Virtue Insight’s Mobile Content
Summit 2011 was abuzz with excitement as twitterati began to swarm the event
with a flurry of tweets since morning, enlivening the atmosphere much before
speakers graced the stage. Tweets from the organizers and event partners started
pouring in the huge screen near the podium, facilitated by the Conference App
by Hazel Media, Mobility partners of the event.
The event kickstarted with the opening
remarks of NK Goyal, President CMAI (Communication & Manufacturing
Association of India), who chaired the morning session. Goyal, a telecom
veteran with rich experience spanning more than two decades brought out
the Indian telecom conundrum in perspective when he pointed out at the sector’s
high profitability despite having the lowest rates in the world. He requested the
telecom executives present in the conference to bring awareness about the
health hazards involved in mobile phones. He also stressed on the need to
assure customers of minimum bandwidth in 3G networks.
Shyam Ramamurthy, Senior
Director- Media Engineering, Yahoo in the morning’s first address talked of
Yahoo’s mission to create deeply personal digital experience. He pointed out
the changing dynamics of consumer experience through connected devices. He predicted
the immanence of HTML5 as the standard for providing superior experience. He showcased Yahoo’s efforts with Content Optimization
Relevance Engine (CORE), the largest content cloud in the world, and, Live
Stand, recently launched at World Mobile Congress. In response to a question
about Yahoo’s India activities, Shyam articulated Yahoo’s plans to funnel raw
and curated content with Indian media houses. The session was followed by a thought
provoking panel discussion on the challenges and opportunities in containing
the content.
Chandan Ghosh, Head Operations – Carriers and Enterprise Business,
Aircel reaffirmed marketers’ favorite truism about content being the undisputed
king. Anuraj Gambhir, Chief Dreamer, Xpert Media Technology, retorted with the much
needed importance of context, in a country like India with innumerable
languages and dialects. Context is
indeed the king, he asserted. Rajat Mukarji, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer,
Idea Cellular, addressed the issue of technology advances, with the 3G coming
to fore almost a decade after its launch in the rest of the world. He asserted
that businesses would have floundered had it been launched earlier without the
adequate support of infrastructure. He
averred that with voice being commoditised, miniaturisation and digitization of
content didn’t go well despite a good take off. He pointed its reasons with the
experience not being commensurate with the expectations of the bigger screen
the consumer had very well got acquainted with.
Abraham Joseph, CEO&Founder, Device
Management Forum, brought the international perspective with interesting
insights from the experiences of France telecom. He described the nature of
challenges that emerge depending on the maturity level of the markets.
The
audience pointed out to the panel on the need to include the less targeted
consumers belonging to the older generation. Rajat addressed the audience to
understand the gravity of expectations as the telecom players are currently only
in the first wave of expansion. It was impossible to address to consumers’
preferences in the first wave itself.
The panel discussion was followed
by a session on the evolution of content by Vamshi Reddy, CEO & Founder, Apalya Technologies. He urged on the need to build snackable
content which would be bundled on demand to the consumer. He addressed the
developers to build in simplicity by hiding complexity. He dwelt upon the
content economics and focussed on the implications of acquisition, milking and
retention of content, across the consumer lifecycle.
The seminar shifted towards the
security aspects with a presentation on overcoming the IT and Information
security risks in the Mobile sector by Col. Sandeep Sudan, Head-Security
Practice, Mahindra SSG. Col. Sandeep presented various studies related to
security conducted by McAffee and pointed out vulnerabilities in mobile channel
such as IMEI duplicity, Sim Swoop Scam and Denial of Service. Cell phone
malware has risen by 46 % in 2010 compared to previous year. He presented the
Risk Matrix which mitigates the vulnerabilities through domains of technology,
process and environment. He also pointed out a recent case of SIM Card fraud where
within 24 hours of movement of the SIM to Nepal, the Indian telecom provider had to
incur a loss of 10 crores INR.