Editor’s note: Apple has the first-mover advantage, and its App Store sets the bar. The result is a buoyant market for apps and ample opportunity for fast-followers to (perhaps) do one better. Benjamin E. Jacobsen - Co-Founder of Mobspot, Inc., a company championing “Mobile App developers and App users on any platform,” and a new author to MSG - gives his take on the size of the market and the prospects for other players.

IS THE APP INDUSTRY WORTH NEARLY $7 BILLION? Will Apple do nearly a billion dollars in revenue in its first year of the App Store? While the exact numbers are debatable, you can’t ignore the monster success Apple has had with its store (which also drives device sales, by the way). How much money has Apple made? This post, titled Apple has made no more than $20 - 45m in revenue from the app store, gives us a figure. One I might add is not too shabby for a product yet to see its first birthday. What makes this more remarkable is that Apple has captured between 1-2 percent total market share worldwide (including feature phones), and only 10.8 percent share worldwide in the smartphone segment. Few (save Juniper) have taken a stab at valuing the total app industry.

StatCounter’s recent announcement that Opera Mini surpasses the iPhone’s Safari as the most popular web browser for mobile phones is testament to the potential of the greater industry. Opera Mini is the most downloaded Java application of all time. So, while I am excited about the enthusiasm for the iPhone, I find the conversation is missing a big-picture perspective. The question we should be asking is: What is the total app market worldwide really worth? After all, Opera Mini’s success story underlines the potential of the app market beyond just the iPhone.

So, allow me to take a shot at valuing the total app industry, worldwide, for pay-apps (apps you pay to own on your phone).  This is the total value excluding Of course, we have to exclude free apps like Opera Mini.

In a nutshell: If Apple can do nearly $1 billion in sales its first year and has 10.8 percent smartphone market share worldwide, how much is the total smartphone app market worth?

This post from AppleInsider tells us that Apple could do $777 million in App Store downloads in 2009.

A 10.8 percent worldwide smartphone market share implies that the total mobile app market is $7.2 billion, if all smartphone users spend as much on apps as iPhone users do. We know that this won’t be the case. A much more likely scenario is one in which smartphone users will spend far less.

So, let’s assume users with these handsets (other than the iPhone) spend half (50 percent) of what iPhone users on App downloads. Now let’s do the math.

$7.2 billion is the extrapolated industry valuation of direct revenue from apps if consumers spent as much on apps for other platforms as they do the iPhone. Let’s take $7.2 billion minus $777 million (iPhone app share), and multiply that by 50 percent. That gives us a valuation of $3.2 billion for the non-iPhone app market, or $4 billion total, including the iPhone.

($7.2 billion - $777 million) * 0.5 = $3.2 billion non-iPhone app market.)

Given these assumptions, the total addressable market for non-iPhone smartphone users is approximately $3.2 billion in 2009 alone. This, of course is direct app revenue, and does not include advertising, in-app sales, carrier data revenues, feature phone app sales, and other yet-to-be-developed revenue models.

What does this figure represent? Is this pent-up demand in search of a marketplace? It sure looks like it. In any case, the number is staggering, and why this fact hasn’t gotten more attention is surprising.

But I can tell you from my experience at Opera, the success of the iPhone app store is great for the industry. Apple’s app store (although benefiting from massive multimedia marketing campaigns) is the proof-point our industry needed to see its own much greater potential. Apple gets high ranks for making the job of marketing or selling an app that much easier. Mainstream consumers now realize it’s not rocket science to load an app on their phone. Now it’s part of an every-day routine for many mobile users.

Apple has created a market, but does it dominate it?

AdMob’s Mobile Metrics Report recently released compares mobile Web usage to market share of mobile devices. As this chart from AdMob shows, the iPhone literally tops the charts for mobile Web usage - and that despite the fact the device only accounts for 10.8 percent market share of devices (according to Gartner’s latest estimate).

Symbian is next, followed by RIM and Windows. With the launch of the Palm Pre, greater penetration of Android devices soon to come, and Microsoft opening its Windows Skymarket app marketplace, it’s a safe bet that consumer spending on apps on other platforms might total half of what iPhone users spend on apps (If you disagree, please make your case for lower estimates in the comments below, or email me - ben@mobspot.com .)

Let’s put a growth-figure in here. If we accept the figures from Ovum, which predict 15 percent per year growth for smartphones, then you end up with an app industry worth nearly $7 billion.

Not bad. We are excited about the App Store concept, which has taken much of the pain out of discovering and buying apps. Now is the time to get equally excited about the opportunity for apps on all platforms.

