Here we are, deep south(west) at South by Southwest Film, Interactive and Music festival for 1,5 weeks. (www.sxsw.com)

FinnMob, together with Finnish Music Export MUSEX, is having an own booth at Expo area 402,404, that will be the homebase for 15 Finnish Mobile- and Music companies during the whole show.

We will be writing a full coverage here on our blog, trying to post few entries every now and then, but the best way to follow us during the event is via @Finnmob onTwitter.

High expectations, great feeling ion town… This will be great!

/Peter G

by Pegre on March 12, 2010

FinnMobsters had a heck of a week in Barcelona during the buzzy, public relations stunts filled tradeshow, but by the time the teams hopped on their flights back home, all of them had a significant number of prospects in their pockets. And as we put the finishing touches to this newsletter, follow-up enquiries are coming in from Asia, U.S. and Europe.

Dazzboard, Xtract, Sendandsee, Powerkiss, Notava, On2 Technologies, Ixonos, IIF, and Technopolis Ventures showcased their wares in hall 4, while colleagues from UpCode, Cellictica, and Openbit used FinnMob’s Powerbar in hall 1 as home base for their guerrilla marketing skirmishes through the tradeshow’s thousands of square meters.

Many visitors to FinnMob’s Powerbar mentioned the more positive mood in the show compared to last year, while some, who considered themselves veterans going back from the Cannes days, moaned about the lack of real innovative stuff. The advantage of being a bartender at the Powerbar was that I heard lots of great stories and industry analyses. I walked away from the tradeshow with these observations:

• The old adage about innovations happening in the periphery of networks has its counterpart in the presentation of innovative companies in shows like MWC—one had to go to the far end of the tradeshow to see them.
• Mobile applications and services are keystones to industry growth.
• Guerilla style marketing should be part of any start-up’s tactics.
• Talks, especially those spread via the media about Europe’s lost edge in mobile innovation is premature.

The main story from Barcelona should have been about small innovative companies rather than the industry Goliaths flexing their muscles. I had enough time to wonder where we are now in the life cycle of our industry, as I shuttled back and forth between halls 1 and 4 of the tradeshow, and the terms “box moving” and “value-added” services came to mind. At one point in the saga of the computer industry, incumbent hardware manufacturers began losing their hold on customers as smaller, hungry and very innovative players began introducing smaller “boxes” shipped with their flavor of Unix. I am sure there are still plenty of you out there who have been around long enough to remember how the industry cycled through the different proprietary platforms, to Unix-based platforms to Microsoft, etc. Let us switch over to the mobility story. Where are we today? We have boxes. They are smaller. Or rather, their sizes come in variations of small; they are shipped with software in variations of proprietary. Back to Barcelona, February 2010. Twenty-first century box movers introduced their latest and greatest. But wait a moment, what is Google doing in this picture? And why was the buzz louder among the mobile content and service bunch? Where and when have we seen this before? If you are a FinnMobster and you have a twinkle in your eyes as you read this, you rock.

by Roger on February 26, 2010

Powerkiss’ CEO Maija Itkonen had her hands full. She started day 2 at MWC 2010 fielding questions from Samsung’s representative, and even more questions from passers-by as she showed wireless charging of mobile phones at FinnMob’s Powerbar.

by Roger on February 16, 2010

Watching our local mobile mastermind Peter Vesterbacka in action at FinnMob’s Powerbar. The guy simply gets physical with the tradeshow visitors, and he gets them going, and sweating and thirsty. Too bad we did not bring enough Lapin Kulta beer with us.

by Roger on February 16, 2010

Mobile World Congress 2010 opened its doors with usual flair, on a cool grey, rainy day in Barcelona, complete with id checks for the dark-suited masses during the rush through the gates. But no problema. FinMob’ers–dazzboard, sendandsee, powerkiss, Xtract, Notava, Ixonos, Tecnopolis, On2 Technologies and Invest in Finland–plowed through the buzzy day.

“This opening day is only a warm-up, although every minute of my day has been booked. Lots of very interesting companies, and I am looking forward to the next full round of meetings tomorrow”, said Will Cardwell, Director of Technopolis Development Services.

Monday’s highlights included: Jeff Pulver and Friends’ breakfast co-hosted by FinnMob and IMA–the Israel Mobile & Communication Association; Sendandsee’s launch of mobiprint Twitter and O [circle] Services; Nokia’s Ovi Map milestone with more than 3 million downloads, and the company’s announcement of a partnership with Intel to create a new operating system from their Maemo and Moblin platforms; and of course Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 announcements.

Several MWC veterans, who stopped-by FinnMob’s stand, said attendance seemed lighter than last year. This tradeshow’s traffic on opening day is typically lighter than the rest of the week, but many early birds, ensured they had FinnMob’s stands in Halls 1 and 4 on their iterinary.

Nokia’s noticeable absence from the venue fueled much discussion at the various off-site gatherings around Barcelona, including at Mobile Sunday’s cooler than cool get together organized by our Spanish friends at Vintage Barcelona. Most of the mobile operators seemed to have gone on the stealth mode. Given that many SME’s come to MWC 2010 and invest a not so small part of their marketing budget to have an efficient week of meetings, particularly with mobile operators, one has to wonder whether MWC is the right venue anymore. For starters, the id check at the gate has got to go.

by Roger on February 16, 2010

Sendandsee launched its patented mobile service mobiprint Twitter at the opening day of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. “We see this feature as an important add-on to existing mobile services. It can integrate user-generated content and discussions back to the original story, creating a loop with many opportunities.” says Jorma Kario, Sendandsee’s vice president.

by Roger on February 15, 2010

Dazzboard has been in the news lately, receiving 1.5 million USD to finance growth to global markets. HTT Sixgen led the investment round, followed by additional funding from Veraventure.

by Roger on February 15, 2010