One question I get asked alot both inside and outside our industry is - Are we in a bubble?  Or the less subtle - We are in a bubble aren't we?  I lived through a few bubbles last decade.  The DotCom bubble, where I was the naysayer - "This trajectory isn't sustainable".  To the Asian Crisis, when I was selling industrial park space in China, and clearly saw the over building, over spending, and money transferring happening across many Asian countries, and then lost my job because of it.  And I now find myself quite happily in the middle of Mobile Madness where I see similarities and differences to the past.  On one hand it feels like we are moving very fast now with insatiable growth, demand for apps, extreme competition and everyone wanting to get into the game.  On the other hand after being in the industry since '95 - I'm so glad the rest of the world is finally catching up!

I chuckled recently watching a US morning show where the two women were going gaga over these 'new' QR codes, and I recalled how exciting they were for me 5 or so years back helping me get a free pass to a hot CTIA party.  I worked on 'convergence projects back in '95, and we are now seeing 'transmedia' truly happening.  In another aspect, the hunt for good web developers during the Dotcom days, had young high school kids demanding 100k salaries for html skills; and we are seeing similarities now with the so called 'dirth' of mobile developers , where iphone developers with 2 years or less experience are demanding and getting a higher price than seasoned engineers.  I think we will witness this instability for while as we play with business models, watch technologies and ideas form new mashups, and new skills become old hat.  As ever the ones who stay agile, flexible and creative will do well, from the small development company to the big operators and OEMs.  Besides - who needs sleep!

On the WIP front, I hope you like the new look of our newsletter.  This month, check out our Developer's Column where Sean Thompson gives us 5 Key Reasons to make your app Free.  I learned a new word from that one -' crapulousness' - what you don't want your app to be.  Let us know if you have something to share for a future issue.

As you have probably seen, we are launching a new event - the Muther! of all hackathons, coming June 24/25 in Silicon Valley, and likely worldwide after that.  We are kicking the average hackathon up a notch to get new and seasoned developers a chance to see some new tools and APIs to get really innovative over a 24 hour coding extravaganza.  Watch for our announcement next week.  We still have room for sponsors and partners.

Innovation trumps sleep. Always.

Best,  Caroline

Caroline Lewko, CEO, WIP

WIP / Wireless Industry Partnership

The "Connector" for the mobile and wireless industry

Twitter: @wipjam @thibautr @CarolineWIP @caaarlo 

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