GigaOm's Mobilize: Mobile, The Enterprise & The Suits Meet The Cloud & Big $$

GigaOm's Mobilize was held in San Francisco this past week. On the heals of Techcrunch Disrupt, the vibe couldn't have been more different. A mile away and a day before, Techcrunch Disrupt drew start-up energy which means that the 'culture' of the event was all about entrepreneurship, early stage ideas and investors and product launches.

It also meant that the crowd was a lot younger and a helluva lot more informal. Translation: t-shirts, sneakers, jeans and the occasional segway flying by in the hallways. No dogs on or off leashes or pretzels and pizza laying around, but you get the idea.

Both events enticed "the money"; those interested in investing or learning more about new innovations and trends. And both events had heavy hitters and an incredible line-up; one more focused on consumer and B2B and the other on mobile and the enterprise, even though companies like @phonetell and @tango_me did on-stage splashes at Mobilize, both of which target consumers.

Many attendees at Mobilize actually wore jackets and the press in the audience showed that the panel discussions were about big corporate deals, i.e., Dow Jones, New York Times, Time, Forbes, Barrons and others.

Enter the focus of Mobilize, Om Malik's GigaOm event focused on the convergence of mobile computing and cloud-based services, which is already and will continue to unleash an entire new wave of product and market growth.  

The success of touch based tablet devices is likely to see the addition of millions of new subscribers in markets already considered saturated. Then add to that base a new legion of machines as subscribers – your car, your fridge, your TV for example, and you have the makings of a vast new opportunity.  What monetization schemes that will succeed short and long term?

Discussion Topics Include:

App vs. Web

What’s a developer to do? Should they go for a native app based approach to their proposition or go for a web based approach? How will Cloud Computing and new wireless speeds affect the balance? The core debate is exciting, important and could dictate the future of the mobile web. Join us!

The Internet of Things

The M2M or “Internet of Things” proposition opens up a vast new array of opportunity for carriers, entrepreneurs and consumer experiences. We look at some of the biggest markets out there – medicine, consumer goods, automotive and more. We ask what needs to be done to catalyze the opportunity and what returns these markets will yield.

Monetizing Location Services

We see a flurry of investments in the location services space. But what will be the business models that provide both a revenue stream and a return on investment? Will it come from the sale of the apps themselves, coupons, advertisements or from the middleware layers that make such services possible? We gather some of the people tasked with the job of making location services pay to talk about what’s working and what’s not.

Handset Virtualization

With growing processor power and faster network speeds, handset virtualization is about to hit it’s stride. New services, user experiences and business models will be enabled by this technology. We examine what what new opportunity is being created from the intersection of higher bandwidth, powerful chips and handset virtualization.

Mobile Payments: Finally here?

Mobile payments have long been promised and indeed the potential is huge. Has its time for mass market success finally come? Are subscribers ready for mobile payments? Can app publishers use these new payment channels for new monetization models?

The VC Panel

Our annual VC panel will ask about 2010 investments and also ask what the 2011 investment plan looks like. Chips? Middleware? Apps? Media? Infrastructure? Find out as we ask 5 of the valleys finest investors where they are putting their money.

4G with 4 Wheels: The Automobile as an App Platform

Take an advanced car and add to it a powerful computer and display. Add fast wireless broadband and what do you have? A huge new rolling opportunity, that’s what! But it comes with an equally large number of questions: What new applications will this new platform support? What sort of consumer demand will it see? How will the market evolve? Who will have the dominant platform? What role will the smartphone play in the ecosystem?