3GSM Diary: Jolie, Auntie's IMP and content vs apps

Poor Vernon Ellis, Accenture's international chairman. This morning I liked his handling of the 'fireside chats' (I'll keep on adding the single quotes until the day an actual fire turns up on stage here) but then he had to go and drop a name.

Inbetween the CEO of TeliaSonera and Ed Zander, Motorola's head honcho, he mentioned he had been at Davos two weeks ago - not only in the company of various world leaders and billionaires but no less a figure than actress Angelina Jolie.

Cue the ever-sharp Zander walking on stage, just off a plane, saying: "So tell me about Angelina Jolie."

"I can't," replied Ellis. "I got into enough trouble with my wife last time I mentioned it. And she might be in the audience."

Jolie? Unlikely, I thought. And I got back to my notes.

But if we're talking movie stars, how odd it was that at that moment the two men shared a stage with Anders Igel, the CEO of TeliaSonera up in Scandinavia. Here is a man who bears an uncanny resemblance (at least from where I was sitting) to fellow Scandi, actor Max von Sydow, most recently the bad guy in Minority Report. (And if you have never seen silicon.com's column with the same name, click here). Asked which big applications he sees coming up, he followed the line of iPod-loving Zander and Walkman-loving Sony Ericsson president Miles Flint, also on stage, and cited mobile music. Funny, that.

However, the two presentations that really grabbed my attention today were both, in most ways, about content.

Angel Gambino from the BBC (what's this, an Angelina and an Angel in the same article - what are the odds?) explained more of Auntie's digital and mobile content plans. It was compelling stuff, filling one of the side auditoriums, just like an up and coming band at a summer music festival.

Did you know that bbc.co.uk is the largest content site in the world? Or that plans for a web-based, Tivo-like on-demand console called IMP - for interactive media player, first mentioned by us here - are advanced?

Gambino talked about many interesting things but content rights stood out. If the BBC uses clips of programmes it has produced itself over, say, a mobile phone service then that's OK. But for others it must seek permission upfront or go back and strike a deal.

"For some old documentaries we don't even know who did the music," Gambino said.

Rights will prove tricky. Witness the minute-long episodes of 24 now showing on some operators such as Vodafone over 3G. Call them 'mobisodes', if you feel so inclined. Notice they don't include the usual cast members. 'Complementary' is the word I've heard some mobile execs use. My phrase would be 'difficult to sort out'.

And that second, content-heavy presentation? Bob Fuller, CEO of 3 UK. You'd trust him to serve up some great content reference points too. But so many fact nuggets and soundbites? I could barely keep up.

Those assembled towards the end of the day heard how his customers watch 400,000 video clips per week, how "2G can never fully deliver the complex communications needs users have".

On Orange, the operator his parent company used to own, he quoted his boss, Hutchison's Canning Fok: "Orange is a 20th century brand." I'm guessing 3 isn't, Bob?

But as one analyst I was speaking to put it, if HSDPA takes off over the next two or three years, will 3 have to rebrand as 3.5?

Also impressive in his presentation was Blackberry-totting RIM co-founder Jim Balsillie. I want to tell you how he ended an anecdote with the line, "Do I claim the Blackberry or do I claim the fart?" - only that is way too much work. Check out his religion if you ever get a chance.

I applaud his call for the 3GSM show to get a bit more, well, business. You'd expect him and maybe silicon.com to say that but he has a point. OK, it may be that some of IT's heaviest hitters are already in attendance - witness the likes of EMC, HP and Sun - but cracking how we extend enterprises with wireless seems like more of a prize to me than ringtones. Maybe I'm wrong. We all want to be entertained. We don't all want to be landed with a presentation to edit on a Sunday night.

There's plenty I've had to leave out, so tune in tomorrow for my wrap up of the week. And, because I can, I leave you today with this photo of a weird monster thing. That's the best I can do at explaining...