David and Eric tackled a large topic, agreeing that the future of cell phones in helping developing markets is optimistic.  They agree that If you want to see what's happening with cell phones you need to get out of the US to China, India & Africa. People aren't using them to just talk to people or check e-mails, but they're using SMS.

The uses of cell phones are coming because people are unserved, particularly around banking in Africa. The more regulated the market, the less creative the technology. The challenge is finding usage models that are of value to people. Lots of things are already being done, but they're not being done  in an ecomically efficient way.

David's work focuses on how cell phones can be used to strengthen developing markets, specifically by helping to connect farmers with sellers - therefore cutting out the middle man and flattening the market, lowering costs for consumers and raising prices for buyers.

Eric focuses on how can we bring together the personal computer and the cell phone, with the proper cellphone strategy in emerging markets that uses cell phones to get information, put the info online and then re-disseminate the information on the webThe biggest takeaways were:

1) Cell phones continue to connect people, and by connecting them to PCs will help us organize and more broadly disseminate the information

2) This isn't a technology problem, it's a connectivity problem and a business model problem. We really have to look at what the problem is and then develop the solutions. It's not just about delivering the Internet to a new market if the people don't have computers.

3) Real challenges to expansion still exist:

- Still relatively expensive and coverage unavailable

- Issues around literacy: if I can't read and write, can I SMS? How can SMS improve literacy?

- Gov't policy: liberalized telecommunications infrastructure has much higher penetration and adoption

- From a development perspective: If you want to grow GDP, invest in healthcare and education [not technology]

The 2 best ideas put forward in the session:

Eric: People aren't going to pay for content. They're going to pay for solutions and services that solve daily problems. If you built a platform between the PC and cell phone providers, it would solve a lot of problems and would make more money. Specific solution: Abstract or light version of the content on the cell phone, combined with a web application that present the full version.To demonstrate how the technology works, Eric takes a video of the session and sends it to his site: http://www.inthefieldonline.net/showcase/

David: Mobile phone companies have done more to tackle unemployment than any government program, referencing a study from LSE that showed that an increase of 10 mobile phones per 100 ppl in developing countries boosts GDP by 0.6%.