On the final day of the CTIA Wireless I.T. and Entertainment show (10/09/09), the morning keynote session was replaced by the 1st CTIA "Fundfest". This event provided an opportunity for founders of five startups in the wireless space to give a short presentation of their business plan to a panel of 3 judges:
As founder Chander Chawla said during his presentation, this really is not a guy thing. Teenage girls? Maybe. Users send UPC bar code ID numbers via to Facebook via SMS so that their friends can comment, compare prices, etc.
I just didn't see this as a very attractive business model. Sure, I can see advertisers and merchants buying into the idea of turning shoppers into an ad hoc advertising network. But isn't shopping one activity that the target demographic actually still likes to do socially in real life? Not that I go to malls very often, but when I have there were always groups of teenage girls together. The idea of those girls entering bar codes seems to very unlikely to me, but as I said at the time.. I am far from the target demo.
So, as to one of the tweet questions I received: "Who was most likely to gain actual customers?"... my answer for Mjedi is I don't think so.
ParkVu's 1st mistake was to have co-presenters. This is always unwieldy, and that was even more true in the short time allowed for each pitch at FundFest. The 2nd mistake was starting off with too much hype, with the problem statement "wouldn't you like to take ALL your media with you"? My answer? Umm.. no... why would I want to do that? I have enough of a problem sorting through all the gigabytes of photos, music, video, etc. at home.
In any case, regardless of the hype, the product that has actually been developed is limited to transferring contents of a user's iTunes library to a Blackberry's flash memory card. Perhaps I'm missing something here, but Blackberry already has such a function: BlackBerry Media Sync. The judges also raised all the appropriate issues; such as DRM compliance, and storage capacity requirements. My conclusion on ParkVu was nothing new here, and too much competition from the major stakeholders already.
Issues were raised regarding the add-on charge to merchants, who already pay a percent of each credit card transaction to issuing banks. Andy Seybold pointed out that some banks are adding free mobile payment to their merchant clients. Nevertheless, the technology that Billing Revolution developed could form the basis of such a service, providing a possible exit strategy.
To me, this type of application could have significant upside potential, considering (for example) the latest hi-tech features being incorporated in stadiums - such as the new billlion dollar Dallas Cowboy's stadium that Jerry Jones has built. The key is to convince venue owners and concessionaires that it is worth paying for. As a pure advertising channel, the value would be marginal. (There's already plenty of that in all over most arenas). But, with an integrated payment mechanism, it woul be more valuable. Maybe Chyngle should get together with Billing Revolution!
To answer @statfame on Twitter, yes... I can definitely see people using it, but no I don't think they have any real customers yet. I know I would use it! If you're a sports fan, you know what a pain it can be to walk the stadium corridor to find the concession stand that has the food item you are looking for. Providing real time information feeds from the game would be interesting to many sports fans.
Would fans buy more with the app? Maybe. Imagine getting a special on beer delivered to your seat because you responded to an offer on your iPhone. Save the trip for you, save time for the guy hawking the beer... Lots of other ideas come to mind. That's why Chyngle was my choice. But they need to win a major deal with a pro sports franchise, or preferably a league.
Besides competition, the other negative (as with all healthcare-related products), is the time-to-market delay for obtaining FDA approval. On Twitter, @nbk1 asked about Telcare's proposed differentiation over iPhone medical apps:
-Mike
follow me on Twitter
- Rory Moore, CommNexus San Diego CEO
- Andy Seybold, Andrew Seybold, Inc. CEO and Principal Consultant
- Quinn Li, Qualcomm Ventures Managing Director
- #ctia small crowd for Fri keynotes on new companies
- #ctia 5 startups presenting their biz plans
- #ctia 1st up: Mjedi (em Jedi) social net for commerce
- #ctia Mjedi: idea to create 'pull' of consumers. Target teens & women, because they like to talk about shopping. LOL. Facebook for the mall.
- #ctia Mjedi wants to use shoppers to create ads for their social networks. Good way to lose friend in my opinion, but I'm not target demo
As founder Chander Chawla said during his presentation, this really is not a guy thing. Teenage girls? Maybe. Users send UPC bar code ID numbers via to Facebook via SMS so that their friends can comment, compare prices, etc.
