GigaOM » mobilize

The Mobile 15, as a PDF

Rani Molla — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 16:19:20 +0000

Last week, we published The Mobile 15, our list of the most-innovative companies in the world of mobile. It explored how these companies, large and small, are changing — or are set to change — the mobile landscape in big ways. Some of you emailed to request a PDF of the list — so here it is.

Meanwhile, if you missed Mobilize 2012, our two-day mobile conference in San Francisco last week, you can catch up on the coverage here.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

Here comes everybody: Why AirBnB is so disruptive

Mathew Ingram — Sun, 23 Sep 2012 14:32:34 +0000

There are some technologies and services that seem fairly obvious when they first appear, in the sense that their appeal is more or less predictable, even though their ultimate size and reach may not be. But there are others that seem to almost defy logic in some way, and become far more disruptive than they seemed at first, and for me at least, AirBnB is one of those companies. Along with a few other services — including Twitter — it is one of the most fundamentally disruptive social businesses I’ve come across in a long time, and for many of the same kinds of reasons.

I’m not ashamed to say that I was an AirBnB skeptic when I first heard about the service. Like many people, I thought the idea of someone sharing their bedroom or apartment with complete strangers for money was a pie-in-the-sky idea dreamed up by some San Francisco hippie. It seemed like a variation on the idea of “couch surfing, which I figured would appeal to cheap students and other bohemian types, but not many regular people — and certainly not to business travelers or anyone important from a commercial point of view (in my defence, even uber-VC Fred Wilson missed out on the potential of the company).

Both of those assumptions have been proven wrong, and it didn’t really hit home for me until I tried an AirBnB rental myself. On a trip to San Francisco for GigaOM’s Mobilize conference, I rented a one-bedroom apartment using the service, and it was an eye-opener.

The social web lowers the barriers to interaction

In a sense, services like AirBnB — as well as ride-sharing services like Lyft and crowd-funding platforms like Kickstarter — take advantage of the same internet-powered social phenomenon that media entities like Twitter do: namely, a dramatic lowering of the barriers to interaction, to the point where it actually changes the way people behave in some fairly important and disruptive ways. And I think the real repercussions of that disruption are only beginning to make themselves obvious.

The main reason I tried AirBnB was that another conference had booked every reasonably priced hotel room within driving distance of downtown San Francisco — but I was also curious to see what the AirBnB experience was like. So I looked for something in the same price range as an average hotel room, and found dozens of potential rentals, each with photos of the home and the owner and reviews from users. At that point, it didn’t look all that different from something like Craigslist (although much more appealing from a design point of view).

But then the influence of social networks was added to the equation: since I had connected with my Facebook account, I noticed that the owner of one of the rentals and I had a mutual friend in common. Any hesitation I had about renting the home of a complete stranger in an unfamiliar city vanished, thanks to the power of the FOAF (friend of a friend) effect. If the couple who owned the apartment knew my friend, then I figured there was a better-than-even chance that I would like them.

Sure enough, they arranged to get me the keys in a friendly and efficient way, they left me a personal note and sent an email with tips about their home and the location, and they offered me whatever was in their fridge. On top of that, the apartment was lovely and well-kept, with homey furniture and personal touches that no hotel could offer: not only was it nicer looking than a hotel, but the whole experience was friendlier and more welcoming.

The scale that the social web provides changes the game

Granted, not every AirBnB experience is going to be so top-notch — there have been some incidents in the company’s history where renters took advantage of the owner and his or her property, and the service has had to adapt to that. But despite those events, the growth of the network suggests that it is disrupting the casual accommodation market in a way the hotel industry probably never expected. Even though bed-and-breakfast operations and corporate or vacation rentals have existed for some time, the sheer scale of AirBnB changes the game.

As Clay Shirky noted in his book “Here Comes Everybody,” even behavior that has existed before — such as sharing information with our friends and family, or connecting with people who have similar interests — becomes qualitatively different when hundreds of thousands or even tens of millions of people are involved. That’s what I think we are seeing with things like AirBnB and Kickstarter and ride-sharing services like Lyft, or job-outsourcing services like TaskRabbit: they aren’t just an incremental change in human behavior, they are a fundamentally disruptive one.

