Smart phones, but dumb approach? When will users have more control over key elements of buying and using their mobile phone? Join moderator Walt Mossberg of The Wall Street Journal, cellular thought leaders and rabble rousers as we look into the future of mobile telephony, asking questions such below.

− Where is mobility really going?

− Is it a phone or a TV set?

− What are the limitations of our mobile devices?

− When will we have more control over the phone/carrier combination?

− What opportunities still exist for entrepreneurs?

ReadWriteWeb, which is certainly one of the best blogs out there has a great post about Africa’s Mobile web.
Africa basically has bypassed the “PC age” and is heading directly to the mobile world.

Here a few mobile penetration stats about Africa:

-Africa has become the fastest growing mobile market in the world with
mobile penetration in the region ranging from 30% to 100% from country
to country.

- In Chad, the fifth-least developed country, mobile phone usage jumped from 10,000 to 200,000 in three years

- Pre-paid subscriptions account for nearly 95 percent of total mobile subscriptions in the region.

Having lived in South Africa a while back….I really love stories like that. It’s just amazing that the carriers build up the towers and give third world countries the opportunity to participate in the first world.

Well said and I think it is right on. The recent Iphone hype just shows how much power the Iphone has. I only got hooked up with an Itouch and keep my thrid “Blackbatterydrainage” in my pocket, while using the Itouch to test and play around with stuff.

Here the official article and 7 (coincidence) world wonders reasons why the 7th Mass Medium has arrived:

“1 - The mobile phone is the first personal mass media
2 - The mobile is permanently carried media
3 - The mobile is the only always-on mass media
4 - Mobile is the only mass media with a built-in payment mechanism
5 - Mobile is only media available at the point of creative inspiration
6 - Mobile is only media with accurate audience measurement
7 - Mobile captures the social context of media consumption”

I agree that the Mobile has a lot of potential and as we’ve seen new design and bigger screens will overcome the bad mobile web experience of past years. However the switch from PC to phone might take some time and even today I spent way more time in front of the PC instead of playing with my mobile.

Having said that I live in the US and from my travels all around the world, I know that the mobile has way more influence in other countries, especially tiger states or third world.

It will be exciting and we will hopefully be a small part of the 7th Mass Medium

Traditional Story Telling on a Mobile Phone now the newest Trend in Japan. NTT DoCoMo, Inc. started to sell mobiles with traditional Japanese radio shows.

Pretty funny….and I guess I never fully will understand Japanese fascinating culture: