The mobile communications industry will top 800 billion dollars in the next few years. This was asserted by Malcolm H. Ross, moderator of the iAnytimeAnywhere (iAA) e-mobile 2004 summit held last weekend in Gozo, and world renowned authority in the global telecommunications sector. Making an analogy between Mr Benz' invention of the horseless carriage and the new wireless technology, Mr Ross explained that the 1886 invention brought much more than a reduction in horse manure on the streets. It brought mobility, which in turn created suburbs, paved roads, oil and chemical industries, vacations, hotels and motels, and has gone on to become undisputedly the world's largest industry. The wireless e-mobile industry has the same potential to bring radical changes to the way people live.
The e-mobile 2004 Summit brought together a gathering of the world's most respected business and technical people from the telecommunications and Internet fields, who met specifically to discuss the outlook for this emerging trillion dollar hybrid market.
The wireless industry presents an area of huge opportunity that is so far untapped. However most present day mobile operators are in no position to take advantage of it. While they are prepared to pay thousands of dollars to buy customers, as for example, when Vodafone recently paid $7,800 per customer to buy out Mannesmann, they continue to lose 50% of their customers every 18 months. A few players, like Vodafone, Virgin Mobile, Sony, Panasonic, Deutsche Bank and Citibank have proven they have vision and understand the transformation process necessary, however most operators are still too focused on technology to be able to identify user value instinct.
This leaves a wide and profitable window wide open for service providers outside the telecom industry. A similar situation exists within the travel industry, where, for example, BA sells 10% of its own seat capacity, while American Express sells 12% of BA's seats. This means that not only does Amex know more about BA's customers, but they also sell seats for other airlines, know about hotels and other spending habits of the customer. There will be a similar fragmentation of the e-mobile industry, where service provision outside the telecom industry will become very profitable. The difference is all about understanding customer value; operators tend to focus purely on technology and income. It emerged clearly during the weekend that those players in the communications field with vision to develop the e-mobile commerce sector into a value-driven industry are the ones that will benefit most from the evolution of the future.
These were only some of the conclusions reached at last weekend's e-Mobile 2004 Summit held at the Mgarr Hotel in Gozo. Participants like Julie Meyer, co-founder of First Tuesday; Fabrizio Garelli, Francesco Caselli and Filippo Zanella, co-founders of 12Snap, Italy; Andrew Athanasopulos from MSI-UK and the leading world authority on mobile infrastructure; Trudy Shifter, partner in iGlobalpartners; Hannu Hiekkaranta, COO, and Joerg Wiemann, Partnership Manager, both from OpenMobile; James Clark, founder of The World Technology Network, and many others congregated to share their views and explore the fascinating topic of how to capture the money and the customers in this fast-moving challenging new market.
The E-Mobile 2004 summit addressed this question through a series of workshops and roundtable discussions led by moderator Malcolm Ross, Chief of iDeasTank, the leading e-mobile think-tank. Participants were welcomed to the island by iWORLD Group (iWG)'s CEO Andreas W Gerdes during a moonlit champagne party on the Bastions of the old Citadel in Victoria.
Later, Peter Feltham, consultant in area mobile applications and solutions from a technological perspective, gave an address highlighting the vast possibilities inherent in an e-mobile world; at the same time he also touched on the importance of respecting ethics and the social responsibilities implicit in this new evolution. Further speakers were Kumaram Singaram, Cisco Director of Service Providers Business Asia; and James Clark founder of the World Technology Network. An important and highly successful element of the weekend was the informal networking that counterbalanced the formal events. Participants were introduced to each other and the island of Gozo through a series of jeep safaris, speed boat rides, hiking, diving and tennis that all provided an informal yet valuable environment in which to discuss and debate the questions being posed.