Davos: The Future of Mobile Technology

Posted on January 28, 2008 Under Gadgetry

One of the best panels at Davos was The Future of Mobile Technology, a casual discussion with a star studded lineup of panelists. SK Telecom CEO Kim Shin-Bae, Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, Sony CEO (and funnest guy ever) Sir Howard Stringer, NBC’s Jeff Zucker, and China Mobile CEO Wang Jianzhou.
A couple of interesting (and some mind blowing) things:

  • China Mobile adds 6 million subscribers a month to its base of 317 Million. An audience member asked if they had plans to expand outside China, and Mr Wang essentially answered, why — there’s a long way to go in China. SMS is bread and butter to them, on New Years day users sent more than 5 billion text messages.
  • SK Telecom also owns a record label, advertising agency, and several other Korean assets. They’re incredibly integrated.
  • Google’s Eric Schmidt is always interesting to hear — he’s calm and calculated. He discussed Google’s Android a bit, and thinks advertising on mobile will reach a tipping point over the next few years.
  • Hilarious and fun-loving Sony CEO and Chairman Sir Howard Stringer (I had dinner with him the night before) joked when someone asked him about the new Sony OLED screens, that “making a profit on consumer electronics is one of our goals.” They’re suffering a tough time across many of their businesses.
  • It was very surprising to hear no discussion of health concerns around mobile devices, and when I asked FCC Chairman Kevin Martin about it — he misunderstood my question thinking I was asking about using mobile technology FOR health benefits. Funny.

Mike from TechCrunch plopped himself front and center and has an awesome roundup of the discussion I didn’t cover here.

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