Leaders from Cisco, Ford, Visa and ZTE to Keynote at GSMA Mobile World Congress 2012

LONDON, Jan. 9, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The GSMA today announced that executives from Cisco, Ford, Visa and ZTE will be making keynote presentations at the GSMA Mobile World Congress, which will be held 27th February – 1st March 2012 at the Fira de Barcelona Montjuic venue in Barcelona. The GSMA also announced new developments across other programmes at Mobile World Congress, including the exhibition, App Planet, the GSMA Forum Series and the mPowered Brands Programme.

"Mobile is connecting the world in ways never thought possible just a few years ago," said Michael O'Hara, chief marketing officer, GSMA.  "More than a mere communication device, mobiles now serve as our books, health monitors, payment devices, social connectors and tour guides. Mobile technology is embedded in our cars, homes, appliances, governments and utilities. Mobile World Congress 2012 will celebrate the current state of mobile and offer a glimpse into the future."

The GSMA announced that the following executives will be participating in the Mobile World Congress keynote programme:

• John Chambers, Chairman and CEO, Cisco Systems
• William Clay Ford, Jr., Executive Chairman, Ford Motor Company
• John Partridge, President, Visa Inc.
• Shi Lirong, President, ZTE
  

Previously announced keynote speakers for Mobile World Congress 2012 are:

• Ben Verwaayen, CEO, Alcatel-Lucent
• Warren East, CEO, ARM
• Ralph de la Vega, President and CEO - AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets, AT&T
• Brian Dunn, CEO, Best Buy
• Sunil Mittal, Chairman and MD, Bharti Airtel
• Li Yue, President, China Mobile
• Vikram Pandit, CEO, Citigroup
• Rene Obermann, CEO, Deutsche Telekom
• John Donahoe, President and CEO, eBay
• John Riccitiello, CEO, Electronic Arts
• Hans Vestberg, President and CEO, Ericsson
• Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman, Google
• Peter Chou, CEO, HTC
• Michael Roth, Chairman and CEO, Interpublic Group
• Michael Abbott, CEO, ISIS
• Kevin Johnson, CEO, Juniper Networks
• Stephen Elop, President and CEO, Nokia
• Ryuji Yamada, President and CEO, NTT DOCOMO
• Dan Hesse, CEO, Sprint Nextel
• Franco Bernabe, Chairman and CEO, Telecom Italia Group
• Jon Fredrik Baksaas, President and CEO, Telenor Group
• Jo Lunder, CEO, VimpelCom
• Vittorio Colao, Chief Executive, Vodafone
  

In addition to the keynote programme, the 2012 conference will also include dedicated tracks on applications, cloud computing, embedded mobile, mobile advertising, mobile health, mobile money, next-generation technologies and OSS/BSS, as well as sessions exploring business strategy, developing markets, devices, network capacity, regional issues and social media, among other subjects. The conference programme will feature presentations from many prominent speakers including:

• John Donovan, CTO, AT&T
• Manoj Kohli, CEO (International) and Joint Managing Director, Bharti Airtel
• Olaf Swantee, CEO, Everything Everywhere
• Olivier Piou, CEO, Gemalto
• Khalid Al-Kaf, CEO, Mobily
• Thierry Bonhomme, EVP, Networks & Carriers and Research & Development, Orange
• Ghassan Hasbani, CEO - International, STC Group
• Sandro Dionisi, Head of Telecom Italia Labs and Chairman, NGMN
• Matthew Key, Head of Telefonica Digital

Ford, eBay Exhibiting for the First Time at Mobile World CongressFord Motor Company will be exhibiting for the first time at Mobile World Congress and will have a significant presence on the exhibition floor in Zone 3 at the Fira de Barcelona.  Ford joins eBay, who is also exhibiting for the first time at Mobile World Congress, as well as Etisalat, NEC and Panasonic, who have recently signed on to showcase their solutions at the event. More than 1,400 organisations will be exhibiting at Mobile World Congress 2012; for the current list of exhibitors, please visithttp://www.mobileworldcongress.com/exhibition/.

IMGA Joins App Planet for Third YearApp Planet, the award-winning, developer community-focused "event within an event", allows attendees to explore the many dimensions of the ever-changing and critically important mobile apps market.  International Mobile Gaming Association (IMGA) will again hold its IMGA Summit and Awards Ceremony as part of App Planet, joining previously announced App Planet partners Nokia, Research in Motion, Samsung and Wireless Industry Partnership (WIP).   The Generalitat de Catalunya is the sponsor of App Planet. For more information on App Planet, please visit www.mobileworldcongress.com/appplanet.

