Here’s my pick of the 3 most innovative companies I’ve uncovered at the 2010 World Congress.
Cootek.com win the prize for simplest innovation... an accurate touch screen keyboard. They’re a few months away from being ready to release the software to handset manufacturers, but the demo handsets worked very well. The keyboard assumes the user is not going to press the intended key, but in fact might miss and press another key in the same area. Based on this knowledge and an extensive dictionary of words and language context, it’s able to determine the intended word with surprising accuracy. I sincerely hope their technology will be made available for the Nexus One in the not too distant future.
Following Mobile Money Monday I was left feeling fairly bleak about the prospect of Mobile Payment innovation in 2010 for the UK market. Today I met a company called Paythru who’ve developed a simple solution using existing payment and mobile technology which enables the payment of taxi fares and other niche services via the mobile phone. Paythru’s challenge will be to provide a proposition that does not place the changes for mobile payment convenience onto the user when deployed with internet or high street retailers.
Flash Networks enable mobile network operators to un-intrusively regain control of the mobile browser through their My-I Toolbar. Simply swiping a finger across the mobile browser window will display the My-I toolbar providing access to operator search engines, recommended content based on subscriber interests and current status, account information, or 3rd party content from sites such as Facebook or Twitter. Importantly it enables the introduction of highly targeted unobtrusive advertising when combined with operator CRM systems should be highly relevant to the customer. At last mobile operators can effectively regain control of the mobile browser without having to top and tail every page.
With over 1300 exhibitors I’m sure there are many more gems to be found later in the week.