MobileBeat 2009: Feedback about content, news and dealmaking

Last week, about 500 people attended MobileBeat, our sold-out mobile conference in San Francisco.

Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Most people said they enjoyed the content debates and the jazz-filled reception afterward. In one case, a startup entrepreneur said he got three meetings with venture capitalists and four appointments with large companies interested in corporate development deals. In another case, two UK-based companies, Shozu and Touchnote told us they signed a deal on the spot after Shozu saw Touchnote present on stage at MobileBeat. That’s what happens when you get the best people in the room.

Here’s a select list of press reports about the conference. Three main stories emerged during Mobile: Palm announced its application software development kit (SDK) to all developers for the Pre, addressing one of the main weaknesses of its platform. The world’s largest mobile operating system company, Symbian announced Horizon, its application publishing program and international media picked up the web vs app debate in our keynote session (featuring Google, Palm and Nokia), coverage that has continued over the past few days.

We solicited feedback from some selected judges, speakers and advisors who attended. Here’s what they said:

Matt Murphy, partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers’ iFund:
The most valuable conversation to me was hearing the ad executives talk about how their client base is ready for mobile and that there is too much friction in the ad ecosystem. They need tools, ad units, etc., to manage buys, make large enough buys, and create the right creative for the medium. There are many companies dependent on this evolution, and hearing that it’s becoming top of mind for many/most CMO’s is encouraging. Specifically it was encouraging to hear that big brand players are coming in so its not just start-ups looking for CPA.

The other good debates were around platform and browser, versus embedded apps. As I mentioned on my panel, my belief is that the certain platforms that deliver scale and over index on user behavior that is compelling to developers will benefit from developers’ willingness to build platform specific apps. Embedded will for the foreseeable future deliver a premium experience, better performance, more functionality, better UI, etc. Many other platforms will be addressed via browser based applications. Over time the distinction will blur as even some embedded apps will deliver the majority of their functionality in the embedded browser in the app. This will simplify cross platform porting.

Venetia Espinoza, T-Mobile:
The Top Startup Competition was the most valuable because it was at the heart of why many of us were there and it’s a great opportunity to see where developers are putting their energy. Developers are the heart of the ecosystem and as a carrier, it’s important to build good partnerships with the developer community to provide a path to bring their innovations into the hands of T-Mobile customers. From my perspective, getting applications to market and enabling consumers to discover them are the most important trends happening in the mobile industry right now. T-Mobile wants to remain a crucial part of the value chain, so we built the Partner Network with developers in mind to streamline their path to market, whether that’s through a transparent model for getting on deck, marketing programs, integrated campaigns at retail or co-development work.

Brian Huey, Sprint:
Carriers are acknowledging apps are the foundation for innovation. And as Russ McGuire said, moving at Valley Speed, in a low-hurdle business model manner, is an essential ingredient to delivering new innovation to carrier’s customers. However, an economic model exists and developers who recognize the model of monthly revenue – acquisition costs – care costs – network costs, will gain the attention of the carrier. I noticed that VC’s continue to be drawn to the iPhone platform as a investment vehicle while developers have begun to develop outside the iPhone platform to RIM, Android and WebOS. Developers are, by far, the leading indicator of things to come as they struggle for relevance and placement amidst the 60k apps Apple boasts. The startup competition made this apparent to me as different crawlers, developers or ranking engines were moving beyond the iPhone.

Nikao Yang, Jirbo:
What was extremely interesting was listening to the contrasting viewpoints on the opening fireside chat panel with Nokia, Palm and Google regarding the future of mobile apps i.e. web-based vs. platform-based. Generally, most of the conversations confirmed the direction that we are currently headed. That being said, with the mobile space — iPhone platform in particular — rapidly evolving, almost all information right now is valuable, is helpful to a certain degree and should be considered. At a leading edge conference like MobileBeat, it’s in any developer’s best interest to keep their ear to the street, learn as much as possible and apply it to their business if relevant.