Research capacity and access to capital key to boosting Ontario's mobile sector

First-of-a-kind report from OCADU

Ontario has considerable strength in mobile technology research, highly qualified personnel, infrastructure and a solid base of companies in several industry sectors — but it lacks sufficient mechanisms and access to capital to boost commercial development, says a new report on the province's mobile sector produced by OCAD Univ (OCADU).

The 460-page report — one and a half years in the making at a cost of $500,000 cash and in-kind — is the most comprehensive study of its kind in any province. It seeks to demonstrate that, in terms of patents, industry diversification and talent, Ontario has the potential to successfully exploit the exponential adoption of mobile technologies, network and content.

"Mobile is the gateway to services that we need in daily life but we need exploit our capacity in research to have global impact. We have great research bench strengths from fundamental sciences and device engineering to problem solving of the next-generation technologies, as well as a nice mix of fundamental and applied research, companies and small developers," says OCADU?president Dr Sara Diamond, who co-authored the report with Dr Vera Roberts. "We also have a strong ecosystem of companies but we need residents to have mobile services to increase productivity."

Entitled Taking Ontario Mobile: Research-based recommendations for how mobile technologies are part of the financially responsible solution to providing better access to services for Ontarians, the report is a comprehensive study of Ontario's mobile environment. It builds on the experience of the OCADU-initiated Mobile Experience Innovation Centre, and provides a detailed assessment of five critical sectors where mobile must make gains (see chart).

Access to capital remains a major challenge given the fiscal belt tightening at the provincial and federal levels. The report recommends considering a consortium approach to build further industrial research capacity, using a model such as the highly successful TR Labs (now TR Tech).

It also calls for the "modernization and broadening of Business Development Bank of Canada definitions of qualified industry sectors to include mobile product and service firms ... Ontario should ensure that media industries qualify for government-backed private capital".

Other industry financing recommendations include refundable tax credits, and levies on media acquisitions by telecommunications firms to finance an investment fund for "development and commercialization of innovative mobile content".

companion report

The Taking Ontario Mobile report is a companion piece to Mobile Innovation: Ontario's Growing Mobile Content, Services, and Applications Industry 2012, which was released last October. That report profiles the current mobile content, services, and applications ecosystem; assesses the economic impact of the industry and financial climate; identifies key trends affecting industry growth over the next three to five years ; identifies opportunities and gaps for industry growth; and, develops a collaborative framework for strategic partnerships and ecosystem support.

Among its recommendations are calls to improve access to capital by developing compelling new investment vehicles to attract additional private capital to the mobile sector in collaboration with the financial services community and improve collaboration between existing regional support organizations to make it easier for mobile companies to gain access to support services such as market intelligence, mentorship and infrastructure.

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