SAN FRANCISCO — Just about every opening day panel at OpenMobile Summit, the conference for mobile leaders, featured remarksworth mulling and that just may help any business leader betterfocus on today's challenges.

On the stage Tuesday were senior executives from Sprint,Walmart, Square, MCX and other businesses that are helping toredefine where and how we pay.

Also from Open Mobile Summit:
Convenience Trumps Performance
BigData Matters
MakingApp Magic
TimetoAppcelerate

Case in point: “Maybe all the G madness is overhyped,” said BillMalloy, chief marketing officer at Sprint in an on-stage interviewconducted by journalist Kara Swisher, co-executive editor of AllThings D.

His point: no matter how loudly the wireless carriers talk aboutG-level speeds, do consumers understand or care about 4G vs. 3G? Hesuggested that maybe they don't. “For all the money we have spent,what does 4G mean,” asked Malloy.

The next speaker, Tom Bedecarre, chairman of digital marketingagency AKQA, flatly warned: “Millennials are burned out onadvertising.” Doing more of it, harder, is not the cure, hesuggested.

Bedecarre also warned: “If you are not on mobile you will beleft behind. It's a monster.”

Gibu Thomas, a senior vice president at Walmart, said:“Consumers don't care about channels. They care about convenienceand saving money.” His further claim: Walmart is seeing strongadoption of its mobile apps but the heaviest apps users also areheavy in-store customers, that is, the channels are notexclusionary.

Use mobile to bring enhanced personalization to retail andcustomers will applaud it, suggested Thomas, who added that over50% of Walmart shoppers already own smartphones.

On another panel, Gokul Rajaram, product engineering lead atpayments innovator Square, warned: “You have to be everywhere today because yourcustomers are everywhere.”

Meantime, when it came to the future of MCX, the Merchant Customer Exchange payments innovationspearheaded by Walmart, senior executive Dodd Roberts said that thepresent payments processing system is antiquated, that it arose ina time when actual paper slips were imprinted with card data atretail point of sale, and it is high time for innovations thatlower costs and increase security for all parties.

He also insisted that MCX is a very real entity that, soonenough, will be in the hands of many consumers.

Bottom line from the Open Mobile Summit speakers: huge changesare coming, fast, and at the center will be the mobile device, atiny computer more and more of us take with us everywhere.