And why shouldn’t we be excited? Apple’s App store has caused a shift in consumer behavior. It has captured our interest (even passion), encouraged us to explore the mobile Web, and put downloading and purchasing apps central to our daily mobile routine.

Where does this leave Apple?

It may be riding the cool factor now, but where is it written that cool apps will only be created for the iPhone? I’m confident developers are already working on more great apps for other platforms.

Apple also doesn’t have a monopoly on delivering a great consumer experience. I’m sure developers are hard at work coming up with new approaches that likewise set the bar.

My take: Apple has created a market. But it has also paved the way for some fast followers to follow suit - and even go one better. I’m excited about the avalanche of apps we’re sure to see available across all platforms, and the impact on mobile industry and consumer behavior at all levels. What do YOU expect?

About the author:

Prior to founding Mobspot, Ben was Director of Global Marketing at Opera Software, where he led multiple record-setting product launches of Opera Mini. Opera Mini is the most downloaded mobile application in the world. He has a BA from the University of Washington and an MBA from Copenhagen Business School.

MSG mobile search research (the profiles and analysis I share on MSG, and the new-release white paper assessing search, which I co-created with my esteemed colleague Peggy Albright) has attracted the attention of a growing community of readers and influencers across a variety of online destinations and industry organizations.

I am pleased to report this work has also sparked interest at Eyefor Travel Research, a business intelligence firm known as the “leading voice of online travel.” Andrew Merrie, research analyst and Headmaster of the School for Mobile (the firm’s initiative for educating the travel and tourism industries on opportunities in mobile), reached out to me earlier today to collaborate on the firm’s series of free reports (which are essential reads chock-full of case studies, key statistics, and best practice) focused on mobile technology and solutions.

There is a special emphasis on mobile search (which we agree is the linchpin of a range of effective strategies to deliver mobile advertising, commerce, and CRM). By way of background, the Eyefor Travel report series consists of Vol.1 Mobile Technology in  Travel: The Introduction, and  Vol 2,  Mobile Technology in Travel Report: The Detail. Vol 3  Mobile Technology in Travel Report: Consumer Insight is work in progress, but you can sign up here for an alert when it is released later in June.

A trend that stands out is the new popularity of SMS search schemes as a sure-fire way to reach a mass market. As Andrew puts it: “SMS search is a tool that 99 percent of customers know how to use. In a consumer-focused industry such as ours, it [SMS search] represents a good first step in how companies need to move forward.” Another advantage beyond intuitive usability: Proven monetization models around the delivery of related text links and advertising.

This point came through loud and clear in this week’s AdAge article, which outlines the advantages of SMS search, and takes a look at the companies (notably 4INFO, which MSG profiled here, and ChaCha) cashing in on its newfound popularity among users and advertisers.

Rita Chang, who wrote the piece, contacted me for the article, and has since arranged a follow-up call to discuss the mobile search competitive landscape. The intention is to write a comprehensive feature on the models and companies I think set the bar. I gladly support her in this work, and welcome other journalists to reach out to me for comments or just a few company contacts.

The increasing excitement around SMS search isn’t limited to the U.S. (the focus of Rita’s AdAge article). It’s also going full-steam in Asia, where Mobile Content Networks (MCN) - a provider of mobile search and revenue solutions that deliver people connections to content, not links to content, on their mobile phones - has chalked up an impressive list of operator customers for its SMS search, which emphasizes content discovery instead of answers to specific search queries.

Today marks the company’s official launch of Smart Search (aptly named) in partnership with Smart Communications, the Philippines’ leading mobile operator with 36.9 million subscribers. The MCN-powered search service (an SMS triggered search service that lets people use a shortcode to text queries for their favorite downloadable music) complements MCN’s WAP search solution for the SMART Music Store, which launched in 2008 and offers subscribers real-time access to a growing catalog of ringtones and music tracks from local content providers.

Stephen Burke, MCN SVP Sales and Marketing, who pre-briefed me on the news announcement yesterday, also kindly agreed to a spontaneous Skype chat interview to connect the dots in MCN’s evolving search strategy. I produce an excerpt of it below, and will circle back for a more in-depth discussion once MCN formally announces a key customer win later in the summer.

Q: The news is Smart Search. What else is in the pipeline?

A: We will also be adding new WAP and SMS content channels with Smart this month and next, and are seeing steady and healthy traffic growth.

Q: What can you share about traffic and usage?

A: For the Smart WAP Music search, we have seen page views and queries double in the second quarter calendar. We add [the content categories] Games in mid-June and Video in late June, which is projected to increase traffic about 3x.

Q: SMS activity?

