The folks here in Barcelona are getting anxious to see what shakes out of this conference once the smoke clears. The rampant use of fog machines sure isn't helping things much either. How did those make a comeback?
The Mobile Entertainment Forum's party last night was off the chain, as they say in the industry, with movers and shakers from across the mobile content sector. I particularly enjoyed chatting with MobiTV CEO Dr. Phillip Alvelda about MobiTV's role in the Sprint/Cable MSOs consortium. Phil said part of his role includes launching a sling-like offering that transports the digital TV service in your living room to your handset. There was also talk of Sling Media running into some legal issues for their distribution methods... more on that later this week.
Microsoft launched its much anticipated push email service to take on RIM et al, while folks like Action Engine and Roundbox launched interactive apps "beyond mobile TV" like offline paid content teasers. In the M&A slot: NMS announced that it is set to acquire Openera for $16.4 million.
Ubiquity also unleashed SIP app clients for music and video sharing. The idea builds on long held suspicions that viral distribution is key for mobile content's success, so it connects users in VoIP conferences with buddy lists and a slick interface. Lucent also announced that it plans to carry Ubiquity's SIP app client alongside its own as part of its overall SIP solution. IMS.
"X leads 3GSM conference." A quick scan at the day's headlines indicates that there's either a plethora of big news coming out of 3GSM or each media outlook just wants to have a unique hook. My "X"? MoCo and its enabling infrastructure leads the show at 3GSM. A broad swathe of the industry? Indeed. - Brian