In a sense, each of these services just looks like a more refined and organized version of something you could have previously done through Craigslist: a ride somewhere, a place to sleep, supporters for your new CD or other project. But instead of being something that a small proportion of people do, the growth of AirBnB and other similar crowd-powered services has the potential to seriously impact some of the industries we take for granted — whether it’s the hotel business or the venture-capital or music or transportation industries.

What other industries could be disrupted in this way? Could we see people sharing health care someday, or their phone services, or swapping their corporate vacation time through some kind of online marketplace? It’s interesting to think about what else could benefit from this kind of phenomenon, and what the long-term effects on us as social beings will be when that happens.

Post and thumbnail images courtesy of Flickr user Aih

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

The Commutist podcast: Mobilize! EKGs, Connected cars and Siri

Chris Albrecht — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 04:43:17 +0000

Mobile EKGs! Hi-def videos piped to your car! Calling people and not numbers! We’re at the GigaOM Mobilize conference in San Francisco for this week’s episode of The Commutist. Stacey Higginbotham, Kevin Tofel and Kevin Fitchard gather ’round for a chat about the mobile industry’s past, present and very cool future.

Download: gomcom-mobilize-edit.mp3

(download)

RSS

iTunes

SHOW NOTES:
Host: Chris Albrecht

0:00:50 – 0:02:45 – A quick look back at different predictions and topics covered at previous Mobilize conferences.

0:02:45 – 0:04:39 – Size matters (with screens)

0:04:40 – 0:06:09 – Mobile-first world?

0:06:10 – 0:10:22 – Spectrum crisis! Fewer app requests! Sony games on mobile! The hazards of apps in cars!

0:10:23 – 0:12:46 – Mobile first vs. data first and interoperability.

0:12:47 – 0:14:58 – Apple’s influence.

0:14:59 – 0:16:12 – The Mobile 15.

0:16:13 – 0:18:20 – The role of the carriers.

0:18:21 – 0:21:29 – Voice: the invisible interface.

0:21:30 – 0:25:30 – Calling phone numbers vs. calling people: when talking sucks.

0:25:31 – 0:29:00 Mobile stuff you should know: mobile IVF, do not disturb across devices, MVNO.

PREVIOUS EPISODES:

Paul Tough: How Children Succeed and what you can learn from them

Episode 2: The iPhone 5 Event

Episode 1: Come on, Kindle, Light My 4G Fire

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

Foursquare’s Crowley wants to take on Yelp, Google and Harry Potter

Stacey Higginbotham — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 19:31:36 +0000

Dennis Crowely, the founder and CEO of Foursquare, isn’t happy with the status of today’s mobile hardware. He thinks it’s standing in the way of creating a Harry Potter-style Marauder’s Map that will tell you where your friends are and where you might want to grab your next bite to eat. In a conversation with Om Malik onstage at Mobilize 2012, Crowley explains the shift Foursquare has made from being a simple check-in service to becoming a recommendation and search utility.

Crowley said the site’s 25 million active users have generated more than 2.5 billion check-ins in its almost four years, and as a result of all that active and passive data Foursquare can evolve to fulfill Crowley’s true vision. “We want to change the way you interact with the physical world,” Crowley said.

He said more users are downloading the app without ever intending to check in, and instead use it to get tips on restaurants, much like they would with Yelp. The site has also redesigned the app to emphasize local search and recommendations over check ins as a way to get users to choose Foursquare instead of alternatives. He also explains monetizing local search would look less like current web advertising and instead involve collecting a few dollars from a few million merchants as a possible revenue stream.

So the value for Foursquare isn’t just check-ins, but the passive knowledge the app collects as a user goes about their daily life. Foursquare uses that to offer recommendations personalized to the user about where they spend most of their time, “It’s not that dissimilar to rating something on Netflix (nflx) or clicking a rating on Amazon except we’re doing this in the real world.”

This extends to Crowley’s vision of a Harry Potter style map: when you open it on the phone, it can show you where you friends are and what you might like to eat. Eventually the recommendations and knowledge that Foursquare has about you means it could react to what a user’s needs at that moment based on where they are. Unfortunately, the processing and radio communications his vision requires would drain your battery.

