Will Fixed-Mobile Convergence, Mobile Advertising, And Mobile Video Change Wireless In 2008? (USA)Welcome another edition of Take 5, my regular feature where I ask an industry insider five questions about their company and the mobile business market as a whole. For this issue I sat down with Neeraj Choubey, Vice President with venture capital firm Venrock. Our topic today: Top trends in mobility.
Over The Air (OTA): Hello Neeraj, thank you for joining me today. First, could you tell us a little about your background and the fund you’re working on for Venrock.
Neeraj Choubey (NC): Venrock raised its fifth fund earlier this year in the amount of $600 million. A substantial portion of that will be targeted at entrepreneurs in the mobile sector – from core technologies like chips to content and applications.
In terms of my role – I’m an electrical engineer by training and focus on digital media and wireless investments at Venrock. Earlier in my career, I built mobile search for Yahoo and worked in the CDMA infrastructure division at Motorola (NYSE: MOT). I studied electrical engineering in undergrad at Cornell University and went to business school at MIT.
OTA: What, your opinion, are the top 3 trends in the mobile space?
NC: 1. Fixed mobile convergence and the trend of users wanting to have one device that works both home and in the enterprise for both voice and data.
2. Mobile advertising which is changing the way that business can build and offer mobile applications and content both on deck and off deck.
3. Mobile video will be very important in the future. Given the opportunity to watch pixilated long tail content vs. crystal clear broadcast video, I believe that users will choose the higher quality content if only to save their eyes. MediaFLO is introducing new approaches to mobile video. As technology matures for mobile video, you’ll see a high quality experience. So, there will be a change in how customers use mobile video today versus three years from now. We’re seeing early signs on what’s to come in Asia for example; there is a big commuting culture using mobile video. There is an opportunity to reach these groups in a widespread fashion with brief clips like news, sports, etc. There are attractive economics for all involved.
OTA: Where’s innovation in the wireless industry happening — in hardware or software?
NC: If you look at the evolution of the space, the semiconductors have been a key enabling technology. Further innovation then always takes place on top of that. The application developer creating a mobile application is taking advantage of the work done before that at the semiconductor level. So, it isn’t the chips vs. the software — hardware and software have a symbiotic relationship.
OTA: Google vs. the carriers — who wins?
NC: Google is a disrupting force, driving innovation in the market. They can wake up the carriers but they have to work with the carriers to a certain extent. The existing carrier eco-system has too many friction points to make it easy for startups to succeed. There is a lot of money and infrastructure behind the old way of living but Google is bringing change and innovation to the ecosystem and that is good for young companies.
OTA: What is exciting about business mobility in 2008?
NC: 1. Location technology and enablement — location is a feature, not a product. All mobile applications can benefit from a bit of lat and long.
2. Seamless mobility of digital media. Consume your content where you want it, when you want it, and how you want it.
3. Rich media. With the introduction of the iPhone and other advanced phones, look for rich media to proliferate on mobile platforms, even those in the business mobility market.
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