Mobile not Just the “next big thing”. It’s THE thing.
There’s a great article on mobile at REAL Business that evangelises mobile. Read it and you might have to go away and think up some new mobile ideas.
Here’s a summary…
- Dr Ray Anderson who started the mobile payments company Bango, claims the mobile phone isn’t just the “next big thing”. It’s THE thing. Bigger than computers. Bigger than the internet.
- Matthew Key, CEO of O2 claims that the ‘killer application’ is ‘mobility itself’.
- In 2004, UK mobile voice and data revenues (at £12.3 bn) overtook fixed-line voice revenues for the first time.
- At 63 million, there are now more mobiles than there are people in the UK
- The global market for mobile entertainment – music, games, gambling etc – alone will be worth $42.8 billion by 2010, says research house Informa.
However, there also some truths to balance this…
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The barriers to entry in mobile are higher than the internet.
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One of the main barriers to entry cited by mobile startups is the power yielded by the major operators.
In terms of new ideas, this sentense seems to sum things up…
"If you have the ability to scale quickly and get in before the competition there are great opportunities for big and small companies alike."
REAL Business have published a list of the top 50 most exciting and innovative mobile companies to watch out for. It’s worth a look. The company sizes and their applications are so diverse.
I believe this really is the start of a limited period of time for new companies to get into mobile. Any earlier and you are probably already starting to worry about funding. If you leave it much later, things will become more mature and it will harder to attract partners and customers.
Only just now, are the technologies really in place. Competition is about to reduce data costs. Fixed data tariffs are about to remove cost ambiguity. Network convergence is about to make things easier and encourage people to use their mobile as their one and only phone. Now’s the time to try out that new mobile idea!