@ MobileBeat: VC Panel: Where Are Venture Capitalists Funding? - washingtonpost.com

"What's a good and bad investment in mobile now? Carolan said it's pointless for new companies to try to be the Facebook of mobile. 'What you should do is find a latent need that is unlocked in the mobile environment because it wasn't very useful in the PC environment.' It's also not practical to build an e-mail client for mobile, Segal said. Now that you have capable devices in people's hands, companies should think about what services they can offer that weren't possible on lower-speed networks."

Has hype gotten ahead of the iPhone? Shawn Carolan, managing director at Menlo Ventures: "The hype around the iPhone is warranted in some ways and not in other ways ? People know that it's pretty hard to grow a big business ? around just advertising." Let's say there are 10 million iPhones in use next year and you get 10 percent penetration at 100 page views a month at a reasonable $1 CPM; that only translates to $100,000 a month. "That's not that interesting a number." However he still thinks hybrid business models are in the pipeline. "The iPhone developers haven't had the time to do all the things they want to do."