Eric Schmidt’s appearance at Mobile World Congress was arguably the most hotly anticipated session of the event. So what lessons has he offered for the enterprise community?
In a speech focused on the future, he emphasised to the audience that “Developers are the builders of human freedom”.
Particularly talking about enterprises, he said that the benefits of technology to small businesses, was that it was “Keeping the dream of upward mobility above. [It’s] more than collective of machines, it is a collective of minds.”
So how can you take the best out of these short motivational sentiments and apply them to your work?
One thing that was glaringly apparent to me reading The Telegraph’s live feed of the speech was just how entrepreneurial the session was.
This wasn’t the major product announcement that many expected it to be (indeed Apple’s event invite being released at the same time has taken over the blogosphere instead) – but what it did do was remind users of just how powerful the mobility momentum is.
Where Facebook is working with mobile operators to standardize HTML5 to help developers write applications for more mobile handsets, Andy Rubin, Google's senior vice president of mobile and digital content, posted on the official Google Mobility blog yesterday that Android device activations now average around 850,000 each day.
Schmidt’s clarion call to enterprises will mean that the physical world and the digital world can come much closer together, changing the way consumers and enterprises engage with technology.
Indeed, he spoke of the digital divide, pointing out that less than half the world is online. In Kansas City, where Google is building their superfast network, the company has been careful to engage with those who are already or might be disadvantaged.
He pleaded: “The future belongs to the ultra adopted people - pretty much us, in the room.”
Achieving this would correlate with recently announced research findings from the GSMA that demonstrate the positive, long-term economic impact of the global mobile industry.
Not surprisingly, Schmidt is an advocate of a world where technology shapes lifestyles and businesses reap the benefits.
Are you a follower of his beliefs: Will you keep the dream of upward mobility above?
Joe Fernandez is a technology writer and blogger for Futurity Media. As a journalist, he was an editor on Computer Weekly and Microscope magazines and worked as a deputy editor for Marketing Week and its sister title Pitch covering online marketing and social media developments. Joe has also appeared in titles including New Media Age, Guardian Computing, Computing Magazine, The Inquirer and Mobile Magazine.