huge wave-making mobile industry events like the GSMA Mobile World Congress next week in Barcelona, the CeBIT conference March 2-6 in Hannover, Germany, and the CTIA Wireless convention March 22-25 in Las Vegas. Then, of course, there’s the enormous buzz and anticipation around Apple’s iPad, which, if the timeline Steve Jobs laid out in January is accurate, will be in stores around March 29.
I don’t mention the iPad just because I’m an Apple fan (though I am, with reservations). No less an authority than analyst Mary Meeker at Morgan Stanley argues that Apple is now setting the pace in mobile innovation. “Apple’s iPhone/iTouch/iTunes ecosystem may prove to the the fastest ramping and most disruptive technology product/service launch the world has ever seen,” the firm gushed in its Mobile Internet Report, released in December. (Meeker was lead author on the report.)
Whatever your personal opinion about the iPhone/iPad phenomenon, it’s hard to deny that Apple is setting the bar higher for all its competitors, whether on the West Coast or the East. And in a way, the series of mobile events around Massachusetts in March present an ideal opportunity for local entrepreneurs, innovators, and investors to collaborate on identifying the most sensible responses to Apple’s challenge. These could range from trying to beat ’em with competing platforms like Android to just joining ’em by contributing more cool apps to the iTunes App Store, or anything in between. But however the region responds, it might be smarter to try to build on Massachusetts’ existing strengths in areas like infrastructure development and mobile marketing and advertising than to simply emulate the type of activity going on in other areas.
In any case, there’s no shortage of burning topics to discuss during Mass Mobile Month. Again, we hope you’ll check out the website and attend many of the events. You can help support the effort by blogging or tweeting about the site and the individual events, and including the hash tag #massmobmonth. See you around town!
