for us. Nokia has a long and rich heritage in mobility and with the outstanding battery life, premium design and all day, always on connectivity, we will create something quite compelling. In doing so we will make the personal computer more social, more helpful and more personal.”

Nokia’s first netbook will use Microsoft’s Windows software and Intel’s Atom processor to offer up to 12 hours of battery life while weighing 1.25 kilograms. Research firm IDC expects netbook shipments this year to grow more than 127 percent from 2008 to over 26 million units, outperforming the overall PC market that is expected to remain flat and a phone market which is shrinking some 10 percent.

“Nokia will be hoping that its brand and knowledge of cellular channels will play to its strengths as it addresses this crowded, cut-throat segment,” said Ben Wood, director of research at CCS Insight. “At present we see Nokia’s foray into the netbook market as a niche exercise in the context of its broader business.” Nokia’s choice of Windows software surprised some analysts who had expected the company to use Linux in its first laptop.

Mobile Innovation Week 2009

The Mobile Innovation Week 2009 is a combination of a grassroot developer event as well as an executive management event, called the Mobile Media World. In the following interview with Michael J. O’Farrell, he explains the concept and the basic idea behind this event.

Links:
wwww.mobileinnovationweek.com and www.mobilemediaworld.com.

The Status of the Mobile Web with Michael J. O’Farrel

I met Michael J. O’Farrel for an interview about the Status of the Mobile Internet in Toronto, Canada.

Michael is Chief Marketing Officer at Zameen Group and Vice Chairman of ooober; as well as a strategic advisor to mobigenics, Graham Sanborn Media and The Centre for Creative Communications at Centennial College. He is Chair of the dotMobi Advisory Group and co-author of the Wiley publication Mobile Internet for Dummies.
Michael is also Advirsor to the @mocom2020 Projekt:
http://www.mocom2020.com/authors-contributors/

MOCOM 2020 - Future Vision Video

Today Christian Magel and Monty Metzger have presented the Video of key results of the MOCOM 2020 project at Next’09.

Launch of the new Opera Mobile Browser 9.7 at CTIA Wireless 2009

At next week’s CTIA Wireless Show, Opera Software will be announcing the new Opera Mobile 9.7 server-accelerated browser for smartphones and mobile devices. Opera Mobile 9.7 features Opera Turbo, Opera’s breakthrough compression technology, along with the company’s latest Presto 2.2 rendering engine (also used in Opera 10 desktop) and full support for dynamic Web technologies such as Ajax and Flash (for accessing popular sites like Facebook and YouTube).

In today’s tough business climate where customer expectations are ever-increasing, Opera Mobile 9.7 with Opera Turbo can help carriers reduce network congestion while helping mobile device manufacturers bring increased speed and a more rich Web browsing experience to their customer and users.

For carriers specifically, Opera Mobile 9.7 with Opera Turbo provides a more consistent and compelling full Internet experience by compressing data up to 80%, thus reducing unwanted traffic and congestion and allowing users to access the Web regardless of network limitations.

For mobile device manufacturers, Opera Mobile 9.7 with Opera Turbo can make for a faster, more rich browsing experience by leveraging current device capabilities and utilizing hardware resources more effectively. Opera Turbo offloads Web page rendering to Opera servers freeing up device resources. Even devices with limited hardware capabilities show improved page download rates and better overall performance.

“Today, carriers and mobile device manufacturers alike are looking for solutions that take advantage of existing technologies and investments while trying to maintain a high level of service for their customers,” explains Rod Hamlin, Senior Vice President for the Americas for Opera Software. “Opera Mobile 9.7 with Opera Turbo gives our business customers to ability to bring a rich Internet browsing experience to their mobile device and to the end-user without having to allocate new resources and development costs.”

Opera Mobile 9.7 with Opera Turbo also features better standards support (100% Acid 3 test) and developer tools, hardware acceleration Open GL ES, and support for Google Gears.

To learn more, check out the Opera Mobile 9.7 with Opera Turbo demo video:
http://www.opera.com/discover/video/mobileturbo/

NTT Docomo: Mobile payment with a NFC enabled mobile phone

Pictures from the Mobile World Congress (MWC09)

Here are some of my pictures from the Mobile World Congress (MWC09).