FITC Mobile's Unofficial Keynote Address - State of the Mobile Nation

Shawn Pucknell, the program lead of the FITC Mobile development conference didn't schedule a single unifying session for those in attendance.  FITC Mobile did bring a terrific conclusion to Toronto's Second annual Mobile Innovation Week, with its sessions covering everything from advanced Android development to stories about iPad DJs.

As mentioned, there was no scheduled session to act as a unifying keynote at FITC, but one did take place.  Thomas Purves presented a session titled “Canada's State of the Mobile Nation – 2010,” which gave a 45 minute long snapshot of exactly what is happening in regards to the Canadian mobile industry and market.  Tom has generously provided his sides, which are more do a great job of convey a great amount of extremely relevant and current data.

Tom made a few very important points that may note be not clear in his slides. First, cell phones and even mobile data connections are rarely considered luxuries anymore and we should begin considering them instead as utilities. Second,  Telcos are in the business of leasing handsets – it’s new smartphones that sells plans these days. Finally, upon moving to 4G systems, there is no reason other than to maximize profits to offer anything but a data connection – AKA dumb pipes.

Tom's presentation is available online here.