Today I gave a talk for alumni from the Copenhagen Business School (tickled pink to be invited).
I spoke about three topics that are near and dear to me:
- The growth of the Mobile Lifestyle – how service providers need to understand how folks use mobile phones in their life, rather than just porting experiences from the broadband PC world.
- The rise of the emerging markets – what a billion new subscribers in the next year or so mean to local and global commerce and society.
- The fusion of the Web and mobile world – how we can bring the innovativeness of the open Web to the mobile world, along the way teaching operators how to find other areas of value.
I kept the talk informal and there was a good discussion during and after. The one thing that still is bouncing around my brain was a comment from a CEO from a giant electronics firm. He tied two of my threads together: the push for more flat rate pricing and the use of pre-pay minutes as the basis for an informal economy in emerging markets.
He asked what will happen if we go all flat rate pricing, how will folks use minutes as a currency then?
Good question.
It would certainly remove a central role of the mobile in the informal economy and remittances of the developing world. But, we must also keep in mind that even in really mature markets, pre-pay subscriptions are still significant (I think it’s like 50% in the UK). So, while we should be careful what we wish for, I don’t think we should think of the consequences in today’s terms. In future, there will be other things that will make this worry minor.