I just didn't see this as a very attractive business model. Sure, I can see advertisers and merchants buying into the idea of turning shoppers into an ad hoc advertising network. But isn't shopping one activity that the target demographic actually still likes to do socially in real life? Not that I go to malls very often, but when I have there were always groups of teenage girls together. The idea of those girls entering bar codes seems to very unlikely to me, but as I said at the time.. I am far from the target demo.
So, as to one of the tweet questions I received: "Who was most likely to gain actual customers?"... my answer for Mjedi is I don't think so.
- #ctia next up ParkVu: take all your media with you. I was hoping it would help me find a parking spot!
- #ctia ParkVu: huh? How much storage in smartphones vs desktop?
- #ctia ParkVu Bold, Storm, Curve app to xfer iTunes media to Blackberry
- #ctia ParkVu: "all" media apparently means music. Who wants a replacement for iTunes?
- #ctia ParkVu storage is on SD cards and in the cloud.
ParkVu's 1st mistake was to have co-presenters. This is always unwieldy, and that was even more true in the short time allowed for each pitch at FundFest. The 2nd mistake was starting off with too much hype, with the problem statement "wouldn't you like to take ALL your media with you"? My answer? Umm.. no... why would I want to do that? I have enough of a problem sorting through all the gigabytes of photos, music, video, etc. at home.
In any case, regardless of the hype, the product that has actually been developed is limited to transferring contents of a user's iTunes library to a Blackberry's flash memory card. Perhaps I'm missing something here, but Blackberry already has such a function: BlackBerry Media Sync. The judges also raised all the appropriate issues; such as DRM compliance, and storage capacity requirements. My conclusion on ParkVu was nothing new here, and too much competition from the major stakeholders already.
- #ctia 3rd up Billing Revolution. Enables credit card transactions from handsets. Order a pizza on the go.
- #ctia Billing Revolution. Clearly most viable biz. Overlay on merchants mobile site
- #ctia Billing Revolution: using SMS to send purchase codes. Charge merchants 50 cents per + monthly cost
- #ctia Billing Revolution: has 100+ merchants. Challenge is getting merchants to understand mobile. Seybold sees banks competing.
Issues were raised regarding the add-on charge to merchants, who already pay a percent of each credit card transaction to issuing banks. Andy Seybold pointed out that some banks are adding free mobile payment to their merchant clients. Nevertheless, the technology that Billing Revolution developed could form the basis of such a service, providing a possible exit strategy.
- #ctia Chyngle: mobile apps for use in sports venues. LBS based on stadium or arena. Mobile scalping app?
- #ctia Chyngle: For team owners- sell products & services to fans through handset.
- #ctia Chyngle: goal to enhance customer experience at a venue. Add to revenue? Will spectators buy more on handset?
- #ctia Chyngle: can add public safety & security features. Good idea. Maybe I would risk going into Raider nation ;)
- #ctia Chyngle is my pick of best business potential. A league/venue contract would be big. Targeting NFL
To me, this type of application could have significant upside potential, considering (for example) the latest hi-tech features being incorporated in stadiums - such as the new billlion dollar Dallas Cowboy's stadium that Jerry Jones has built. The key is to convince venue owners and concessionaires that it is worth paying for. As a pure advertising channel, the value would be marginal. (There's already plenty of that in all over most arenas). But, with an integrated payment mechanism, it woul be more valuable. Maybe Chyngle should get together with Billing Revolution!
To answer @statfame on Twitter, yes... I can definitely see people using it, but no I don't think they have any real customers yet. I know I would use it! If you're a sports fan, you know what a pain it can be to walk the stadium corridor to find the concession stand that has the food item you are looking for. Providing real time information feeds from the game would be interesting to many sports fans.
Would fans buy more with the app? Maybe. Imagine getting a special on beer delivered to your seat because you responded to an offer on your iPhone. Save the trip for you, save time for the guy hawking the beer... Lots of other ideas come to mind. That's why Chyngle was my choice. But they need to win a major deal with a pro sports franchise, or preferably a league.
- #ctia last up Telcare: medical monitoring. M2M glucose metering. Target diabetes- fastest growing disease in U.S.?
- #ctia Telcare M2M phone & carrier independent. Mirror data to caregiver cell phone.
- #ctia Telcare not a 'sexy' app, but very practical & useful. Also looking at other conditions: asthma, heart disease...
- #ctia Telcare vs competition: advantage in M2M device instead of a phone app. Patient replaces glucose strips, privacy must be addressed.
