Le Web: Mobile Apps

A good chunk of the morning has been taken up with talking about mobile, and its role in the future of the web. Jack Dorsey’s talk was about [Square](http://squareup.com/), his platform for mobile payments. 

The [Le Web iPhone app](http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/leweb-paris-09/id338423959?mt=8) is a pretty good example of how mobile can add real value against the paper product. It can be updated at 2am the night before the conference, for example (as Loïc admitted on stage). But it’s more than just listings – it allows aggregation of content created around the conference. It’s built on a platform called [MobileRoadie](http://www.mobileroadie.com).

And onwards to a panel about mobile. This should be riveting, but isn’t somehow. The panel seem to be deep in statements of the obvious, including repeatedly stating that it isn’t all about the iPhone, despite [Scoble](http://scobleizer.com/) asking people to hold up their iPhones, and virtually everyone in the pres/blogger pit having one. 

So, many of the network providers are rubbish and hard to deal with, and Nokia still ships more phones than Apple. These are arguments that have been rehearsed to death.

I think the two key issues that seem to be coming out of the discussion are these:

- In-app purchasing is going to be big, because it’s the major path to on-going revenue for app developers - Discovery is becoming a bigger and bigger issue. The app store is full of apps, and being featured by Apple staff can have a huge impact on how your sales go.