As we signposted a few weeks back, trade show season in the wireless biz is really starting to crank; here at iSkoot, we’re prepping to pack up and ship out yet another iSkoot executive to get in the mix and spread iSkoot’s unique brand of wireless wisdom.
iSkoot Senior Director of Marketing Jake Martin heads to the VON Conference and Expo in South Beach, Florida this Wednesday to participate in a panel entitled Smartphones on Steroids: Netbooks and the Next Device Wave. The panel kicks off at 10am EST (that’s this Wednesday, Sept 23) and promises to deliver a full 50 minutes of industry expertise on smartphones, laptops and how the marriage of the two is changing consumer/provider experience.
The official blurb from VON:
“As mobile phones get smarter — with multicore processors, larger screens and improved graphics — laptops are getting thinner, becoming hyper-connected “netbooks.” This convergence is shifting the way people compute and connect - and the way service providers relate to their customers and generate revenue. This session will explore the effects of the smartphone/netbook convergence on service providers’ business models, network planning and marketing.”
The discussion promises to be an interesting one, and if Jake’s past speaking record is any indication, audiences can look forward to a pretty rollicking good time.
It’s a common tale. You’re standing on the subway, juggling the coffee and the morning paper en route to work when, suddenly, he appears - the iPhone guy. Swiping his e-copy of today’s New York Times, smirking at his coworker’s latest Facebook status update. You eye your humble flip phone. Feeling a little inadequate? Fret not, frugal phone user - When iSkoot CEO Mark Jacobstein sees your inexpensive feature phone, he sees big potential.
Mark’s shared his thoughts on the subject this week as a guest blogger in Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech blog. His post “Every Phone A Smartphone” points out that while the high-end smartphone market share might be growing, advances in mobile computing - the magic that happens remotely to power cool functionality on everyday phones - are getting more and more sophisticated by the day.
According to Mark:
“Remote data centers can better manage the applications, information, and rote data crunching that smart devices require. All we’ll need is a basic Internet connection and data can be passed back and forth from the phone to the data center in near real-time, without having to bog our devices down with heavy applications and software.”
Think about the way you use your computer these days, Mark suggests to illustrate the shift. Much in the way PCs have become “terminals for accessing to Internet-based content and applications, mobile handsets will need less and less onboard capability to do the things that make them ’smart.’”
He concludes that with remote mobile computing evolving to power slimmer, smarter mobile apps, nearly any phone that can connect to the Internet can “deliver an experience that rivals today’s smart phones at a fraction of the build and materials cost.”
To read Mark’s full blog post, click here - and say goodbye to your iPhone envy.
Conference season is heating up, and iSkoot CEO Mark Jacobstein has gotten himself into the mix once again!
Tomorrow, that’s Thursday September 10, Mark is headed bright and early to kick things off at GigaOm’s Mobilize 2009 conference at the Mission Bay Center in San Francisco. His is the first panel of the show, a 40-minute examiniation how to company’s can turn mobile apps into a profitable business.
“Monetizing Mobile Apps” starts at 8:25am tomorrow; joining Mark will be Dorian Porter, CEO of Mozes, Zannel CEO Adam Zbar, Plusmo CEO Krishna Vedati and Flirtomatic CEO Mark Curtis. Raven Zachary, President of Small Society, will be moderating the panel.
Tickets are sold out, but for those of you who jumped on the wagon early, come check out the panel! For more details on Mobile 2009 speakers and tomorrow’s schedule of events, check out the Mobile website: http://events.gigaom.com/mobilize/09/schedule/