Check out the rest of our Mobilize 2012 coverage here, and the live stream can be found here.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

The car dashboard is not the place to let 1,000 apps bloom

Kevin Fitchard — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 17:44:37 +0000

There is growing number of sophisticated connected car development platforms emerging in the auto industry, but so far automakers have been a reluctant to actually let developers at them. The reason is the overriding concern of safety. Unlike on a smartphone, an overly complicated or flashy app on the dashboard isn’t just merely a distraction; it could be the cause of a fatal accident.

Infotainment platform makers and the developers they work with are wrestling with that paradox, said David Kirsch, connected technology engineer for Honda R&D Americas at GigaOM’s Mobilize conference on Thursday. In one sense, the real estate on the dash and the power of on-board hardware gives them an opportunity to make sophisticated and immersive apps, but those are the exact types of apps that distract drivers from what should be their primary tasks: staying in their lanes and avoiding other cars and obstacles.

A panel of speakers, including Glympse CEO Byran Trussel and Aha by Harman VP and GM Robert Acker, all agreed that concern for safety was the main reason why connected cars would remain largely closed as development platforms in the near term.

“On one level you just want to say ‘let 1,000 flowers bloom,’ but you don’t want to let 1,000 flowers bloom on your dashboard,” said Trussel, whose company Glympse has developed a version of its location-sharing app for Mercedes Benz’s in-dash system. For several years, development on the car is going to be limited to a specific relationships struck by carmakers and trusted partners, he said, though Trussel believes controls will eventually be put in place that will allow for a more open development framework.

Automakers are taking a risk, though, the panelists admitted. If they keep too tight a grip on the their infotainment systems, developers and consumers will just start looking elsewhere for connected car apps. “If that safe experience is so de-featured, [drivers] are just going to default to the smartphone,” Acker said.

Check out the rest of our Mobilize 2012 coverage here, and the live stream can be found here.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

Mobilize 2012 live coverage

Tom Krazit — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 14:00:31 +0000

Five years after the launch of the iPhone, it’s clearly a mobile world. The PC industry is shaking in its boots as consumers and businesses adopt a more lightweight style of computing by the millions, and perhaps the most astonishing thing about the mobile revolution is much of the story has yet to be written. While the smartphone may feel like a mature product at this point, software development atop the computing device of the 21st century is still evolving, and fast dependable wireless networks have a long way to go to achieve the ubiquity of wired broadband.

Today and tomorrow at Mobilize, we’ll host frank discussions about these topics and more with some of the people who are making the world more mobile at an increasingly rapid pace. That includes companies like Sprint and T-Mobile, and people like Foursquare founder Dennis Crowley and CEO Spencer Rascoff of Zillow, as well as the startups trying to make a difference through our Launchpad competition. Check out the companies in our Mobile 15 list for a better idea of how we see the world.

Our livestream of the event can be found here, and opening remarks from conference co-hosts Om Malik, Kevin Fitchard, and Kevin Tofel will begin at 820am PT. The festivities resume at 9am PT on Friday.

We will be blogging the onstage sessions throughout both days and will include all the links in this post. Please join the conversation on Twitter (use the #mobilizeconf hashtag and follow @gigaom).

Day 1:

Day 2:

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

iPhone will appear in T-Mobile stores — but it’s not for sale

Kevin Fitchard — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 16:00:14 +0000

T-Mobile may not sell the iPhone, but you would never know it given how much effort T-Mo is putting into promoting the device. Beginning on Wednesday the sans-iPhone operator will begin carrying the iPhone 4S in its stores — not to sell it, but to demo how the device works over its network.

And depending on location, those demo phones won’t be limited to 2G-only data speeds. In a blog post going up Monday morning, T-Mobile reveals it has activated its HSPA+ network in iPhone-friendly bands in parts of New York City, Seattle and Las Vegas. T-Mobile has even developed an iOS version of its Bobsled VoIP calling app to support the 1 million “unofficial” iPhone users it already has.

Essentially, T-Mobile is doing everything it can to welcome iPhone owners onto its network, especially now that AT&T has begun unlocking the devices once its customers fulfill their contracts.

Why the sudden push? T-Mobile is in the process of revamping its mobile data networks, which will allow it to launch LTE next year. But there’s a big a side benefit to the project: it is aligning its data networks with AT&T’s, meaning any device that works on Ma Bell’s networks will work on T-Mobile’s.

