Arun Sarin, CEO Vodafone Group PLC, announced on 12th February at MobileWorld Congress 2008, Barcelona, that the future of the mobile industry will be defined by who succeeds in developing mobile internet services.
He said that mobile phone operators can't sit back and let other companies gain an advantage in developing music, gaming and other internet services.
"Our industry is at an important crossroads...operators need to invest to bring important mobile internet services to life...we can't sit back and become bit pipes", Sarin said, cited by Dow Jones.
"If we get this right the upside is enormous," said the chief executive of the world's largest mobile operator by sales, adding that missing out on the opportunity could spell failure.
Sarin said that infrastructure players, such as Telefon AB LM Ericsson (ERIC), Nokia Siemens Networks and Alcatel Lucent (ALU), had to agree on the future of high-speed networks, and suggested that WiMax and LTE developers combine their technologies, rather than slow down the market through a standards war.
"We should have one standard going forward, rather than dueling standards," he said.
Sarin also said in his keynote speech, on the opening day of the conference, that operators must learn to both partner and compete with new disruptive technologies, such as Nokia Corp.'s (NOK) Ovi entertainment portal and Google Inc.'s (GOOG) Android operating system.
"We have to welcome these new ideas but at the same time make sure that we remain relevant to our customers," said Sarin.
The industry also needs to consolidate down the 30 to 40 different mobile operating platforms that exist, said Sarin.
"We need to narrow down to three to five operating systems...I'm not saying just one, he said. "We've seen that movie and don't want to go there again," added Sarin, alluding to Microsoft Corp's (MSFT) dominance in the computer market.
"Let the market decide whether it's Symbian or Microsoft or LiMO, but we don't need 30 operating systems," said Sarin, adding that too many software platforms was slowing down development of new mobile applications.