GSMA Expands Forum Series at Mobile World CongressThe GSMA continues to expand its Forum Series, a sponsored programme which brings together industry players to discuss and debate a range of topics in focused sessions. In addition to the previously announced LTE Forum, Mobile Cloud Forum and Mobile Security Forum, the GSMA will be holding an Augmented Reality Forum on Monday 27th February with the Khronos Group as the Platinum sponsor.  Additionally, the Global TD-LTE Initiative (GTI) will hold its LTE TDD/FDD International Summit on Monday 27th February.  Sponsors for LTE Forum include NEC, Openwave and ZTE; sponsors for the Mobile Cloud Forum are Cisco and NEC; and sponsors for the Mobile Security Forum include AdaptiveMobile, Norton by Symantec and Trend Micro. For more information on the Forum Series, please visit http://www.mobileworldcongress.com/forum-series.

McCann Worldgroup Joins mPowered Brands ProgrammeMcCann Worldgroup has become the latest company to join the new mPowered Brands Programme at Mobile World Congress. McCann is participating as an mPowered Brands Ambassador in an exclusive, one-day mobile industry learning and tour programme designed to help marketers and brand leaders gain insights into the mobile industry and make important connections for achieving business objectives.  For more on the mPowered Brands Programme, please visithttp://www.mobileworldcongress.com/mpoweredbrands-overview.

For more information on Mobile World Congress 2012, including details on how to attend, exhibit or sponsor, please visitwww.mobileworldcongress.com.

The Mobile World Congress is the cornerstone of the Mobile World Capital Barcelona from 2012 to 2018. The Mobile World Capital also includes the Mobile World Centre and the Mobile World Festival, programmes and activities that will span the entire year and will benefit not only the citizens of Barcelona, Catalonia and Spain, but also the worldwide mobile industry. For more information on the Mobile World Capital, please visit www.mobileworldcapital.com.

About the GSMAThe GSMA represents the interests of mobile operators worldwide. Spanning more than 220 countries, the GSMA unites nearly 800 of the world's mobile operators, as well as more than 200 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem, including handset makers, software companies, equipment providers, Internet companies, and media and entertainment organisations. The GSMA also produces industry-leading events such as the Mobile World Congress and Mobile Asia Expo. 

For more information, please visit Mobile World Live, the online portal for the mobile communications industry, atwww.mobileworldlive.com or the GSMA corporate website at http://www.gsmworld.com.

2012 Payment Summit Features Experts from Visa, MasterCard, Isis and PayPal

SOURCE: The Smart Card Alliance

January 09, 2012 07:56 ET

Experts From MasterCard, Visa, Isis and PayPal Headline Agenda for Smart Card Alliance 2012 Payments Summit

Conference Program Focuses on EMV Migration, NFC Mobile Payments and Open Transit Payments

PRINCETON JUNCTION, NJ--(Marketwire - Jan 9, 2012) - Senior experts from MasterCard Worldwide, Visa Inc., Isis, and PayPal will headline the Smart Card Alliance 2012 Payments Summit, the Smart Card Alliance announced today. The main conference will be held February 8^th-10^th, 2012 at the Hilton Salt Lake City Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. Registration and sponsorship information are available on the Smart Card Alliance 2012 Payments Summit event page. The events begin on February 6^th, with a skiing-related social activity at St. Regis Deer Valley, and educational workshops on February 7^th.

The Summit will have an "all payments" agenda, covering every leading transaction platform: EMV card payments, mobile payments, and transit payments. Keynote presentations scheduled for Wednesday, February 8^th include:

• "EMV and Mobile Payments - Shaping the Future for Payments Innovation," Ed McLaughlin, chief emerging payments officer, MasterCard Worldwide
• "NFC Mobile Payments - Building a Parallel Payments Industry," Jim Stapleton, chief sales officer, Isis
• "Preparing the Way for EMV Payments," Jennifer Fischer, head of U.S. payment system risk, Visa Inc.
• "Securing Payments Across ALL Channels with EMV," Dr. Toni Merschen, Toni Merschen Consulting
• "What is the Role of NFC in Multi-channel Commerce?" Patrick Gauthier, head of market intelligence, PayPal

"With card, mobile and transit payments industries moving rapidly towards game-changing technologies, the Payments Summit presents an ideal setting for all of the stakeholders to come together to discuss and collaborate on what 2012 will mean for their individual industries, as well as how they can come together on convergent solutions," said Randy Vanderhoof, executive director of the Smart Card Alliance.

The remainder of the conference program will be divided into sessions on EMV payments, mobile payments, and transit payments and will include these topics:

• EMV in the United States. With Visa's recently announced plans to accelerate EMV chip migration and mobile payments acceptance, what are the next steps for U.S. banks, credit unions, issuers, processors and merchants?
  