A: SMS Search [is] reaching all the non-WAP users in the world’s most active SMS market.We will be ramping advertising in Q3. In emerging markets, the first step is to help build the Mobile Ad ecosystem, which is happening now.

Q: Do they [Smart mobile operator] use allwords [MCN's own PPC mobile content promotion program]?

A: No, not yet. The Philippines’ carrier revshare/ecosystem issues aren’t quite in place yet.

Q: And what can you report elsewhere across your partners/customers?

A: AIS in Thailand, FYI has also tripled traffic as they’ve added our Search to almost every page on the portal in their preparations to launch 3G services. These “emerging markets” are catching fire. Basically, we are seeing growth in all markets (Scandinavia, Turkey, Thailand, Philippines, Japan, etc).

Q: SMS search is certainly on the upswing.

A: In markets where WAP penetration/3G penetration is still lower (than Europe or U.S. or Japan), a transaction oriented, content and personalization oriented SMS service is an important addition. And it’s [SMS search] being specced into RFPs we are seeing elsewhere in S. Asia and Latin America.

My take: SMS search is a case of been-there-done-that? No way! It may be a rather un-sexy category of mobile search, but there is nothing unexciting about the demand for it across markets (and the increasing interest among advertisers). Indeed, comScore reports that SMS ads average a 16 percent response rate, outperforming typical 1-3 percent click-through rates for mobile display ads. While we may be enamored of the iPhone and the pivotal role this device has played in shifting mobile models (and the complete mobile business ecosystem) in the direction of mobile computing (as opposed to mobile communications), we should remember that the mobile device is about connecting us to the people and stuff (information, answers, content, and advertising - because it is content) that matters to us most. What works is what works. As Alex Meisl - Chairman of Sponge, a mobile marketing agency, and Co-Chair of the Mobile Marketing Association - pointed out in a phone interview yesterday, he is not bullish about bells and whistles in mobile. Most of his company’s campaigns harness text and messaging mechanisms people understand. Another advantage of text is the dialog it encourages between people and brands. This level of interaction can also bring a new dimension to mobile search, turning a search query into much more of a search conversation we can all understand.

Disclaimer: ChaCha has sponsored an MSG white paper; MCN has been an MSG supporter.

Last week the news was all about GyPSii’s new iPhone app. Developed by GeoSentric, GyPSii lets people, and now people who own iPhones ,create and share geotagged content in real-time with friends, family, and the growing global community of GyPSii members. But it doesn’t stop there. The places and experiences users create become Internet-searchable destinations, available for friends and communities to share and comment on, not only in GyPSii, but also across other social media such as Facebook and Twitter.

Read between the lines, and GyPSii goes one huge step beyond the slew of location-aware, mobile social networking services we’ve see up to this point. Sure, it allows people to instantly capture and share what they are actually doing, building a multi-media virtual diary on their world - the places they have been and the things that they have done.  But it also allows people to search (and find) these places/people/experiences with their mobile phones.

I am immediately reminded of the key theme of the Netsize Guide 2009, a milestone mobile almanac that represents an exciting (and on-going) collaboration with Stan Chesnais, Netsize CEO, who steered me in the direction of the next mega-trend in mobile: The blurring of the barriers between the virtual and physical worlds.

But it’s more than an adrenalin-driven vision of the future. As we described in the book (which I urge you to download via the MSG sidebar), it’s happening now, and examples range from Ford’s super-cool use of augmented reality in a mobile marketing campaign, to visual search/advertising schemes supported by SnapNow, to GyPSii’s little known business model, which is all about indexing the world around us for the delivery of relevant advertising and services we can’t yet imagine. (I hadn’t had the pleasure of meeting with GyPSii at the time I wrote the book, but you can bet it has a top-notch spot in the 2010 Guide!)

Shortly before GyPSii launched its iPhone app, Vanessa Vigar, Head of Corporate Communications, invited me to company HQ in Amsterdam to connect with Dan Harple, GyPSii CEO. The interview was a meeting of the minds, which I have produced as a two-part podcast here on MSG. (Thanks again for reaching out, Vanessa!)

In Part 1, Dan gives me the high-level view of what GyPSii is (and isn’t), presents his no-holds-barred view of the real market for location services, and walks me through the value propositions (for people and GyPSii partners) that are intertwined with the company mission to make sure all of us are out on our bikes searching the planet, instead of on our PCs searching the Internet.

Listen to the podcast. [17:00]

For background on  GyPSii and a review of some of the recent announcements (deals with handset manufacturers, impressive traction in China, and the newly-released Open Experience API), check out my bnetTV interview with Shane Lennon, Senior Vice President, Marketing & Product Development at GyPSii, in the MSG video jukebox (located in the right-hand sidebar).

