Mobile advertising firm Smaato invited mobile experts from around the world to roundtable discussions in San Francisco and London towards the end of 2009. Some fascinating insights emerged from the discussions, including regional and industry trends, and the things that people are most excited about for 2010.
The thought leaders covered subjects such as what the future holds for mobile advertising; the significant acquisition activities in the industry, including Google's deal with Admob; and the difference between US and European VCs.
Smaato CEO and Co-founder Ragnar Kruse said: Great content and apps are coming to phones (from) more and more developers from around the world, which will differentiate those apps further. One of the things were most excited about for 2010 is continuing to work with those great companies and helping them to monetize and standardize on advertising, so it's a scalable business model across multiple countries and regions.
One of the heated talking points was around the app explosion, how the definition of an app may evolve, and how many more apps will we see in 2010, with estimates ranging from 250,000 to 1 million, a figure advanced by Smaato CMO and Co-founder Harald Neidhardt, and supported by Magnus Jern, CEO of mobile agency, Golden Gekko. 
Based on the fact there's more and more automatic tools helping people create apps, it could be in the millions. Also what do you class as an app? Is a book a mobile app? Because in 2010 there will probably be around a million books available to download to your phone,” said Jern.
The London discussion was recorded by Intruders.tv and highlights of the roundtable can be seen here, with extended coverage on Smaatoss blog here.