• NFC and Mobile Payments. Major Near Field Communication (NFC) programs are underway with Google and Isis, and millions of NFC-enabled handsets for consumers will arrive soon. How will the "wallet wars" evolve? Who will take the spotlight? Will consumers and retailers be responsive to the technology?
  
• Transit Payments. Transit operators from major cities nationwide have announced ambitious plans to upgrade their fare collection systems to move beyond open bank card fare payments pilots and begin roll-outs that are expected to include contactless payment cards, stickers, and NFC-enabled mobile devices. With Chicago, Philadelphia, and New York leading the way forward, which cities are going to be next? Which technology and payments partners are going to part of this fare payments evolution? How will mobile payments and EMV impact the transit industry?
  

Prior to the conference, the Smart Card Alliance is offering educational workshops on February 7^thon "Contactless Payments: Fundamentals of Chip-enabled Financial, Mobile, Transit Payments Issuance and Merchant Acceptance," and the "EMV Universe," featuring lessons learned from the Canadian EMV experience. The same day, the Alliance is holding its all day training course for individuals planning to take the Certified Smart Card Industry Professional (CSCIP) exam.

Skiers can come early and join in on Monday's "Day on the Slopes" at Deer Valley St Regis Resort that includes lift tickets, games, meals and a networking reception. Visit the Payments Summit event page for more details at http://www.smartcardalliance.org/payments12.

Follow news about the 2012 Payments Summit and more by following the Smart Card Alliance on Twitter @SmartCardOrgUSA, Facebook at Smart Card Alliance, and LinkedIn at Smart.Payments.

About the Smart Card AllianceThe Smart Card Alliance is a not-for-profit, multi-industry association working to stimulate the understanding, adoption, use and widespread application of smart card technology.

Through specific projects such as education programs, market research, advocacy, industry relations and open forums, the Alliance keeps its members connected to industry leaders and innovative thought. The Alliance is the single industry voice for smart cards, leading industry discussion on the impact and value of smart cards in the U.S. and Latin America. For more information please visit http://www.smartcardalliance.org.

Google acquires NFC patents from IBM

The Scope of the V-SIM (Virtual SIM) Patent includes "any"
3rd-Party Authentication Done with a Mobile Device
"outside the SIM Card"  Click to Enlarge

From NFC News

Google has acquired 188 patents and 29 patents pending from IBM, some of which concern NFC technology, reports ZDNet.

Adding to the 2,053 IBM patents already turned over to Google in the past year, these new patents cover databases, mobile phones, server infrastructure, wireless telephone systems, NFC and other patents that may relate to Google’s Android mobile operating system.

In addition to the IBM patents, Google amassed 17,000 patents and 7,000 patents pending with the purchase of Motorola Mobility in August. According to ZDNet, this ongoing stockpiling seems to be a defensive move from Google, which has been the subject of recent attacks from rivals Apple, Microsoft and Oracle over its Android OS.

Oracle’s dispute with Google – over possible IP infringements relating to Android’s use of Java – is expected to go on trial this year.

Google has dismissed these attacks as a “hostile, organized campaign” against Android using “bogus patents,” but nonetheless appears to be getting its hands on as many patents as it can. ZDNet reports that the company tried to purchase 6,000 telecommunications-related patents from Nortel in August, but its £553 million bid was ultimately declined.

Read more here.  

3G and 4G Handsets Will Capture More than 50% of Handset Sales in 2012, Says ABI Research

SINGAPORE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--“As the festive cheer of the holiday season dies away, the mood among handset vendors remains quietly confident regarding 2012,” observes Jake Saunders, vice president of forecasting. “The outlook will yield growth in the order of 8%, netting 1.67 billion handsets shipped worldwide by the end of 2012. Particularly notable is for the first time, 3G and 4G handset shipments will capture more than 50% of total handsets shipped.”

“As the festive cheer of the holiday season dies away, the mood among handset vendors remains quietly confident regarding 2012”

In the second half of 2011, tier one smartphone vendors began redoubling efforts to promote their smartphone line-up to upwardly mobile, aspirational smartphone owners in emerging markets. Samsung, with its varied smartphone segmentation strategy, has been making substantial inroads into the emerging country smartphone market. Apple is expanding sales channels in emerging markets, with greater success in China than it’s having in India, but is also targeting South American markets such as Brazil. HTC is gaining traction in China, but developed markets such as North America and Europe continue to be the mainstay of its “ship into” markets. RIM, despite its weakness in apps-capable smartphone markets, continues to do well in messaging-centric emerging markets such as Indonesia. Nokia hopes to benefit from Windows Phone 7 Lumia series launches in India (Dec-2011) and China (in 1Q-2012).

