MobileBeat 2011 — Five reasons 4G/LTE is about to jolt your company

Look out, a development in mobile is about to impact your company in a big way.

Major carriers, from Verizon to AT&T, are steadily upgrading their networks, and their speed and power are creating the next wave of capital chaos.

This is potentially pernicious, if you’re not ready, but it’s also an opportunity.

Superphones are here. Users are here. Ad dollars are finally flowing. But now, the arrival of super plentiful mobile broadband via LTE 4G networks is allowing the delivery of content and data to smartphones and other devices as quickly as on the PC web. For the flat-footed among you, your business will be upended by younger, speedier upstarts. But if you can leverage these new resources, you will forge ahead.

Join us at MobileBeat 2011 — VentureBeat’s 4th annual flagship conference on the future of mobile — on July 12 – 13 at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, where we’ll be discussing the five multibillion dollar sectors that are being transformed by the new, resource-rich mobile networks and platforms. We’re convening the brightest minds from across all sectors of the industry to explore what we think is this year’s hottest macro trend: the arrival of true mobile computing, now that 4G is here. We’re asking who will win in this 4G nirvana. Time is running out on our Early-Bird Special. The discount ends at midnight, Monday June 12, so act fast to receive up to 30% off.

Here’s a description of the new battleground facing the world’s biggest companies:

Payments:
Mobile payments is undergoing mass disruption. Square, founded just two years ago, is now valued at $1 billion after bringing easy mobile payment technology to every small business owner. Larger players are scrambling to keep up. Google has unleashed Google Wallet, it’s own efforts to to exploit NFC technology to facilitate mobile payments, while a grouping of others, including Mastercard, Visa, Barclays, Verizon, T-Mobile, AT&T and Discover are pushing a pan-NFC standard too via ISIS. Why now? Well, payments, if generated on a mobile device, and integrated with an app that draws from the cloud, allows all kinds of storage, management and data mining possibilities — both for the consumer and the payment vendors themselves — that are nothing short of revolutionary.

E-Commerce:
Google Wallet is not only bringing mobile payments to the phone, it’s also integrating a daily-deal offering into its Wallet feature, including launching deal information by email — to compete fully with Groupon. The No. 2 deal site, LivingSocial, is also competing heavily on mobile. Mobile is the next frontier for daily commerce, and every large and small company, from Facebook to Amazon, is scrambling to exploit location and loyalty features to stay ahead. That’s just the beginning.

Phone & Device Makers:
Samsung, Motorola, HTC, LG, Palm, Nokia and Sony Ericsson are all adopting modern mobile OS, the latest chips (from Nvidia, Intel, ARM, Qualcomm) and new user interface technologies to accommodate the speed and power being offered by modern networks. They’re focused on smooth, convenient delivery of everything from from multi-media, to map navigation, to contact management, and enterprise-level security and app management. Leveraging this new-found fuel (of the full broadband network) is what the winners will do to separate themselves form the losers. Apple has pushed ahead with its vertical integration strategy, but the others are madly in pursuit.

Cloud:
A host of new players, from the smaller, nimbler Box.net and Dropbox to leaders like Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and Google, are unleashing cloud strategies to exploit the new opportunities afforded by faster data networks. Mobile is the frontier for delivery, because users are there. And a host of new applications, from Skype, to YouTube and quickly-growing video, games (Zynga) and music start-ups (Pandora) are exploiting this. Media companies offer blazing fast delivery and streaming, and giants like SAP and Microsoft, through their new SaaS offerings, as well as pure-play companies like Salesforce and Yammer are attacking the enterprise market. (Related is the phenomenon of new connected-devices: Tablets, new phones, consoles and other devices are hooking up with cloud-oriented efforts from Netflix and other content providers in new ways to usher in a revolution in programming).

Web Development:
The arrival of plentiful broadband on mobile is driving new forms of web development. People crave easier ways to navigate on their phones, and Apple is offering a new filing and interface format based on native apps, as well as touch-and-gesture technology to easily pinch and swipe a screen to navigate through content. Others, such as Google and Facebook, remain focused on the browser, with a focus on HTML5 open web delivery. All developers have a stake here, and large companies and small are figuring out how to invest here to bolster their app delivery in this new world. Cheap data and bandwidth continue to shake their world.

Join us for two packed days of engaging content and power networking as we explore these and other topics in the urgent mobile universe at MobileBeat 2011. Make sure to grab a ticket by Monday June 12 and save up to 30%!