I have purposely kept GyPSii running as a feature video since bnetTV, which is on an expansion course,  predictably experienced some growing pains that kept it off the air. There are still some tweaks to make, and videos to be uploaded, but bnetTV tells me it’s all systems-go (for sure!) this week. I will therefore swap out the GyPSii interview mid-week and use the space to showcase a variety of cool companies - interviewed by me on behalf of bnetTV - as well as a new series of videos I’m proud to report as an MSG production. Thanks to Stuart Willett, who brought together a professional film crew for this purpose. If you are interested in learning more about filming opportunities and events where MSG will be on hand to film interviews and product demos, please contact Stuart at sw@morianamediagroup.com or by phone on +44  7734 315 506.

Audio interview excerpts:

MOBILITY: Despite the fact we have mobile services, we still tend to experience life and everything around us in a sit-down, do-nothing mode. “Everyone’s connected now, but our lives are developing a kind of virtual feel to them that I think is thin.” Dan and his team (mostly ex-Netscape) developed GyPSii to “record your life in a digital way, so wherever you are you can record what you’re doing and you can share that with communities, your friends, your family.” The newly-released module, called GyPSii Connect, automatically connects people with their other social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter.

LOCATION: Is LBS the next big thing? Maybe - but our definition of it is limiting our ability to break new ground. A problem is our outmoded paradigm. “To create innovation you don’t look in the rear view mirror.” GyPSii does location, “but it’s not all we do.”

SEARCH: A primary function of GyPSii is PlaceMe. From the website: “PlaceMe - allows you to create a point of interest (POI) and associate a current or previous image, video, audio and text, URL and reference the POI to your current or last geo-location, categorize, tag and describe the point of interest and submit to the server in real time to a personal or publicly designated folder in your MyPlaces (your record of points of interest).” Put simply, every time you do [perform] a PlaceMe, you create a searchable place on the Internet. GyPSii has put this function at the center of a new search paradigm. It’s all about “a much deeper level of relevancy which isn’t about a virtual world, it’s about a real world.  So, when I search, I don’t want to really search what other websites people clicked on, I want to search other places and experiences that people had.”

PEOPLE-POWERED SEARCH: Google search is about PageRank, an algorithm that, like a popularity contest, pushes what the mass market says is cool. But there’s more to life than following the crowd. GyPSii relies on people to make results relevant and potentially more valuable to us. It’s all about “building an alternative global Internet search index.” As Dan puts it: “I think the only way you build that index is if you empower millions of people to build it.  So, that’s natural, it’s organic, it came from real people, I just think that’s a cooler index to have.” After all, it’s people and their opinions that matter most. “When I search, I don’t really care how many people clicked on a restaurant’s website, it doesn’t matter to me.  What matters is did my friends go there, did people in my community go there, who goes there and what do they think of it.”

MOBILE ADVERTISING: Part 2 focuses on this topic - but we do get a view into the business models Dan imagines can emerge when you combine people-powered search and real world experience. “I think the future of advertising is about a much deeper level of relevance and context and location.”

iPHONE: It’s game-changing - but the barrier to entry for that coolness may not be so high after all. “As a developer, you can make much cooler apps on the iPhone right now, but I would suggest that other companies who build browsers, [such as] Opera and Microsoft, will create a much better mobile browser. But I think the barrier to [an] enhanced user experience is more at an operating system level. (Translated: Symbian is clunky and needs to get better, for example.) As far as advertising goes, Dan isn’t jumping on the iPhone bandwagon. “I’d say the amount of ads served in the mobile market right now isn’t yet quite material.  It’s material when it’s at scale, and, for all the love of Apple and the coolness of the iPhone, it’s not a product that’s had scale.”

GYPSII iPHONE APP: (Note: This interview was conducted prior to launch, so no deep details.) What could Dan say at the time: It does more and looks cooler (because it’s an iPhone, of course!). But look under the hood and the iconography of GyPSii (the visual vocabulary), which is core to what GyPSsii is, will stay the same. “Practically, what this means is when GyPSii rolls out on the iPhone, it will reflect the next-gen - and we don’t call it UI any more, we call it UX - user experience.  So, our next-gen UX will be on the iPhone and then that’s already in build processes on all of our other device families.