The North American handset market, driven primarily by smartphones, is proving oblivious to the Euroland debt crisis. North America is estimated to have closed 2011 with 228 million handsets shipped, for a year-on-year (YoY) growth of 14%, the region’s highest YoY growth in more than five years.

“North America may only represent 15% of feature and smartphone units shipped globally, but due to the high proportion of high-end smartphone sales, it constitutes 40% of total smartphones sold by value. It underscores what is at stake in the patent battles between Apple, Samsung, Motorola, Google, HTC, Microsoft, and even British Telecom,” says Kevin Burden, vice president and practice director, mobile devices.

ABI Research’s new study, “Mobile Device Shipment Market Data,” (http://www.abiresearch.com/research/1003877) provides critical data on vendor market share, vendor ASPs, and handset shipments.

Smartphones Turn Millions More Americans into Mobile Shoppers

A new eMarketer report examines the landscape of mobile shopping and purchasing, including how mobile users are turning to their devices as a research aid anytime, anywhere.  eMarketer expects the number of mobile buyers in the US to nearly triple by 2015.  Full Article

Near Field Communication News 1/6/12

1. News in-depth: Competition announced to find world's best NFC... ‎ sQuidcard - 22 hours ago A competition has been launched that is designed to showcase the world's best examples of near field communication (NFC) technology. ... NFC Forum and WIMA Call for Groundbreaking Entries for "Tap Into ...‎EON: Enhanced Online News (press release) all 10 news articles »

   sQuidcard

3. Nokia Play 360 Bluetooth Wireless Speaker MD-50W review ‎ NokNok.tv - 6 hours ago By Mike Browne on January 6, So, you own a Nokia 700 or Nokia C7 (or Nokia N9) and are looking to make the most of the NFC (Near Field Communication) inside ...

4. Casio To Release Handheld Printer Terminal Offering Data ‎ Field Technologies Online (press release) - 1 minute ago The IT-9000E-MC25E is an all-in-one handheld printer terminal equipped with a thermal printer, near field communication (NFC) reader/writer designated for ...

5. NFC In 2012: Time For The Training Wheels ‎ ReadWriteWeb - 21 hours ago That brings us to the most important question regarding mobile payments in 2012: does Near Field Communications (NFC) have a legitimate future? ...

6. Top 10 Mobile Trends: 2012 Predictions ‎ Phones Review - 4 hours ago Taking the number 1 slot is all about NFC (Near Field Communication), this year will see increased investment into this technology and many new trials to ...

   Phones Review

7. 9 hot technology startups to watch in 2012 ‎ PC Advisor - 8 hours ago "Any new mobile solution that's going to transform your business process has to include near-field communications, sensors and all these things that didn't ...

8. RFID News Roundup ‎ RFID Journal - 17 hours ago La Poste, France's postal service, has added Near Field Communication(NFC) RFID stickers to mailboxes throughout Paris' 4th arrondissement, ...

9. Near Field Communication — the Next Mobile Boost? ‎ CNBC.com - 21 hours ago Interested in digital wallets, gaming, or social media? You'll soon be acquainted with NFC — which could transform the way we shop, pay, save, and interact ...

   CNBC.com

10. Google Wallet Constrained by Secure Element, Limited Availability ‎ eWeek - 18 hours ago For the uninitiated, Wallet includes a mobile application that communicates with smartphones equipped with near field communications (NFC) technology to let ...

11. Ten Technologies That Pave New Routes for the Travel Industry in 2012 ‎ PR Web (press release) - 7 hours ago ... location based services, personalized marketing and near field communications - to enrich the customer experience of travelers on the front end. ...

12. The Year Ahead in IT, 2012 ‎ Inside Higher Ed - 7 hours ago ... resources enabled through information and communication technology. ....place for early near field communication platform technology development in the ...

13. Is 2012 the Year for Voice Control? ‎ CE Pro Magazine (blog) - 1 hour ago There are other promising “alternative input technologies” as well, including biometrics, gesture control, near field communication (NFC) and RFID. ...

14. Will HTC Amaze 4G Outclass Apple iPhone 4S? ‎ International Business Times - 1 hour ago The smartphone missed some prominent specs like edge-to-edge design, a larger display, 4G LTE and Near Field Communication (NFC) technology....

    International Business Times

15. DoD approves first Android devices ‎ FederalNewsRadio.com - 15 hours ago ... and hopefully we'll go in that direction with near-field communicationtechnology or something else in the near future," Roberts said. ...

16. Credit card technology: 2012 and beyond ‎ Fox Business - 6 hours ago When you come to pay for something, you approach a near-field communications terminal, such as a MasterCard PayPass one, tap your PIN onto your device's ...