14 DAY TRIAL // A report issued by the organizers of the Open Mobile Summit reveals that major handset players such as Nokia, HTC, Sony and Acer, operators Vodafone, O2, Orange, 3 and TeliaSonera, as well as Internet leaders Yahoo!, Spotify, EA Games and Gowalla, are joining the open-VS-Apple debate at this year’s edition hosted between May 26-27th. HTC and Nokia are both embroiled in legal fights with Apple over patent and IP claims.
Tickets at the early bid price of £995 are available until this Wednesday, April 14th, the report reveals, addressing those interested in attending.
“The battle for control of the multi-billion dollar mobile Internet space is the focus of the debate at the Open Mobile Summit, where industry world leaders convene in London, May 26-27th to explore how to monetize the open mobile ecosystem,” the Open Mobile Summit has announced. “Whilst the world watches to see if [Steve] Jobs will repeat the iPhone’s success with the iPad, criticism of Apple’s closed approach to device development runs high.” Those organizing the event are referring to Apple’s changed clause 3.3.1 of the iPhone SDK terms, which stipulates that, “Applications must be originally written in Objective-C, C, C++, or JavaScript as executed by the iPhone OS WebKit engine.”
“Open vs closed models, the evolution of ebooks, tablets and devices ‘beyond the phone’ - and the impact on future publishing and media revenues - are high on the agenda at this year’s Open Mobile Summit,” the report adds.
Summit Founder Robin Batt also announced that this year’s event was set to sell out. “Last year we bucked the economic downturn with a powerful event that brought thought leaders from diverse backgrounds together in a tight knit discussion forum,” Batt has commented. “This year we will once again connect the most influential players with the most innovative, to shine a light on the profit opportunities as mobile becomes the next mass media.”
A statement from Mark Curtis, CEO, Flirtomatic, is also included in the report, with Curtis outlining that, “The Open Mobile Summit London 09 demonstrated both by attendance (very good) and quality of content (authoritative, often eye opening), that even in this downturn the mobile industry is entering a vibrant stage. For me, OMS was a staging post to look back on.”