Track Hosted by Mobile Entertainment Forum
Wireless Entertainment & Technology – The Audio, Video and Text-Based Experience
Monday, March 29
3:45 PM - 5:00 PM
Strategies in Wireless Devices: How Device Innovation Drives Avenues for Subscriber and Revenue Expansion
The phenomenon of mobile is being driven by the advances in device innovation coupled with the power of the worldwide mobile delivery system. As the device manufacturers ramp up the flexibility of their product and the carriers expand their capabilities, the content owners will reap the rewards of a new and ever expanding universe of audio, video and text-based customers. As quickly as the device manufacturer releases a new generation of product, six month old devices become obsolete and within months, the next-new generation of product emerges. In this session we will explore what the product cycle of the new-new next generation will look like and how the content – the entertainment and information industries can best take advantage of the rapid progress.
Howard Gefen, Director, Mobile Operator Solutions, Windows Mobile Division, Microsoft Corporation
Steve Sprigg, Vice President, Engineering, Qualcomm
Gina Centoni, Vice President of Openwave Developer Network Openwave Systems, Inc.
Mark C. Donovan, Director of Mobile Services & Marketing, RealNetworks, Inc.
John Arledge, Vice President of Business Development, Danger
Reidar Wasenius, Senior Product Manager, Nokia Mobile Phone Entertainment & Media Business Unit
David Frerichs, VP & US General Manager, Coding Technologies, Inc., Moderator
Howard Gefen, Director, Mobile Operator Solutions, Windows Mobile Division, Microsoft Corporation: As Director of Mobile Operator Solutions, Howard Gefen is responsible for definition and implementation of mobile entertainment and productivity solutions for the Microsoft Smartphone, Pocket PC Phone Edition, and Pocket PC product lines. He has led division business development activities for three years. Prior to Microsoft, Mr. Gefen was Vice President for Sales and Marketing at Locate Networks. He also held the Vice President for Acquisitions and Integrations position at AT&T Wireless, where he served as Vice President and General Manager before assuming that role. Earlier in his career, Mr. Gefen held management positions with AT&T, Western Union, and Dun & Bradstreet... Holds a bachelor of arts from Connecticut College, and a master of business administration from Olin School of Business at Washington University.
Steve Sprigg is a vice president of engineering for QUALCOMM Inter
net Services (QIS). QIS is the QUALCOMM division chartered with driving development of next-generation wireless data applications and services, and is responsible for QUALCOMM’s BREW™ solution, a complete technical and business system for wireless devices; QChat™, a push-to-talk VoIP technology for 3G CDMA networks; and Eudora® email software. Sprigg is responsible for the creation of BREW’s overall architecture and the management of the QIS engineering team. Prior to joining QIS, Sprigg served as vice president of software engineering for QUALCOMM Consumer Products Division (QCP), which was sold to Kyocera Wireless in 2000. During his tenure with QCP, he was responsible for successfully launching several handset products, as well as hands-on design and development of smartphones, wireless applications and supporting desktop connectivity products. Sprigg joined QUALCOMM as a director of engineering in 1997. Sprigg held numerous engineering positions prior to joining QUALCOMM. He was a leading engineer, responsible for development of networking and advanced desktop Internet applications, at The Wollongong Group and Attachmate. He is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame.Gina Centoni, Vice President of Openwave Developer Network, Open
wave Systems: Gina Centoni is Vice President of Openwave Developer Network for Openwave Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: OPWV), where she is responsible for developer programs and partnerships. During her 15-year career in software product development, Centoni has developed strategic technology initiatives that have created broad and deep developer communities at both Sun Microsystems and Apple Computer. Prior to joining Openwave, Centoni was most recently responsible for the development and delivery of the Sun ONE product strategy, Sun’s software strategy for Web services. During that time, Centoni was senior director, product marketing, and managed the consolidated product strategies for Java, Solaris, Forte, iPlanet and industry standards such as XML. Previous to Sun ONE, Centoni drove and developed the Java Platform product strategy. Additionally, Centoni played a key role in creating industry initiatives for the developer community, including Openoffice.org, the world’s largest open source project. At Apple, Centoni managed the development and