“Open” in the context of mobile content ecosystem:
—Martin Bowley - CEO - Pitch: It must mean that whatever a consumer wants on his or her phone, they should be able to get it. If they can’t get it, then it is not fully open. How open can handsets become? Handsets will become irrelevant after the design issues get solved.
—Sunil Gunderia –VP/Head of Mobile, EMEA - Walt Disney: For us, the openness means taking the online experience, and being able to bring it to mobile easily. For the consumer, it should be seamless.
—Jim Brooks – Independent Consultant: Beyond the handset, the legacy has to shift within the operators as well. For now, the energy is all around the handset, but the legacy within the oprator is still highly proprietary.

Handset companies vs operators:
—Jim Brooks: I see Nokia (NYSE: NOK) as a threat to the operators. If the operators don’t collectively organize, unfortunately they will lose it as the pipes change. I hope Nokia stays honorable to the openness of any network they create.
—Andrew Stalbow – VP International – Fox Mobile Entertainment: Nokia has learned some of the lessons from the Club Nokia days. They are coming at it as a more collaborative approach. I hope the operators see that the more players in this space, the better it is….The problem for operators is that they have limited shelf-space on their portal.
—Sunil Gunderia: The non-transparency of data costs means the consumers don’t know what they will pay for a piece of content off the deck. In UK, in the last six months, you have seen fixed rate data plans being offered by most of the carriers…maybe that’s an iPhone effect. There is a recognition on part of the operators that we have to deal with the transparency of pricing.

For a media company, marketing vs a new channel:
—Tim Satchell – Head of Mobile - Sky: It is not just a marketing channel for us; it is the third screen. Our focus is high-quality experience, so we can make money off the back of that experience, whether advertising or subscriptions.
—Sunil Gunderia: But it is about marketing, certainly as things like location based services become bigger. If you’re walking past a Disney (NYSE: DIS) store and get a coupon, that’s a good example.
—Martin Bowley: I don’t see companies like IPC or Emap (LSE: EMA) making good use of this medium….the revolution will be searching the world through the handset.

Billing issues and hurdles to openness:
—Marcus Thornley - Head of Content - Buongiorno: Billing issues hamper openness. Our sites are now reachable, but there is still the issue when you go to buy content off our sites. Billing mechanics long term are unworkable, if it continues like this. Long term mobile advertising may pick up the slack, but not in short term.
—Hugh Griffths – Director of Mobile - Microsoft OSG: Mobile operators have over the years become successful by selling the same 2-3 products. They have these huge silos of data that don’t talk to each other…if they do, they can deliver relevant mobile advertising.

Mobile advertising & operators’ handoff:
—Jim Brooks: The reason why Omnicom said they’re stepping away from mobile advertising is that they are used to a channel owner being the channel owner…all areas are visible and under control of the owner. What agencies see with operators is this handing off: let Google (NSDQ: GOOG) do it, let Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) do it, let Nokia do it. If the operator who owns it is so under-confident, why should the agencies be embracing it at the moment?
—Martin Bowley: That is why the agencies are doomed. Google talks direct to people like us, spending hours with us, telling and educating us on how to reach the consumer via them.

Exclusivity in Mobile, Is It Overblown?:
—Hugh Griffths: When a customer goes into a store, they think about the device, tariff, and then the network operator. Things like data/content apps coming way below, after things like coverage, voicemail etc. If we get to a point where content and services become more important in the overall decision-making process, that’s the point where exclusivity becomes important.
—Tim Satchell: We bought the rights to FA Premier League for mobile. Networks would buy it for marketing…we bought it for traditional media reasons: getting it out to as many people as possible.
—Andrew Stalbow: You could argue that the exclusive football deal didn’t really work for 3. But for Sky to win the rights, that is great because they have a skin in the game, and they can really market it. For an operator, if they have a choice between promoting Football vs their voice and text plans, they would tend to choose the later. When Sky wins it, they have an incentive to promote it, using TV and print.

Some other points discussed:
—What is the definition of premium content now, in face of user-created content?
—Mobile social networking and its role, vs the need to be passively entertained.
—Mobile TV and why it hasn’t broken through.