Thanks to the rise of a new generation of smartphones, the Internet is going through yet another renaissance. If current trends are any indication, it won’t be long before the mobile Internet eclipses its wired counterpart. Soon hundreds of millions of people will be walking around with highly personal computers in their pockets.
Infonetics, a market research firm, estimates that there will be a billion mobile broadband subscribers by 2013, while others expect data services alone to bring in around $50 billion for the phone companies in 2009. This much-awaited marriage of mobile and the Internet is opening up new vistas of opportunity.
Hundreds of startups, giants like Nokia and Motorola and disruptors such as Apple and Google are all positioning themselves for what is going to be a bonanza as big as the wired Internet. Below are GigaOM editors’ top 15 most influential people in the Mobile Internet; together they make up the inaugural Mobilize 15 Influencers, a list that is going to be published annually in tandem with our Mobilize conference. We have purposely listed them in no particular order; tell us who you think should be No. 1 in the poll below.
- Julius Genachowski, Chairman, Federal Communications Commission
- Lawrence E. Strickling, Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information and Administrator, NTIA
- Dick Lynch, Chief Technology Officer and EVP, Verizon
- Scott Richardson, Strategic Adviser to Clearwire
- Ranveer Chandra, Researcher in the Networking Research Group at Microsoft Research
- Steve Jobs, CEO and Chairman of Apple Inc.
- Andy Rubin, Google VP of Engineering and Father of Android
- Jahangir Mohammed, CEO and Founder, Jasper Wireless
- Joe Hewitt, Programmer, Facebook
- Robin Chase, Co-founder and Former CEO of Zipcar, Founder and Current CEO of GoLoco and Matter Networks
- Jon S. von Tetzchner, Co-Founder and CEO, Opera Software
- Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, Co-CEOs of Research in Motion
- Ian Freed, VP Amazon Kindle, Amazon.com
- Frank Meehan, CEO, INQ
- Sanjay Jha, co-CEO, Motorola
With additional reporting by James Kendrick, Kevin Tofel and Josie Garthwaite.
Why would you need to wait to see if Maemo makes progress in order to include Nokia? They are still the leading smartphone manufacturer and certainly have a greater user base and ‘influence’ than Motorola could ever hope to gain with one ‘me too’ Android device on a network in the US.
By making a device on a platform that’s already being worked on by nearly every other manufacturer hardly puts any Motorola executive up there as a thought leader. Putting Nokia aside, how come no mention of HTC, Samsung or LG, companies that are substantially more relevant in mobile? You mention the fact that Motorola has the support of the US mobile operators, that support hasn’t counted for much recently. Perhaps not Valley bias, but certainly US bias. What about someone from China Mobile, considering their half billion subscriber milestone?
Interesting to see Motorola mentioned as one of the ‘giants’. I haven’t seen them referred to like that in a very long time.
I didn’t mean this to be a rant against Motorola, because there are other head scratchers on this list. I just think it is a big fail that there is no mention of any people from the companies that control over 70 percent of the mobile market.
sorry to say this and no offence but it’s pretty clear you guys aren’t knowledgeable at all with regards to the global mobile arena (the who’s who in the industry).
Facebook? Seriously??
You’ve spent way too much time in CA. Need to step ‘outside’ of America a bit guys. Just saying.
MySpace is making a comeback, and Facebook won’t be such a big deal after a while. I really wished they’d merge, but hey…
So, Nokia has no influencers with Maemo, Symbian, Qt, Booklet 3G, Nokia Siemens Networks (LTE anybody?), Navteq, Ovi, Nokia Money, Comes with Music, Music, Mozilla development, Linux development, WebKit development, one of the biggest organisations in W3C, over million devices sold every day, etc. etc.
Motorola guy with Android (and Snapdragon) devices coming in future is an influencer :D
Oh, Motorola is announcing devices in your event. Sorry, that explains a lot (and not just case Motorola).
And you have to be blind if you cannot see Nokia’s strategy, it has been so clear for at least 2 years. Ovi isn’t struggling, Nokia just does things Nokia way (read: slowly).
Now let me see how many of these names are speaking at your event this week?? Bit too self-serving I’m afraid. Below your usual standard.
Four out of 15 are speaking at the conference so how is that self serving. And anyway any top event is going to have influencers on the speaking list. We would have loved to have others show up, but that wasn’t so.
I don’t agree with your list either, but Anthony makes a fool of himself with that last statement. He has the top guys he likes at his event. Isn’t that what he should be doing?? Would you prefer he invited me and you instead?
What about listing an AT&T exec for their (negative) influence on mobile?
Say thank you to Iphone.
Glad to see the Amazon Kindle being recognized for its brilliance.
Kudos Om, for highlighting Ian Freed and his contributions.
Not mentioning Jacobs/Qualcomm and Nokia show your “valley-vision”.
Bob
That is not true. I we were doing this list three years ago, Jacobs would surely make it on the list. At present these are the people who are influencing the Mobile Internet.
I think you should take a look at the list, there are three “valley” people on this list.
Ok, this makes no sense to me. Not ONE SINGLE NOKIA related entity? No OVI or MAEMO guys? No Anssi Vanjoki?
I will wait for Mameo to make an impact before including them on the lost. We had some people in the short list but they fell out because OVI is still struggling and there isn’t a clear strategy out of Helsinki.
This is for the top mobile INFLUENCER. Not follower. Maemo is just nokia trying to catch up. OVI didn’t really have all that much impact anyway, and the OVI store was hardly the store that started it all. I think we all know what that was.
And no this isn’t fan-boy-ism; I didn’t vote for Steve.
I think you mistake perception from reality. Maemo has been part of Nokia strategy for almost 5 years now. Nokia has all of the intellectual properties to excel in the future. The fufure is Linux for mobile devices, and Nokia’s influence in this space is undeniable for those in the know.
Ovi is a big part of the picture, but Nokia’s OSes and devices will build that up over time. They don’t need to lead, just be a factor. But Nokia’s strategy IS clear to those capable of deciphering the data.
How exactly is Nokia following? By leveraging Qt to control ALL mobile OSes regardless who makes it? By making the first LTE call handovers? By being the only vertical solution with a full service suite, massive device portfolio, and even entering the netbook market? Once Qt is pervasive across Symbian, Maemo, Windows 7, Linux/x11, Mac OSX, and Unix, developers will prefer the Nokia development environment, and all apps will flow FROM Nokia ecosystems.
Don’t forget that while Apple gets credit for inventing the App Store, Nokia had a rudimentary one called “Download” before everyone else. And Nokia is getting into the social networking game, buying Plum, Plazes, etc. Don’t sleep on Nokia. Watch market share rise back above 60% in 18 months while Apple changes form factors and Android hits its limits.