CTIA Keynote: Richard Branson of Virgin Mobile

If there was one term to describe Virgin Mobile founder Richard Branson’s keynote speech at CTIA, it’s “April Fools!” The billionaire quipped about a project — a partnership with Google, who else — which would put a group of humans and animals on the moon, a la Noah’s Ark. Of course, it was an April Fools joke, but Branson sold it with the matter-of-factness of his delivery.

For his serious material, Branson talked about Virgin Mobile’s competitiveness against the big guys, and Virgin’s success with the MVNO model. We’ve seen a number of these companies fail in the past 18 month or so — ESPN Mobile, Amp’d Mobile, Disney Mobile, and XE Mobile to name a few — but Branson sees his championing of the customer as a large part of the company’s success.

Another topic was the economy, which was addressed to Reuters prior to the keynote.

“There are cycles,” he told Reuters in an interview ahead of his keynote speech at the CTIA annual wireless show. “I don’t think the consumer downturn in America will be more than 12 months. It’s likely to be 12 months.”

Now, if only his company can start posting gains…

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   [...] there! If you’re new to the site, you may want to subscribe to the the feed.Weren’t we just talking about MVNOs? While Richard Branson thinks Virgin Mobile is strong, not all MVNOs can say the same. Movida, an [...]

   
   Posted on April 2nd, 2008 at 11:25 am

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