We talked to T-Mobile CTO Neville Ray and he confirmed that in areas where it’s turned up HSPA+ in the PCS band, there’s no longer any technological barrier preventing the iPhone from meeting its full potential on T-Mobile’s network (though some services won’t carry over such as visual voicemail). At GigaOM’s Mobilize conference on Sept. 20, Ray plans to share the details of T-Mobile’s network overhaul, but this week he gave us a bit of a preview.

T-Mobile has already shut off large portions of its 2G GSM networks in the 1900 MHz PCS band across 80 percent of its footprint, clearing those airwaves for HSPA+, Ray said. In many cases T-Mobile has enough free PCS spectrum to replicate its current dual-carrier HSPA+ configuration in its old 2G bands. That means if the new version of the iPhone supports dual-carrier (like the new iPad released this year), T-Mobile will be able to deliver theoretical maximum speeds of 42 Mbps to the device.

Ray said internal testing of the current iPhone 4S comparing performance on T-Mobile and AT&T’s networks shows that T-Mobile is achieving speeds 70 percent faster than its rival, even though the current iteration of the device doesn’t support dual-carrier. In addition to its network, Ray said, T-Mobile’s big lure will be its liberal data plans. Not only does it offer some of the biggest smartphone bang for your buck in its tiered plans, T-Mobile recently brought back an unlimited data option.

But all of this moot until T-Mo’s network upgrade is complete. LTE is scheduled to go online in the second half of 2013, but Ray said iPhone users won’t have to wait that long. Deploying LTE is the last step in its multi-part overhaul. “We’ll have a material footprint on HSPA+ at 1900 MHz by the end of the year,” Ray said.

Ray wouldn’t define “material,” but he said T-Mobile would begin making even more aggressive moves to lure unlocked iPhone customers during the holidays. Of course, at a certain point the question of locked or unlocked becomes moot.

As I’ve written many times before, when T-Mobile’s HSPA+ network at PCS gets big enough, Apple will start distributing its iconic device directly through the operator. Though Ray won’t comment on any possible negotiations with Apple, a deal between the two is certainly no stretch of the imagination. Despite its status as the No. 4 operator in the U.S., T-Mobile is still one of the world’s largest carriers. As soon as the last technical barrier disappears, Apple will welcome T-Mobile into the iPhone family with open arms.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

Chevy adopts a bring-your-own-maps approach to navigation

Kevin Fitchard — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 22:03:45 +0000

Chevrolet is making a radical departure from its approach to turn-by-turn navigation services. After using parent company’s General Motors’ OnStar service since its inception, Chevy is offering a competing alternative in its Sonic and Spark automobile lines. Called BringGo, it’s an integrated smartphone-dashboard system – Chevy’s first attempt at a bring-your-own-maps nav service to any of its vehicles.

Don’t expect Chevy to open the floodgates – Google Maps Navigation and Apple Maps aren’t suddenly going to pop up on your new Spark’s in-dash monitor. The EnGIS-designed service was developed specifically for GM and it comes with a one-time fee of $50.

The app will be available for download in the iTunes and Google Play stores in the fourth quarter, and the in-dash software will come installed in all new Spark and Sonic models with Chevy’s MyLink connected car system. Customers who have already bought new 2013 Sparks and Sonics can get the in-dash app through an update via MyLink’s USB port, though Chevy hasn’t revealed yet whether you can perform the upgrade yourself or have it done by the dealer.

Global Program Manager for Infotainment Sarah LeBlanc said that Chevy realized after discussions with customers that the younger generation of car buyers wanted in-dash nav services but they didn’t want OnStar.

Chevy has been trying to revamp its image, targeting the millennial generation with affordable, trendier cars (if you don’t believe me, check out the advertising). The Spark, which Chevy was showing off to auto journalists Chicago this week, is the perfect example: the subcompact five-door ranges from $12,000 to $16,000 and comes in a color palette unknown to nature.

“The biggest percentage of people who would buy this car are young urbanites, many of whom have just graduated from college, just got their first jobs and are buying their first cars,” LeBlanc said. There’s one other thing these millennials all have in common, she said: They invariably own smartphones.

