There’s no arguing that we currently live in a mobile world, and since the launch of the iPhone a few years ago and all the developments that have followed in the smartphone space, contributing to the spread of such devices around the world, mobile apps have taken over as the hottest innovation area in tech.
Planet of the Apps Arabia 2011 is an event that will be taking place at Dubai’s The One & Only Royal Mirage Hotel from 18th to 20th of April 2011, aiming to cover this fast growing and exciting space. It is organized as a two day strategic conference, dedicated developer masterclass and a technology showcase exhibition.
The aim of the event is to bring together the mobile application ecosystem in one location, and get insights into what the spread of mobile applications means for business from some of the industry experts.
Some of the key issues the organizers hope the event will address are: the sustainability of the current business models, consumer engagement, developer recruitment, app discoverability, platform choice and the importance of social media networks.
The event caters to developers, brands and media businesses, mobile operators as well as device manufacturers and platform owners.
Now all this sounds great, and I’m quite sure the event will be an interesting one, but I do believe it has a problem of not being accessible to developers and people interested in building these apps. With a price tag of US$3,295 for the 2-day conference and an even higher US$4,395 for the 2-day conference and a pre-conference developer day, I don’t see how developers could possibly afford to attend.
Mobile application development is still a relatively new space and there aren’t any big mobile app development companies in the region yet who can afford such ticket prices, the market still mainly consists of developers who are either building these applications in their free time or as part of a small company or group within a web/interactive media company. These developers are the most important building block in this mobile ecosystem and should be represented.
It’d be great if the organizers of the event could address this issue by rolling out lower nominal ticket prices for developers or even giving away free tickets to a selected batch of developers who apply to attend.