Europe gets Connected

News that the European Commission is making operators cut data charges for roamers to make the use of maps, email, social networks and other data-based services on mobile can only come as welcome news. As we gear up for the Connected Summit taking place next Tuesday and Wednesday in London, the fact that consumers and business users can now start to really use mobile anywhere will be a boon to the industry.

Connected is bringing together some of the most innovative companies in the telemedia space to show case the technology available to make interaction with media, marketing, retailers and brands an immersive and, well, connected experience.

With a line up including Microsoft, Fremantle, ShortList, Harvest Media, Never.no, O2, EverythingEverywhere, Vodafone, blippar, MindShare and Wapple (among others), the Summits show how mobile, tablets, the web and telemedia are all coming together to deliver interaction between brands and consumers that can be monetized, directly and indirectly.

These services – ranging from simple premium rate voting services right through to 3D augmented reality – offer to take the user experience around media and entertainment, marketing and retail into a whole new realm. While second screening is all the rage with TV, the concept doesn't end there. Increasingly, consumers are using their mobiles and tablets to create new experiences around whatever they are doing.

Social media sort of paved the way for this, but the tie up between it and the portable device has really made it one of the key phenomena of the early 21^st Century and set in train a revolution in how we all enjoy everything from the daily newspaper, to magazines, to TV shows. It also plays a role outside the home too, where increasingly the mobile aware generation are looking to enhance and augment what they do with their mobile.

On a recent trip to LA, I was amazed at how many QR codes I saw in everything. How cabs all take some form of mobile payment and how my hotel communicated with me via my mobile rather than shoving the bill under my door or on my TV screen.

My biggest gripe while in the city of angels was that I couldn’t use my mobile for fear of the punitive costs associated with doing so abroad. My operator tells me who much I’ve spend and stops be getting bill shock (thanks for that), but still the limit means I can do nothing of use with my phone. I felt like I had lost a limb. I was abroad and, while LA is not quite a strange city to me, I needed it for maps and email on the move. It would have been nice to use AR and QR codes too, but I simply didn’t have deep enough pockets.

So, while the EU’s move will not have an impact on my US travels (yet), it will make life a lot more connected when people go to Europe. And that in itself opens up vast new business opportunities. It also makes the mobile web – which is fast becoming THE web – something that is truly international, which is always what it was meant to be.

Learn more about making connected technology work for you at CONNECTED SUMMIT 2012. Sign up here