OPENEXPERIENCE API (OEx):  Just call it the “window into the management of your social fabric and your interaction with people, not just on GyPSii but on other social networks.  It’s the management of all your social media, how you record it, how you share it, and how you search for it.” What does it mean for partners? In a word: Speed. “If you think what Facebook Connect has done for Facebook, it’s a similar thing for GyPSii; it allows us to get integration with other partners fast.” As Dan puts it: “The way to think about this is if we had to go and do a custom build of GyPSii on every device, no company could afford to do that, there are too many devices coming and they’re coming too quickly….So, we essentially built a core platform and an API around that platform which drives all the experiences you see in GyPSii, so then all those key functions can be called out of that API.” The OEx is at the heart of a recent deal with Samsung. “They’re launching their own social media location-based portal, and essentially it’s GyPSii, it’s using the GyPSii back-end and using our open experience API to make all that happen.”

In Part 2 - Dan and I take a look at mobile advertising, which is live in countries such as China. We also deep dive into the details of the Gypsii business model, one Dan calls the waterfall model, and we dissect the GyPSii mobile search paradigm, one based on a new concept Dan calls PlaceRank.

Special thanks to GyPSii for hosting my podcast until I can work out the details to upload my content to the cloud and make it avaiable to MSG readers via iTunes. It’s work in progress and coming soon!

I can finally come out with the mobile advertising exclusive I have been hinting about since I spoke at a Knowledge & Networking Seminar - an excellent event organized by the Association for Interactive Media and Entertainment (AIME) -  focused specifically on mobile advertising and social networking. During the evening, I had the opportunity to connect with Eric Mugnier, Product and Innovation Director at InsideMobile, a mobile marketing agency that understands the importance of offering people more of a say in their advertising experiences.

It was refreshing to hear an advertising executive (other than Jonathan MacDonald and, more recently, WPP’s Mark Linder) provide reasons why the individual(!) sits at the center of a newly- emerging (and ever-evolving) mobile advertising value web. But now we have proof that what many suggest is idealism, can actually provide the basis for an ideal business model.

The news is today’s announcement by Reebok that it has launched Your Reebok, the world’s first iPhone app that allows us to customize our sneakers (an app created by Inside Mobile). Your Reebok launches initially in the U.S. and the U.K. but the service will go live in Germany, France, Belgium, Holland, Austria, and Ireland in the coming months. But the real news for me is the sea change in mobile advertising/marketing thinking this made-for-mobile app represents. I caught up with Dusan Hamlin, Inside Mobile Managing Director, to talk about what the app does now, and what we can expect next.

At first glance, the cool factor is how this app uses the features and functionality of the iPhone, such as the accelerometer, to take mobile interaction to another level. In addition to being able to customize up to 23 areas of the show with a choice of 19 colors, people can also shake the iPhone to mix and meld colors in truly one-of-a-kind random designs.

Do you like what you see? Then share it with a friend. But this time we’re not talking about just another app that lets us show stuff to people in a one-way (one-to-several broadcast) exchange. Dusan made a conscious choice to enable mobile community collaboration. “You share the sneaker with friends and say ‘what do you think?’ They edit it [your design], make some changes and send it back, saying ‘it was cool before, but I like it more now.’” (Yes, another example that plays in favor of the much larger - and I would argue - inevitable trend to co-creation. I am immediately reminded of the work of Eric von Hippel, Professor and Head of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Group at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Democratizing Innovation, his must-read business book published in 2005, strikes a new chord when we apply it to mobile.

Beyond collaboration, the app lets us tag our design, add it to a Google map, and view all the other tagged designs worldwide.

Location awareness is an element in the service, and plays a significant role in the service roadmap, but Dusan’s plans are light years ahead of the stale location-based advertising approaches I hear at conferences and industry get-togethers. Dusan has developed a strategy that turns location into a core element of a much larger (and vastly more exciting) personal creativity app. Location-based inspiration is the buzzword here. In a future version of the app, the service will suggest ideas/motifs to people (to help them customize their sneakers) based around their location and time of day. “If it’s 2am and you’re in London, the app will show you designs that fit with nightclubs, clubbing, and the mood of that moment.” Likewise, switching the app on when you’re on a beach in the middle of the afternoon might deliver designs based around muted natural colors, cloud shapes, and holiday fun.

But Reebok doesn’t only boost brand awareness. It offers people a chance to buy the shoes they customize. For the moment, that’s the only aspect of the service that is online (as opposed to mobile). In practical terms, people (when they have completed customizing their sneakers) have to click on an option to email the design to their PC, where they can complete the transaction. (No bill-shock here. The app tells you - as you design the sneaker and choose from materials such as suede and leather to complete the look - exactly how much the shoe will cost. The fully customized shoes range from GBP80 to GBP110, depending on the shoe, materials, and optional extras.)