- #ctia Telcare requires FDA approval as Class-2 device. Founder very experienced in process. Differentiation in state-of-art mpu, accuracy
- #ctia Telcare will require 1 year to U.S. Approval
Besides competition, the other negative (as with all healthcare-related products), is the time-to-market delay for obtaining FDA approval. On Twitter, @nbk1 asked about Telcare's proposed differentiation over iPhone medical apps:
"Why is there an advantage in extra m2m device re: privacy when at same time data is mirrored to caregiver cell?"This may appear to be somewhat of a contradiction, but I think the point was the ease-of-use for the patient - especially in health care for the elderly. I would agree that a dedicated device would be much easier to use for many patients, who would also would be much less likely to be users of smartphones. Security and confidentiality of medical data needs to be addressed in either case.
- #ctia Judges also chose Chyngle. I agree. People's choice - Telcare. Definitely best 2. Faster TTR for Chyngle
-Mike
follow me on Twitter
Perhaps you've heard of the notion of "lifecasting"... basically recording one's life digitally, possibly for broadcasting on the internet. (Or.. perhaps just as an extreme example of self-indulgent obsessive behavior?)
In any case, that's not what I have in mind here. But I was wondering what it would look like to connect my stream of messages from a particularly busy day of tweeting activity. That is exactly what one would see if they were following my Twitter RSS feed. It's not a way I have ever looked at my tweets before, but perhaps the way some of my followers do.
Would a collection of micro-blogs from one event make up a coherent blog? Now that I compiled the list, I have to say emphatically NO. But, if nothing else, maybe this would be a good way for me to aggregate my notes to expand on later. Otherwise, there is way to much to remember.
Worst case, it's a completely random and incoherent stream of consciousness. I'll leave that up to you.
In any case, that's not what I have in mind here. But I was wondering what it would look like to connect my stream of messages from a particularly busy day of tweeting activity. That is exactly what one would see if they were following my Twitter RSS feed. It's not a way I have ever looked at my tweets before, but perhaps the way some of my followers do.
Would a collection of micro-blogs from one event make up a coherent blog? Now that I compiled the list, I have to say emphatically NO. But, if nothing else, maybe this would be a good way for me to aggregate my notes to expand on later. Otherwise, there is way to much to remember.
Worst case, it's a completely random and incoherent stream of consciousness. I'll leave that up to you.
- at the San Diego Convention Center for keynotes to start #CTIA Wireless. Should be interesting to hear what the @FCC chairman has to say
- #ctia FCC chairman commends ATT for VOIP announcement
- #ctia FCC chair mobile central to their mission. Wants to release more spectrum. Recognize diff fixed & mobile
- #ctia FCC chairman uses iPhone star finder app
- #ctia FCC chairman. #4G will make the difference. Notes Clearwire, Verizon
- #ctia FCC mobile broadband agenda. 1st - release spectrum. It is a looming crisis
- #ctia FCC chairman we will need "a lot" more spectrum
- #ctia FCC chairman. Incentivize deployment of next gen technology
- #ctia FCC chairman - must redeploy spectrum. "no easy pickings"
- #ctia FCC to remove obstacles for #4G re: tower siting
- #ctia FCC chairman - develop fair rules of the road for open mobile Internet. Remove uncertainty by codifying framework. Must be "sensible"
- #ctia FCC chairman on differences fixed/mobile. Difficult questions to be discussed in "dynamic marketplace if ideas"
- #ctia FCC chairman - on competition & innovation. Power of consumers comes from transparency that makes market work
- #ctia FCC chairman: decisions will be fact-based on handset exclusivity and net neutrality
- #ctia ATT CEO de la Vega now on stage.
- #ctia Yahoo mobile does not believe mobile will take over desktop
- #ctia Yahoo sees mobile as a fixed complement. Sees ecosystem coming together. Hmmm... Have they seen the fragmentation occurring in OS space?
- #ctia Yahoo - simplistic view of what consumers want. "Stay connected, stay informed, to be able to discover"
- #ctia Yahoo doing demo of mobile home page. Is this considered a major innovation?
- #ctia waiting to be let on the floor for Samsung announcement. Held up due to keynote running late
- #ctia Samsung-Sprint announcement for Android. Samsung 'moment'
- http://twitpic.com/km8uy #ctia Samsung Moment 3.2" OLED display
- #ctia Samsung Moment. Slideout kybd, optical mouse, touchscreen, up to 32g expandable memory, Android
- #ctia Samsung Moment. Available Nov-1 for $179.
