PODCAST: Tomi Ahonen Says Mobile Location Services Will Make Money (Not)
In brief: A Who’s Who of the mobile industry gathers at the must-attend MMA Forum in NYC, where a highlight is today’s keynote from Tomi Ahonen, mobile authority and best-selling author. Tomi is also a close friend and colleague who joins me this month – and every month – for a lively new podcast series looking at the mobile news, trends and “wacky stats” that impact our industry.
Tomi Ahonen needs little introduction. His path-breaking ideas on mobile and its centerpiece role in our daily lives have profoundly impacted my work at MSG and elsewhere. His thinking about mobility and his observations that it has indeed become our 7th mass media can be heard in boardrooms and conference rooms around the world. Today Tomi is giving the keynote at the MMA Forum, where his ideas will no doubt resonate with advertisers and brands just beginning to understand why mobile is different.
To recap: Tomi – in his book, Mobile as 7th of the Mass Media: Cellphone, Cameraphone, iPhone, Smartphone — believes mobile is rising to become the “7th of the mass media,” following print from the 1500s, recording from the 1900s, cinema from the 1910s, radio from the 1920s, TV from the 1950s, and Internet from the 1990s.
What makes mobile special? Seven unique benefits:
- Mobile phones are the first personal mass media channel
- Mobile phones are permanently carried
- Mobile phone are always on
- Only mobile phones provide a built-in payment channel
- Mobile phones are available at the point of creative impulse, enabling user-generated content
- Mobile phones are the first media with near perfect audience data
- Only mobile phones capture the social context of media consumption
It’s an exciting observation, with profound consequences that I will continue to document in contributions and columns here and elsewhere.
It’s also a way of thinking that Tomi and I will explore in our newest collaboration: a no-holds-barred monthly podcast looking at the stats and stories that rocked the industry.
In a nutshell, our podcast consists of three thought-provoking segments: The Numbers Game, a wrap of the month’s reports and stats; The Story, an informed discussion of the companies and technologies highest on investors’ radars; and Wacky Stats, a lighter look at our mobile behavior.
To kick off the series Tomi looks at mobile’s bigger milestone: 4.8 billion total subscribers. What does this number mean? How did we achieve it? And when do we cross the 5 billion mark?
We also talk frankly about location services and where the money is. What did Nokia do right/wrong? And what does its location strategy tell us about the outlook for the sector on the whole? Are investors our time and their money? What is Tomi’s message (as an ex-Nokia, mobile veteran) to analysts and entrepreneurs?
Finally, we wrap up with a ‘wacky stat’ from the U.K. that may surprise you. It’s all about text, drugs, rock-n-roll…
Listen to the podcast here and pass it on! 16:47
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June 9th, 2010 at 2:27 pm
Great example of confusing the idea/utility with the implementation. It’s not about being lost. Most location based models do not provide any sort of real value to users, businesses, brands.
Location by itself is not compelling enough. Any business model based simply on location will fail.
June 14th, 2010 at 3:27 pm
[...] MSearchGroove – interviews Tomi Ahonen (of the previous link) with his perspectives on mobile location services and other mobile marketing matters. [...]