Moving forward (and no doubt after successful negotiations with Apple - amazing how they have become a gatekeeper in mobile apps and commerce!),  a future version will let people buy the shoes using their mobile phone and credit card. It will be interesting to see what cut Apple takes for the transaction…

My take: Communication, creativity, collaboration, and commerce. Impressive! Connect the dots, as Dusan and I did, and it’s all about making long tail marketing possible. All the more effective since the process from end-to-end involves us, turning us into proud creators, brand ambassadors, and new recruits in the army of fanatics that brands like Reebok need to succeed. (Once again borrowing a disruptive concept from my favorite source: Jonathan MacDonald…)

So, does the Reebok app cover the bases to make the jump from social activity to social community? Yes, but Dusan is more interested in enabling a community than building one. “That part of the API will be open. So if people want to build a community around a design, or create a kind of work group to develop a design, it’s up to them. No one is in control here.” (And no one should be.)

My take: Inside Mobile’s goal was to create a new kind of brand sponsorship model and encourage empowered people to spend more time (on their terms) with the brand using their mobile phones. In my view, the company has succeeded on all counts.

You know the specter of the downturn has hit mobile when a super power like Google claims it can’t attend participate in industry events because of budget constraints.

However, smart companies know that a sluggish economy spell opportunity for businesses that know how to move forward when the economy is standing still. Indeed, the doom-and-gloom mood hasn’t stopped 50+ industry heavyweights from around the world from meeting in London in June for an executive brainstorm about the future profit opportunities in an open mobile world.

I am reminded of the recent MSG podcast with Tom Huseby, Managing Partner, SeaPoint Ventures, and his observation that there is plenty of money and opportunity in mobile, but it’s up to entrepreneurs to structure their good ideas so VCs get it. Mobile has enjoyed an exceptionally high growth trajectory and even the credit crunch can’t discourage VCs from investing. “On the whole, venture capitalists have not run out of money. The bars are high and it’s difficult, but my gosh, my advice to entrepreneurs is keep working on your idea until it does appeal to the money, or don’t use the money to do it.” What has VCs excited? Open systems, open storefronts and open operators - and lots of apps.

Against this backdrop, the timing couldn’t be better for an industry event sharply focused on what open is (and isn’t). Yes, it’s about new and increasingly open business ecosystems (where mobile operators can still play a central role provided they play according to the new rules). But open means much more. It’s about the convergence of platforms and devices to blur the boundaries between the physical and virtual worlds, and transform communication, content, advertising, search and retail.

More importantly, open is about the shift from command-control to coordinate-cultivate, a seismic shift in how we do business and make money.

How do we get there from here? What models are sustainable and which are hype? There are no easy answers. However, the Open Mobile Summit (June 10-11 in London), produced by Robin Batt, an independent consultant with 13 years experience in the space, certainly covers all the bases to offer attendees insights that will allow them to take charge of the wave of change rather than be crashed by it. (In fact, even Google is attending!)

I was so impressed by the line-up of topics and top-notch speakers that I immediately signed on to be a premiere media sponsor and moderate the session on mobile advertising. I am pleased to report I now have 5 heavily discount passes to share with readers at just £995, valid until 26 May. VIP code: MSG. Register here http://www.openmobilesummit.com

The Open Mobile Summit, like the emerging value chain it represents, brings together world-class speakers from mobile operators, handset OEMs, wireless software houses, and Internet and applications companies, to explore how to profit in an open mobile economy. I hope you will join me and senior executives from T-Mobile, Vodafone, TeliaSonera, O2, Google, Nokia, Yahoo, RIM, Acer, LG, Motorola, and Symbian - plus a mix of VCs and industry analysts at this powerful cross-industry networking event.

The Open Mobile Summit provides an executive summary on all the key strategic developments - and growth areas - in mobile today. Including:

• App Stores: Fad or Future?
• Who will own the mobile desktop?
• Beyond the phone
• Internet vs made-for mobile
• Future of the Operator Deck
• Inter-connected Entertainment
• Mobile Advertising
• Where’s the value in open mobile
• How to monetize mobile Internet
• Open APIs and Smart Pipes

Full agenda here http://www.openmobilesummit.com/agenda.aspx

Speakers include:

Operators:

• Christopher Schläffer, Group Product & Innovation Officer, Deutsche Telekom * Keynote Speaker
• Kenneth Karlberg, President Business Area Mobility Services, TeliaSonera * Keynote Speaker
• Yves Maitre, SVP Devices, Orange
• Dr Mike Short, Vice President R&D, Telefonica O2 Europe
• Hossein Moiin, Fellow Mobility, British Telecom
• Tanya Field, Director, Mobile Data Group, Telefonica O2
• Pieter Knook, Director Internet Services, Vodafone
• Ed Candy, Former CTO, 3
• Nabeel Mardi, VP Device Development, T-Mobile International
• Christiane Vejlø, Head of Innovation, 3 Denmark
• Chris Bruce, GM, BT Openzone
• Geraldine Wilson, CEO, Truphone
• Martin Wrigley, Director Technology, Orange

Devices:

• Alan Brenner, SVP, RIM * Keynote Speaker
• Christy Wyatt, Vice President, Software Platforms and Ecosystem, Motorola * Keynote Speaker
• Aymer de Lencquesaing, Senior Corporate VP, Acer
• Marco Argenti, VP Media, Nokia
• Jin-Sung Choi, VP Mobile Communications, LG Electronics
• Jon ‘maddog’ Hall, Chief Advocate, openmoko

Internet / Applications:

• Hugo Barra, Global Director Mobile Applications, Google
• Mitch Lazar, MD, Yahoo! Mobile, Europe
• Frank Keeling, MD Europe, Glu Mobile
• Steve Ives, CEO, Taptu
• Ray Anderson, CEO, Bango
• Paran Johar, CMO, JumpTap
• Ted Wugofski, CTO, Handmark
• Russell Buckley, VP Alliances Admob / Chair MMA
• Ilja Laurs, CEO, GetJar
• Jakob Berg, CEO, Popcatcher
• Rob Lewis, CEO, Omnifone
• Sean Kane, Head of Mobile, Bebo Inc

Software and Silicon:

• Lee Williams, Executive Director, Symbian Foundation * Keynote Speaker
• Morgan Gillis, Executive Director, LiMo Foundation
• Kiyo Oishi, CEO, Access Systems * Keynote Speaker
• Rich Green, former EVP, Sun Microsystems
• Jon S von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera
• Jay Sullivan, VP, Mozilla Foundation
• Enrico Salvatori, SVP & GM, Qualcomm Europe
• Gil Rosen, Vice President - Strategic Initiatives & Customer Experience, Amdocs Interactive

Analysts and Organizations:

• Henry Stevens, Entertainment and Media Director, GSMA
• Philipp Diebert, Executive Program Manager, NGMN
• Tim Raby, MD, OMTP
• Mike Grant, Partner, Analysys Mason
• Matt Hatton, Principal Analyst, Analysys Mason
• Caroline Gabriel, Rethink Research
• Simon Torrance, CEO, STL Partners / Telco 2.0
• Philipp Hoschka, Deputy Director, w3c
• Peggy Salz, Editor, MSearchGroove
• Ajit Jaokar, Founder, Futuretext
• Stewart Anderton, Principal Consultant, Ovum
• Robert Andrews, Editor, paidContent:UK

Content / Media / Agency:

• Christian Lindholm, Partner, Fjord
• Scott Seaborn, Head of Mobile, Ogilvy Group UK
• Sunil Gundeira, VP Mobile, Disney EMEA
• Barney Wragg, Independent Media Consultant
• Rob Unsworth, VP, Digital Chocolate

Investment community:

• Rajeev Chand, Managing Director Wireless, Rutberg & Co
• Rod Hall, Executive Director European Comms, JP Morgan
• Kaj-Erik Relander, Partner, Accel Partners
• James Enck, Senior Partner, mCapital

I hope to see you there, and if you want to catch-up or meet-up, then please reach out to me at peggy@msearchgroove.com - or schedule a slot with my PA Andrea Henninge (andrea@msearchgroove.com).

In-Brief: Consider this (the last in this week’s trilogy of iPhone posts) a place-setter for the news we’re likely to see later this month from Taptu, a provider of socially-assisted search I have had high on my radar since it broke on the scene just over three years ago. Look for a new service focused squarely on enabling mobile search across touch devices, and a short private beta before it launches in the Apple App Store next month.

Taptu’s approach, which takes universal search to the next level, crawling and indexing the social networking sites and destinations such as MySpace, YouTube, and Wikipedia, to expose an eclectic mix of results and content we might not have found otherwise, has been at the core of Taptu’s differentiation. But it’s the company’s latest release white paper (Touch Search: A New Vision For Mobile Search, which you can download by clicking the button in the sidebar) that signals an exciting shift in the mobile search paradigm.

The advance of touch devices changes how we browse the mobile Web and, naturally, it impacts what we expect from mobile search. What’s more, the touch Web represents a fast-growing subset of the Web, consisting of websites and Web pages that are optimized for access by touch devices like the iPhone.