delivery of developer adoption programs for Apple’s graphic technologies, and product strategy for component architecture.Mark C. Donovan, Director of Mobile Services & Marketing, RealNetworks, Inc.: As the Director of Mobile Services & Marketing for RealNetworks, Mark Donovan is responsible for the Real’s mobile services strategy and the development of premium services that provide mobile consumers with the media experiences they want, on the go. In his four years at RealNetworks, Mark has worked with some of the world’s largest Internet broadcasters, handset manufacturers, mobile operators, and content providers to help define new business opportunities, raise industry and consumer awareness of mobile media, and bring services to market. This work has resulted in the launch of successful audio/video services with Sprint PCS and AT&T Wireless. No stranger to the intersection of technology innovation and acceptance, Mark previously led development of the Catalyst Project, the first higher education initiative in the United States to combine advanced educational technologies with a strategic framework for technology adoption. This approach has been widely imitated and in 2002 Catalyst was awarded the Digital Government Award for higher education. An accomplished speaker and author, Mark has addressed audiences of academics and industry professionals in the Americas, Europe, and Asia on topics including the diffusion of innovation, the social implications of networked technology, and the digital media revolution. Mark holds degrees in Entrepreneurship and Public Policy and earned a PhD from the University of Washington.
David Frerichs is VP and US General Manager at Coding Technologies. Most recently Founder, President, and CTO, iM Networks, he joined Coding Technologies in 2002 after being blown away by a demo of aacPlus. Mr. Frerichs brings with him over 11 years of human-interface, Internet infrastructure, multi-media, and semiconductor experience. With a degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana/Chapmaign, Mr. Frerichs holds patents related to source-less virtual reality head-tracking and the scaling of virtual reality sensor data. With this foundation, he started Future Vision Technologies, Inc. to develop consumer VR products. After selling his first company to Fujitsu Microelectronics, Mr. Frerichs held senior positions at Silicon Graphics and 3Dlabs and developed significant overseas market experience in Japan. His successes include bringing to market the first Internet radio appliance (the Philips FW-i1000), helping to bring Cosmo Player to 25 Million desktops, working with NASA JPL to bring the Mars Pathfinder landing to the Web in 3D, initiating the first trans-pacific VRML broadcast, and founding the Web 3D Consortium.
John Arledge, Vice President of Business Development, Danger: As Vice President of Business Development for Danger, John Arledge is responsible for establishing and maintaining relationships with content partners, wireless carriers, consumer electronics manufacturers and technology providers. Prior to joining Danger, John was director of business development at TiVo, where he managed the company's relationships with pay television service operators, consumer electronics manufacturers, and technology suppliers. While at TiVo he signed major agreements with Philips, Sony, Thomson Multimedia, Quantum and Liberate. Before TiVo, John was responsible for product marketing at OpenTV, Inc. overseeing the OpenTV operating system, which now resides in 11 million set-tops. He also secured and maintained key partnerships with corporations such as IBM, LSI Logic and Pace. John has also held marketing positions with Pacific Bell in the broadband networking group and with Nissan North America in the product-planning group for the Nissan Truck line. John holds an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a B.A. in Political Science from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Reidar Wasenius, Senior Project Manager, Nokia Multimedia / New Med
ia Business Unit: Reidar Wasenius currently serves as Senior Project Manager at the new NMedia Business Unit of the Nokia Multimedia business group. He develops new mobile applications for music and broadcast media consumption with Nokia handsets. Before that, he was responsible for N-Gage on-line gaming and services, i.e. the development of cellular network enhancements for the N-Gage platform. Wasenius has also worked in business development at the Insight & Foresight unit of the Nokia Ventures Organization. Prior to joining Nokia, Wasenius was the founder and Program Director of the Department of Media and Communications at Arcada Polytechnic. He has extensive experience in the media and entertainment industry where he has held various positions in print media, radio and television since the late 80’s. He has worked as a reporter, producer and educator.