batm listens to contgo

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On the question who attended The Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this year

the audience remained silent.

The speaker, Johnny Thorsen is CEO of ConTgo, warned the travel business that 

it is underestimating the role of mobile communication and social networks. Add

tot his that the old continent lags 4-5 years behind the UK, and the UK 4-5 yearsbehind the US.

His company could prove the efficiency of their product like the Mobile Travel

Assistant during the ash cloud crisis in 2010. But the mobile message since then

transcends special disruptive events; it applies as of now to the everyday needs

of travel.

Why? Simple

because the

new travellers

are using andintegrating

their mobile

devices in their

everyday live

and work. The

dividing line

grows thinner

as all the

information

needed to work 

and play willalways be in your hand.

Knowing that most attendees were blissful unaware of the real mobile revolution

he first sets the scene: “what is happening today ? Then he connects the

communication technology with the social network usage: everything we

learned to do on a computer, is even more powerful on a mobile device.

And then he launches a torpedo on the bow of the travel industry by stating: 100

in 15. Nobody in the audience asked the meaning of this cryptically phrase and

the speaker, used to UK audiences must have thought it was understood.

Setting the scene was about general knowledge that everyone is supposed to

have by simple reading the papers and looking at the publicity that is made

around devices and services.

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4 billion ( miljard) active numbers before Ipad and Kindle. The new devices use atelephone number but have a very limited access, and foremost no voice

communication.

6 billion connected mobile devices on a world population of 6 billion. By the end

of 2012 one in four will be a smartphone, in the business world probably one in

two. During the last BATM conference only a few early adopters were caressing

their touchscreens, this time you could see the progress because on every table

one or more were admiring their Iphone, Android and Nokia’s. 

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The diagram on the handset universe was meant for another audience, the IT-

departments in most of the companies. They still think in terms of how can we

admit some system that neatly fits within our existing layout. By understanding

that the billions of users are deciding on what systems they applaud and want to

use, the IT-departments will have tot think twice before enforcing a solution that 

imposes an open or closed MOS (mobile operating system )

To draw the attention of possible corporate buyers, the aspects of security and

cost effectivness were covered, but the main advantage of mobile usage is thelocation awarness of this technology. The audience immediatly understood that 

7/31/2019 Batm Listens to Contgo

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privacy problems can easily overcome by using multiple devices. Maybe we will

see a magical renaissance of the simple phone.

And our audience still had not heard a single word on travel, but the speaker was

slowly closing in on his target.

Finally on one of the last slides came the dramatic warning and the explanationof the cryptically phrase : 100 in 15 means

In 2015 we will have a 100 % adoption of mobile travel

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