BoxTone at the Dow Jones Wireless Conference
New applications and the new mobile App Stores – for both businesses and consumers – and are fundamentally changing the wireless market. Earlier this month, I had the chance to attend and present at the Dow Jones Wireless Innovations 2009 conference. It was interesting to hear what both VC and entrepreneurs believe are the innovations and opportunities that will stand out in this year and the years to come.
With a slate of impressive speakers and 60 presenting companies , the conference resulted in quite a bit of lively discussion. About 300 representatives from private industry and government – Bank of America, Kraft Foods, Verizon and the Department of Defense, to name a few – were in attendance to check out the hot new technology companies focusing on mobility.
Perhaps the most informative – and candid – panel discussions at the conference were the venture capital ones that bookended the event. These panels included partners from venerable VC firms, such as Accel Partners , BlackBerry Partners Fund , BlueRun Ventures and Sequoia Capital . What was most interesting was their perspective on what types of wireless companies can find funding. Specifically they said:
- Tough to pick a winning consumer app – it’s very difficult to know which consumer application will meet with the most success, so VCs prefer to focus on companies that support firms that are building real business useful applications , such as stalwart salesforce.com mobile or startup xobni.
- Free services = no VC money – Companies that are building their business on an advertising-backed model, in which the service is offered for free, will not be successful in finding VC money.
- Silicon and equipment deals are tough – Because their businesses are capital- and time-intensive, VC deals featuring wireless silicon and equipment companies are very hard to get done.
- Words of wisdom – the best way to achieve success – and get funding – in the wireless/mobility market is to get profitable fast and manage expenses.
Other panel discussions and presentations looked at what the economic slowdown means for the wireless sector, and specifically wireless start-ups; what will become of all the mobile apps companies that have or are being created; key wireless markets, including voice, network management and security; what’s working in mobile advertising and the markets that drive it; exit opportunities for wireless companies; and the outlook for liquidity in 2009 and beyond.
In my own 15 minutes of fame pitch, I echoed many of these words of wisdom that we have learned in the marketplace. Here are the highlights:
- The cornerstone of my talk was the mega trend we call “The App-lification of the World” where we have application platforms thousands of apps and dominated by two players: BlackBerry coming from the Business Experience and iPhone coming from the Consumer Experience.
- The key learning point is not which mobile platform or which app store, but rather if — and only if — the mobile application is “MISSION” CRITICAL to the lives of enterprise and consumer users, then it can be monetized.
- The debate about cloud-based delivery vs. enterprise-based delivery of mobile services is really two sides of the same coin. Ultimately those mobile applications and the app platforms they run on will only be successful for the app makers and the carriers — and VCs — if they are BOTH mission critical and provide a great user experience.
- BoxTone is uniquely positioned to be successful because only BoxTone brings together user experience management with application management. User Experience Management to understand the flow of data to and from every device in real-time so that you can manage the actual End User Experience. Application Management to understand the health of the applications and the mobile platform that serve the End User so that you can manage the total mobile environment.
On a personal level for BoxTone, we appreciated the shout out from Alan Brenner, a senior VP at RIM , who mentioned the innovative products from BoxTone during his keynote address .
Alan Snyder, CEO
Tags: Applications, Enterprise, Event, Management & Monitoring
