Open Mobile Summit: Life Beyond Mobile Apps

6:00 AM -- SAN FRANCISCO -- Open Mobile Summit 2011 -- As the growth in consumer mobile applications subsides, wireless operators, developers and investors alike are turning to new opportunities in the enterprise, content monetization and network optimization.

Those three categories of people are gathering here this week to discuss those three topics at Open Mobile Media Ltd. 's Open Mobile Summit, now in its fourth year. According to conference founder and producer Robin Batt the show will focus on the rush to mCommerce, how the mobile ecosystem responds to 4G, and the growing operating system and patent wars.

"We'll be exploring how carriers plan to get the services to market, what sort of business models they'll be using to monetize 4G and how that impacts the consumer proposition and therefore take-up -- especially with regard to the move away from flat rate," Batt said in an email to LR Mobile.

Looking at the show -- and the market -- from an investor's perspective, Dan Deeney, partner at New Venture Partners LLC , sees another emerging opportunity in the enterprise as large businesses launch app stores and manage disparate mobile devices, many of which blur lines between personal and business. (See AT&T App Enables Work/Play Divide and Managing Enterprise Mobile Apps.)

"There's still strong investor interest in mobile, but it's shifting a bit," Deeney says. "Investors are more discerning on consumer apps and are looking more closely on enterprise. And, there's a renewed focus on carriers."

On the network side, the big focus will -- as always -- be on dealing with the mobile data deluge. Here, Deeney says, some combination of policy management and traffic enforcement, managing bandwidth at the edge, Wi-Fi offload, intelligent analytics and reporting systems, small cells and non line-of-site backhaul will prevail.

The show will have some big names on tap, including the CTOs of Sprint Corp. (NYSE: S) and Verizon Wireless , and LightSquared 's CEO. And the major handset makers and content bigwigs like Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) and eBay Inc. (Nasdaq: EBAY) will be represented. They'll all be here to discuss these issues and more over the next three days.

And, don't worry, apps haven't disappeared entirely. There'll be a full day on Friday dedicated to the mobile widgetry. (The full agenda is here.)

LR Mobile will be there, too, checking out what's on the operator priority lists for the rest of this year. And, being in the tech industry's world headquarters affords us the opportunity to squeeze in visits to Verizon's Apps Innovation Center and Sprint's Developers' Conference in Santa Clara, Calif., where CEO Dan Hesse will be taking the stage too. (See Demystifying Wireless Innovation Centers.)

Check back this week for the sites, sounds and stories from the show floor.

— Sarah Reedy, Senior Reporter, Light Reading Mobile