Top mobile apps showcased at DEMO 2012
DEMO 2012 led off with mobile products. Here are the most interesting. By Colin Neagle, Network World As is generally the case at trade shows today, mobile technology has been top of mind at the DEMO conference in Santa Clara, taking up the first half of the event's first day.
Context & Ripple Effects
DEMO has long been a venue for curated product launches, from DEMO 2007’s highlighted picks to coverage of mobile products and services in 2008. Its 2012 opening-day program puts mobile at the center of that showcase rather than treating it as a side category.
The emphasis also follows mobile’s prominence at Y Combinator’s larger Demo Day in March 2012, indicating that startup-demo events are increasingly competing to surface mobile-first companies and products.
First-order effects
- Mobile exhibitors at DEMO 2012 gain the event’s opening-day attention, while attendees and media outlets are presented with mobile products as the conference’s lead category.
Second-order effects
- Startup launch events such as DEMO and Y Combinator’s Demo Day face stronger pressure to differentiate their selection and visibility as mobile becomes a shared focus rather than a niche track.
Third-order effects
- If demo-day programming continues to prioritize mobile, product discovery and early startup attention will increasingly be organized around mobile use cases, narrowing the advantage of conferences built around broad technology categories.
The trend: Startup showcase events are shifting their center of gravity toward mobile products as mobile becomes the dominant lens for early-stage technology launches.