- RT #ctia Android shaking up wireless. Verizon, T-Mobile, now Samsung & Sprint. How about an Android Google WiMax phone? Sprint? Samsung?
- #ctia now to ShowStoppers lunch to see "what's hot for the holidays"
- #ctia Good 2 know RT @MobiMarketing: @MikeDemler #ctia Verizon, T-Mobile, Samsung & Sprint...Android Google WiMax phone? Sprint's already on it.
- #ctia at Mobile Application Trends panel: ATT, MTV, Best Buy, PayPal
- #ctia thinking about CTIA & ATT asking FCC for more spectrum b4 700MHz is redeployed. A diversion to cover VZW & ATT deficit vs Clearwire?
- #ctia listening to panel on Social Networking - Entertainment or Essential?
- #ctia Social Net panel: notion of consolidating address book doesn't work for me. Different contexts. Tweeps I follow not all friends.
That the end of the day at the show, but now there's the after show.
It started just before Labor Day, and hasn't let up since; nearly one (or more) trade shows/conferences per week.
There are three industries that I follow, and there have been major events in each:
I have found that I never have enough time to do full blogs from the events I cover, so until I get to debrief it's best to follow my microblogs on Twitter. I generally try to sort the different topics/events by applying the appropriate hashtags (e.g. #CTIA). In the meantime, feel free to drop me an email if there is anything on the list you'd like to know (a little) more about.
This week it is the CTIA Wireless IT and Entertainment show in San Diego. I'm expecting several announcements of new smartphones and other cool mobile devices; from Motorola, Samsung, HTC, and others. Here's a glimpse at my personal agenda:
Wednesday, Oct-7
Friday, Oct-9
I'm looking forward to it.
-Mike
follow me on Twitter: MikeDemler
There are three industries that I follow, and there have been major events in each:
EDA
- EDA Tech Forum (Sept-3)
- EE Times Virtual Conference (Sept-16)
- Custom Integrated Circuits Conference (Sept-14 through Sept 16)
- Intel Developer Forum (Sept 22 through Sept 24)
- GSA Emerging Opportunities Expo & Conference (Oct-1)
- Silicon Valley Wireless Economic Summit (Aug-21)
- SD Forum, Mobile SIG (Sept 3)
- Intel Developer Forum (Sept 22 through Sept 24)
- CTIA Wireless IT and Entertainment (Oct 7 through Oct-9)
I have found that I never have enough time to do full blogs from the events I cover, so until I get to debrief it's best to follow my microblogs on Twitter. I generally try to sort the different topics/events by applying the appropriate hashtags (e.g. #CTIA). In the meantime, feel free to drop me an email if there is anything on the list you'd like to know (a little) more about.
This week it is the CTIA Wireless IT and Entertainment show in San Diego. I'm expecting several announcements of new smartphones and other cool mobile devices; from Motorola, Samsung, HTC, and others. Here's a glimpse at my personal agenda:
Wednesday, Oct-7
- Keynote addresses:
- Julius Genachowski, FCC Chairman;
- Ralph de la Vega, president and CEO of AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets
- David Ko, senior vice president of Yahoo! Mobile
- Samsung Mobile device announcement
- ShowStoppers for the Mobile Holidays
- Social Networking - Entertainment or Essential?
- API's - Enabling the Future of Mobile Development
- Mobile Focus: Preview dozens of technology companies showing off their latest in wireless
- Keynotes:
- John Donovan, Chief Technology Officer, AT&T
- Dr. Irwin Mark Jacobs, Co-Founder Qualcomm Incorporated
- Dr. Paul E. Jacobs, Chairman of the Board & Chief Executive Officer Qualcomm Incorporated
- Mobile Application Stores: Strategy and Deployment
- Mobile TV - DTV: Untapped Value
- Smartphone - The Impact of a Fully Functional Device
- CTIA 2009 Hot for the Holidays
- Internet - Reaching Critical Mass with Next Generation Consumer Electronics
Friday, Oct-9
- Keynote:
- CTIA Fund Fest will spotlight the brightest, most innovative and promising companies in wireless
- Maybe then I get to see the show floor?
I'm looking forward to it.
-Mike
follow me on Twitter: MikeDemler
