I believe we finally are in the year of mobile. We’ve been talking about mobile and envisioning the future of mobile devices for the past 10 years. It really took an innovative company such as Apple to help the eco-system catch up with this vision. With the iPhone, Apple’s game-changing device has helped break down the barriers that were created by the old carrier walled garden. Today, anyone can create an application and literally change the world with their mobile device.

The biggest trend around unified communication is accessibility. People always have their mobile device and with social networking services such as Facebook and Twitter, people are now empowered like never before. People are sharing their location, gaining points on services such as FourSquare, finding local deals, reporting news and crossing to the next level of real-time sharing. Right now, we are just at the tip of the iceberg as what’s possible for the ‘new’ always-on-mobile user.

The industry is redefining what we think of as mobile. With the iPad and various other devices that are mobile and always connected, we are finding new innovative uses of technology. For example, Samsung announced their App Store for televisions and there are even app stores being launched in vehicles. It’s a great time to be involved with mobile as it’s redefining our everyday lives.

I see the industry heading to a point where technology, location, intent and behavior are automatically collected and inferred. Mobile devices will act as the window into your day-to-day life and will connect you to all the devices in your environment.

The barriers to entry for starting a company have been dramatically reduced. Amazon Web Services allows anyone to scale businesses effortlessly. Social Media allows anyone to gain a user base and build a community around a product or idea. The start-up ecosystem has been created and it’s literally up to the entrepreneur to get started. They key challenges in this environment is to find the right market, the right team, the right funding strategy, the right focus and the right execution for one’s business plan. Don’t be scared to fail, just fail fast, so you can learn and become successful!