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I will be speaking at SIME06 – Scandinavian Interactive Media Event – on November 22-23.

As the website puts it SIME is not about visions and dreams but focuses on how the Internet and the evolving digital environment changes the world we live in, both for us as individuals as well as for companies and the societies we live in.

It looks to be great conference with great people.

Eric Auchard writes in Google CEO sees free mobile phones, funded by ads:

Web search leader Google Inc.’s chief executive, Eric Schmidt, sees a future where mobile phones are free to consumers who accept watching targeted forms of advertising.

Schmidt said on Saturday that as mobile phones become more like handheld computers and consumers spend as much as eight to 10 hours a day talking, texting and using the Web on these devices, advertising becomes a viable form of subsidy.

“Your mobile phone should be free,” Schmidt told Reuters. “It just makes sense that subsidies should increase” as advertising rises on mobile phones.

Schmidt was interviewed following a speech on the theme of business innovation organized by Italian student groups and the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University.

Jack Ewing wrote a piece in BusinessWeek on Blyk’s Radical Mobile Phone Plan.

Thomas Crampton wrote an excellent piece on Blyk in International Herald Tribune: Coming to (free) mobile phones for youths: Ads. He gives a good overview of the venture and the business model innovation. The story also quotes Nicky Walton, a senior research analyst for mobile content and applications in London for Informa Telecoms & Media: “Offering fully free voice minutes and text messages in exchange for advertising is a real paradigm shift, but the time is right and I really don’t see how this could fail,” Walton said. “The business model is powerful for users because it is free and for advertisers because it is so tightly focused on known individuals.”

Blyk has potential beyond imagination. And to be part of a disruptive and potentially revolutionising new medium is very exciting. Blyk brings value to its users and it brings value to advertisers. It brings value to the entire telecommunication industry and to the entire mobile advertising industry. And as always with new things, it brings new and exciting challenges for all.

For decades marketeers have been dreaming of a medium that has the distribution effect of broadcast, targeting capabilities of direct marketing and interactivity found with the internet. And now it’s here.

But are you ready, marketeer?

You will get feedback. What’s good and what’s not. You will be told how to develop your offering, products and services. And the feedback comes directly from your customers, real-time. Not from traditional market research.

Are you ready to co-develop your products? Can you change your campaign within two hours, if it doesn’t work? How will you have this dialogue with Blyk users? How will you respond to the feedback?

Blyk can give you more “reality checks”, more information, more engagement and potentially more sales than any other medium. Now is the time to get prepared, and our entire Blyk team is ready to start the journey with you.

Blyk, the pan-European free mobile operator for young people, funded by advertising, today announced that it will launch in the UK in mid-2007.

Co-founded by university friends Pekka Ala-Pietilä, former president of Nokia Corporation, and Antti Öhrling, Chairman and CEO of Contra Group, Blyk is a mobile media that offers brands an opportunity to directly interact and engage with young people and receive real-time feedback.

Blyk has been in development since January 2006 and is backed by individual private investors and Sofinnova Partners.

Commenting on the announcement, CEO Pekka Ala-Pietilä said, “We have been talking to a number of major brands and agencies about the opportunities to reach and engage with the 16-24 year old market via Blyk. We are going public now to invite all creative marketers and advertisers to join us in shaping this exciting new channel.” Co-Founder Antti Öhrling continued, “Our Blyk business model brings a fresh approach to the entire industry. We’ve assembled an outstanding and energized team to make this innovation a reality.”

It has been very exciting and rewarding to share our story of Blyk with an increasing number of people.

Time and time again it amazes me how fast people – be they young users, advertisers, partners, investors or new members of our team – understand the profound innovation of Blyk.

By having the courage to think differently we all can turn latent capabilities into great opportunities. By taking the most obvious of elements and combining them with a new twist you can create something which becomes inevitable.

During Antti’s and my journey with the idea of something which “will become inevitable one day” to the launch of Blyk this week I have been especially proud of all great people who have joined us to form the outstanding team we are today.