The Spark is the first car GM is selling that doesn’t have a CD player option in all but its most basic model. The expectation is that anyone who buys this car has already eschewed physical media in favor of digital. As you might expect, that same millennial set isn’t so hot on the idea of paying more than $1,000 for an embedded nav system or a $29 per month OnStar subscription fee when they’re accustomed to getting turn-by-turn directions on their smartphones for free, LeBlanc said.

It ain’t OnStar, but one day it could be

Chevy isn’t giving away BringGo for free, but it is adding value to traditional smartphone navigation with BringGo to justify its $50 expense. Unlike other mapping services, BringGo downloads full maps to the smartphone (the full version takes up 2 GB of memory), so the app isn’t constantly reaching out over the network to find out what’s around the next corner. This has the advantage of not sucking down drivers’ data plans, but it also means that maps don’t suddenly stop working if the data connection is weak.

The app connects to MyLink through Bluetooth or USB, and uses the dash’s built-in 7-inch letterbox monitor to render 3D color maps complete with traffic data. It uses the phone’s GPS and other sensors, but you can access all of BringGo’s controls through the car’s touchscreen interface. There’s even an option to use Google Local Search to find businesses, events and points of interest.

It certainly doesn’t have all of the bells and whistles of OnStar. There are no voice prompts for instance, so you have to keep a close eye on screen. And if the assisted-GPS on our device loses one too many satellites, the nav system may temporarily lose your exact location. But those problems are minor compared to those of following a route on a three-inch screen lying in your lap.

But even if BringGo has limitations, they could quickly disappear. If EnGIS and Chevy decide to add more features – for instance, voice prompts and voice commands – they can do so simply through an app store update. Customer may hold onto their cars for five years, but they’ll likely own several different smartphones in the same period. As their devices and EnGIS’s software becomes more powerful, so do their cars’ nav systems.

Consumer friendly, yes, but GM friendly?

Chevy is definitely making a bold move. Maybe those 20-somethings would never fork over the money for OnStar, but they’re not the only age group that own smartphones. When will the buyers of pricier Chevys – not to mention Buicks, GMCs and even Cadillacs – start wondering when they’ll get BringGo as well?

The more GM opens its cars up to developers, the more it risks losing control of its platforms and cannibalizing services it provides through OnStar. So far GM has been cautious. Apart from the still-unreleased BringGo, MyLink has just two apps: Pandora and Stitcher.

This is a problem GM and its competitors are going to have to wrestle with in the next few years as they delve further into their connected car strategies. It’s also a topic we’re going to explore in more detail at GigaOM’s Mobilize conference in two weeks. Ford Motor Company Chief Technologist for Connected Car Solutions; John Ellis, GM of Harman’s Aha infotainment platform. Robert Acker, and Honda(hmc) R&D Americas Connected Technology Engineer David Kirsch will all be in San Francisco Sept. 20-21 to discuss how automakers have become the latest smart device designers and how that trend will reshape their industry.

Cadillac CUE

GM is most definitely giving signals that connectivity will be key to its strategy moving forward. It now has connected infotainment systems for all of its major brands. Cadillac’s CUE targets the high end of the market with a rich interface and very powerful embedded hardware (more on CUE later this month). But GM is also showing it’s not going to cheap out when it comes to low-end models.

MyLink may not have haptic feedback, built-in Nuance voice recognition or a digital heads-up display. But its latest iteration in the Spark and Sonic – built by LG and powered by Microsoft — is certainly no lightweight, especially when you consider that many of the cars it’s going into will cost less than $15,000. It’s probably no coincidence that GM has also targeted the Spark to receive its first all-electric vehicle treatment.

GM seems to have made a key calculation: While wealthier car buyers can most afford connected car technologies, it’s the younger, more budget-minded buyers that will actually use the technology most.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

iZettle, Europe’s Square, is considering NFC support

Bobbie Johnson — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 13:00:39 +0000

Stockholm mobile payment firm iZettle is usually referred to as Europe’s answer to Square, and for good reason: with a card-reading device that plugs into the iPhone and allows merchants to take card payments for a small fee, it’s highly reminiscent of the hotly-tipped San Francisco startup.

