3 Main themes I detected at this years shindig in Barcelona

* Carrier Content dis-intermediation * UCG is Mobile King * Wimax train is coming

Carrier Content :

Everyone seems to be attempting to do an end run around the carriers for delivering content to the consumer.

Note,

Nokia - is really pushing forward with its direct Content Discovery Service. A number of people I met said Nokia were going to really push this direct content model this year - and embed the service in a large number of phones - games, TV, Music, Film - the lot. And, Nokia is aggressively hiring ex-carrier content people to this division. - watch this space.

Yahoo - launching is slick new Yahoo Go 2.0 . This is a very nice app for directly accessing Yahoo! content, bypassing the operators.

Warner Music - Edgar Bronfman Jr. gave a rousing speech about how crap operators were at delivering Music and providing for music discovery and strongly hinted that a better job could and will be done better by other people.

Microsoft - launched a whole dealio of mobile "live" stuff including a nifty Live Search client for your phone

Google: - has a mobile Google Maps app and a Gmail app ( gmail.com/app on your phone ) and no doubt a lot more to come

..and a ton more companies demoing direct to consumer apps and services.

The only downside of all this, is that unless you have a good data plan - the Data charges for using all these apps without the subsidy of an operator can be hefty. The big question is will the operators follow "3"'s lead and have unlimited or cheap data plans? If they do, and I suppose it will HAVE to happen eventually, then their role as intermediary content brokers becomes severely diminished, and that has huge implications for the current content selling models. Discuss.

* UCG is Mobile King

So, operators may be giving up on the established content partners and heading straight for the users. It seems that the content that users are most excited about on their phones is the stuff that they and their mates make themselves - UGC! Vodafone ( and its previous dealmakers like Verizon and Cingular ) seemed most excited about the the deals they have done with MySpace and YouTube - not about the content from Disney, Warners, Viacom et al. So, are the MySpace and YouTube monsters about to do to mobile content industry what they have ( and are ) doing to the Online Content Industry. Methinks yes. Early stories from Helio ( who were the first operator to have MySpace on phones ) indicate that the USERS cant get enough of this stuff and are prepared to pay for it or suffer ads for it.

* Wimax

..and then just as the sun is setting on 3G - 4G appears on the horizon. There is a lot of debate about what will be the 4th Generation Mobile Wireless Standard, but an early frontrunner is WIMAX ( the Hilary Clinton of 4G? )

Sprint and some cohorts and buddies had a massive stand at 3GSM ( soon to be 4GSM? ) touting WIMAX and boasting about its plans to roll it out across America. A lot of device people have jumped on board too including intel. They are talking about 2008/09 for roll outs to begin with end devices being available. Either way, be it Wimax or not, a 4G standard will happen. ( I remember in about 2002 saying that soon there will be "wifi hotspots" in locations around cities where you could access the Internet without wires - wow! - it took a while - maybe 2004/5 - but it did happen - thanks to the likes of Bitbuzz ). So I guess by 2010 - there will be the solid beginnings of a whole new wireless tech in place - once which has high speed data at its core and is much better designed for voice, comms and content delivery.

So, if you are doing a business plan that involves the next 3-5 years and involves mobile content , you may want to take out that large sales target for Cingular or Telefonica :-) 2:12:26 AM  comment []  

Now I can use on on my mac and can dispense with the old Dell!

I should have some more invites in the next few days/weeks - leave a comment to this post if you want one. 1:26:31 AM  comment []