However, as I point out in this earlier post, Taptu does more than acknowledge this trend; it has responded with a roadmap to encourage the innovation that content providers and brands agencies will require to deliver an optimized search and advertising experience for touch devices. I met up with Andreas Bernstrom, Taptu COO, a few weeks back to see Taptu’s prototype search service in action. Now I have the green light to post (I respect Andreas’ request not to give too much away here), so here’s a brief summary of my private demo and the details I can share.

USER EXPERIENCE: Search is dead simple and there is even the option to see and click on popular searches, cutting click distance and turning search into a recreational activity. See hot searches and share results. That’s a feature that no doubt builds on the learnings gained from 1-Tap, a feature of Taptu’s mobile search service that - true to its name- lets users share their mobile search results (including cool mobile content) in one click. To save users from typing in their friends’ details, 1-Tap can also tap into other services such as Web-based email and Twitter.

PRESENTATION: No dull lists of links or tedious trail of thumbnails. Results are displayed in a card format optimized for presentation on a touch device. I watched as Andreas not only breezed through the card results (depicting images and information in an easy-to-browse format); he could actually flip the cards over to see more details (say, the discography of a particular band or the tour dates of a group). And if you like what you see, then share it (!)  - Twitter it, post it to your personal site or just send it via email to your friends.

ADVERTISING: Advertising is indeed content, and judging from the emphasis on “cool” (and engagement), I would bet this is the business mantra at Taptu. Search ads (as we know them) still work, but the best ads are not only relevant to the keyword query; they enhance the experience. Andreas called them “engagement ads” and gave me glimpse of how this new advertising form dovetails with our content/search experience.

It’s early days, but this idea is one whose time has come. No more advertising messages and banners that annoy rather than excite. Imagine exploring advertising, using your finger to peel through its layers like an onion and immerse yourself in advertising that doesn’t seem at all like advertising. Now that’s a way to grab (and keep) my attention. “You can go into the ad and play with it.” Video, pop-ups, and a mix of content-rich cool stuff. Taptu showed it off to me, but it won’t be commercial for at least another six months. The strategy is about building an audience first and then introducing engagement ads, so watch this space!

(Here I am immediately reminded of a presentation from Tomi Ahonen, mobile luminary and author, in which he recounted why he believed Asian operators have their head around mobile - much more so than operators elsewhere. In it he quoted BJ Yang, CEO of AirCross, the number one South Korean mobile advertising company and the mobile advertising arm of mobile operator  SK Telecom,  who said mobile must be regarded as a “very close personal playground.” If that’s the attitude we need to make mobile (and mobile advertising) work, then Taptu’s approach might get us there, delivering fun (to consumers) and money (to the business ecosystem).

The demo Andreas showed me was a car ad that allowed me to move through the car and experience driving. I could sign up for test drives, see which dealers where had which models, check out related information, news, and reviews, and share the works with my friends.

Andreas and I mulled over what this could mean to viral marketing. Would the ability to share make seeding viral videos a new form of advertising. (It sure worked for Quicksilver, maker of surfing clothing whose “dynamite” video spread like wildfire with kids asking when they would ever be able see it on TV (!) People clamoring for advertising - now that’s a change…)

Would all this interactivity lead to a new monetization model? Say, pay-per-view instead of pay-per-click….

SURPRISES: From Taptu - I’ve come to expect it. This mobile search experience is full of them. I’m encouraged to explore my search results and all the content related to what I asked for in the first place. On each card, alongside the results, I have a wheel symbol that allows me to discover connections between content (some I couldn’t even imagine). I tried it out on music results, finding bands that were like my first pick and tracing their roots and the roots of each member in the band. An element of serendipity to keep content fresh and our minds active? Sorted.

So the mobile search and advertising experience are in synch for the Touch Web. But how big is the market and the opportunity?

Taptu offers this trio of industry predictions. (The methodology is explained in detail in the white paper.)

1)      Total global mobile search volume will grow rapidly from 63 million searches per day at the end of 2008 to 620 million in 2012 - almost 10 fold growth in just four years.

2)      The volume of searches from touch phones will grow even faster, to overtake the volume of searches from normal phones by the end of this year.

3)      By 2012, over 60 percent of all mobile searches will come from touch phones alone, representing less than 10 percent of the installed base of phones and just 20 percent of annual shipments.

My thanks again to Steve Ives, Taptu CEO, and Bob Last, Taptu Head of Business Development, for providing me the opportunity to contribute to the white paper.

Disclaimer: Taptu has collaborated with MSG on white paper projects.