Red Herring ETRE 2008 October 13, 2008

ETRE, now in its 19th year, assembles an exclusive, invitation only, group of leading CEOs, entrepreneurs and financiers from the information technology and communications industries worldwide. ETRE08 provides an invaluable forum for business leaders to discover innovative technologies, secure funding, establish new alliances, solidify existing partnerships and exchange insights. Over 700 leaders from 40 countries are expected at ETRE08, from October 14 through 17, in beautiful Stockholm.

We are in the midst of an important technology transition. The mobile device is displacing the personal computer for many commonplace communications tasks. This evolution will be as important and as disruptive as our previous platform transformations -- from the mainframe to the minicomputer; from the minicomputer to the PC. The mobile phone is already handling voice, email, text and instant messaging. In the next 12 months, we anticipate the maturing of mobile TV and music on the handset and advances like Apple's iPhone that will improve web browsing. Consumers already use mobile devices to buy and sell products in some countries. We already see the outlines of tools to enable social networking on the move and that give mobile workers the ability to access and manage corporate data. But like all such inflection points, we can barely anticipate the long term impact of such changes; what does it mean to be constantly connected; what is the cultural impact of content personalized for every individual? And what about the impact on the major players: any transition creates new winners and losers.

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