A few days ago AdMob announced that they had signed a definitive agreement to be acquired by Google for €500 million (http://bit.ly/3V4lal).  And recently Facebook announced that in it’s first month their mobile site had 65 million hits (http://bit.ly/MRwip).  This is very exiting news for all of us at Mobestar and indeed any of the other ‘mobile’ suppliers who have been toiling away for years without getting their just reward.

For many years I have been hitting my head against a brick wall only to discover how hard it was.  The company had produced innovative mobile products for years and sold them to equally innovative brands only to discover a marked slowness of uptake by the end user.  However, my excitement, whilst possibly tempered in the last years, has now been reinvigorated by regular good news events that mobile is finally happening.

The truth is that the mobile industry has had no shortage of creative energy, amazing products, and talented entrepreneurs.  But until now, it has always felt like those of us involved in this space played second fiddle to online offerings.  I feel that now this time is over and good mobile products are now getting deserved traction.  It has been very frustrating to build what I knew was an incredible service only to find myself unable to distribute or monetize the product without a carrier or handset partnerships. Turns out, I was not alone.  Talk to any veteran in mobile and they will tell you just how hard it was to get things done only a few years ago.  Those cynics amongst us would always characterize the market by saying: “Mobile is the future, and always will be.”

Then came the iPhone.  Suddenly, Apple solved so many problems that had plagued mobile for so long.  They showed all of us the way forward and their efforts have led to a landslide of rapid improvements in our space.  Now with the addition of excellent devices from Palm, Nokia, RIM, and plethora of Android powered smart phones, we have all the preconditions necessary for what will be a tidal wave of mobile browsing and app usage.

We now operate in an environment that is much more advanced than the one we entered into a few years ago. There are literally hundreds of competitors, small and large, with different areas of focus and expertise.  Lately, it seems that almost every week we hear about a new idea or company in the mobile enablement space.  We have no doubt this will bring even more players into the space and accelerate all the innovation that is already taking place.

So, am I saying that the advanced capabilities of both smart phones and the mobile web equate to guaranteed success for companies like us?  Absolutely not – but if you do have good products and provide good service your chances of success are now greatly enhanced.  The market for our services is now proven and is growing exponentially as users are made aware of what can be made possible.

The market for mobile services has now arrived so make the most of it.

Peter Richards, 12/11/09