But when I spoke to CEO Jacob de Geer a few days ago, it became clear that while they share plenty of DNA, the two companies are starting to go in different directions.

It’s been a big year for iZettle. It came out of beta and hit full launch a couple of months ago in the (admittedly small) Swedish market, and has since gained a strong following with thousands of shops and merchants signing up. That interest led to an $11 million round of funding led by Index Ventures, presumably to help the business expand outside its home country.

I talked to de Geer about his plans for the future, and found out that the company wants to be in another six to 10 European markets by the end of 2012 — and that it is hoping to achieve a lot of technological progress over the next year, too.

But there’s another important conversation de Geer expects to stay at the top of the agenda in the meantime: the question of whether NFC touch technology will become mainstream.

“Everyone is talking about near field communications as a kind of new messiah,” he says. “But the problem is that there are still no NFC-enabled credit cards, and still no NFC-enabled terminals — it’s a chicken and egg situation.”

It’s true that NFC has had the slowest of starts. Despite support from the likes of Google and Intel and consistent rumors about Apple’s interest, not everyone is convinced.

Speaking at our Mobilize conference earlier this year, Square’s COO Keith Rabois was clear about his position on the technology. “I’ve never met a single merchant in the U.S. who says ‘I want this NFC thing’,” he told GigaOM founder Om Malik in an on-stage conversation.

Instead, the company has opted to circumvent the idea of touch entirely with location-based service called Card Case — which uses location and loyalty to offer hands-free payments.

In contrast, however, iZettle isn’t ruling out adopting or supporting NFC — and thinks that providers can be agnostic about the technology for now.

“The big difference between us and Square and Keith Rabois is that they have clearly put down their foot and said that NFC stands for Not For Commerce,” says de Geer. “In the short run NFC is overhyped and it will under-deliver — but from our position, looking at the effort and marketing and rules changes coming from the card carriers, I am not as skeptical. I think NFC is likely to happen… but I think it will take a while.”

In fact, he suggests, the rollout of NFC — which he predicts to go mainstream by 2015 — could actually be a crucial element in helping iZettle become a global player. One simple reason: technology.

While America is largely still reliant on the magnetic strip, most credit cards outside of the U.S. use embedded chips and PIN entry to provide an extra layer of security. This on-board system means that the idea of supporting NFC is not as daunting to a company from outside American borders — and it means that it would be far cheaper for a merchant to spend a few dollars on an iZettle device than hundreds on buying a new cash register or card payment machine.

“We can tap into NFC hardware that’s already in the phone,” he says, “but then there’s the cost effectiveness of us being able to populate the market with NFC technology, rather than trying to repopulate the existing point of sale devices — it’s a lot more appealing. That means that if it turns out the consumer wants it, we can support it.”

In the meantime, says de Geer, the best route to success may be to partner with other companies to develop new possible answers. Retailers looking for better loyalty systems and faster payment options are already starting to route around the slow-moving card companies and their NFC catch 22.

“We see a lot of companies experimenting with new payment solutions, like Starbucks,” he says, referring to the coffee chain’s mobile trials.

“They’re fed up with the existing infrastructure, and they’re starting to look at either creating their own proprietary solutions or finding alternative solutions with built-in loyalty,” says de Geer. “I’d be surprised if we don’t see other companies following the same trend.”

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

Untether.tv on Mobilize 2011: top themes and trends

Kevin C. Tofel — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 20:34:06 +0000

Earlier this week, we held our two-day Mobilize 2011 event, which was jam-packed with interviews, discussion panels and fireside chats all revolving around the mobile industry. We have archived video footage from all of the sessions, which I recommend if you missed out on our show.

After our Mobilize concluded, I had the opportunity to meet with Rob Woodbridge. Rob creates a large amount of digital content on Untether.tv and he asked if we could do a video summary of Mobilize once I flew back home to the east coast. We did the video session this morning: Rob from California, while I was in my home office in Pennsylvania.

Chatting with and meeting Rob in person was a treat. As you’ll see in the video, he and I collectively point out a large number of important themes and trends that were uncovered at Mobilize, ranging from the consumerization of I.T. to the slowness of mobile payment adoption and the importance of thinking mobile first for apps and services.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.