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SPEAKERS
Red Herring Wireless 2008 will feature outstanding keynote presentations and panel discussions. To submit your speaking request please:
This Year's Topics Include:
1. Next-Gen Networks Built on HSDPA, Femtocells, WiMAX, VoIP
Telecom giants are under attack from all directions. Upstart VoIP service providers and Wi-Fi innovators are forcing telecommunications behemoths to innovate or die. The new mobile landscape is one with an alphabet soup of standards competing for dominance. What ultimately will technologies such as HSDPA, WiMAX, VoIP, and femtocells do to change the industry?
Intel Capital, among others, is betting heavily on WiMAX for urban users to embrace broadband. Others are backing HSDPA, while there’s also hope among those that believe cheap femtocells base stations could be hooked almost seamlessly to bring down network upgrade costs. This roundtable will look at the debut of such technologies and the economic disruption of startups and emerging economic models. By assembling operators, disruptive startups, and financiers, we will examine which business models stand more chances to thrive.
2. Mobile payment and mobile commerce
Mobile payments solve a big problem: Developing countries lack solid telecommunications infrastructure to support fixed line phones. In such instances, cell phones are more likely to reach remote areas faster than landlines. That all means that mobile commerce has enormous penetration potential across these vast areas. While experimental trials are under way, the handset has not overtaken the wallet yet. Needless to say, the task at hand is daunting: bringing together credit card companies, handset manufacturers, operators, and technology startups to agree on standards. Nevertheless, some companies and operators are cracking the code. This roundtable will look at mobile commerce disruptors and the links between emerging companies and operators and financial institutions.
3. Wireless, the enterprise, and mobile convergence
Enterprises are grappling with growing interest in use of ever-slicker mobile phone features. That’s been fueled by the rise in popularity of BlackBerrry devices and now iPhones. Companies face a surge in spending on SMS and the evolution of MMS as well as delivering corporate functions to smart phones. How will IT departments handle the convergence of devices in the office? Which startups will find opportunities? How much money do operators and vendors stand to make?
4. VCs, Startups: Crack the Mobile Operator Code
In the wireless industry, venture-backed startups are responsible for much of the innovation that takes place. Then there’s Apple, the public company that’s turned the industry upside down with its iPhone. Apple aside, there’s over 100 venture-backed wireless startups for every Apple iPhone story. But privately funded companies have far less leverage with telecommunications giants when it comes to working together. This roundtable will examine the challenges of wireless startups facing large operators. Venture capitalists will describe how they help their portfolio companies penetrate large mobile operators and attain critical mass.
5. Wireless: M&A Versus IPO Exits
Most wireless startups will never go beyond a national presence. Even fewer will end up acquired or public. So why are so many venture capitalists still investing in wireless? The questions around this roundtable will haunt any professional investor in wireless startups: how acquisitive are the manufacturers of wireless operators? How to build a company with sufficient intellectual property to overcome the build-versus-buy syndrome? What’s the strategy startups should take if the IPO pipeline is shut off?
6. Mobile TV: Where's the Payoff?
Mobile operators around the world are making big bets that consumers will watch television on their mobile phones. But approaches to mobile TV differ by geography and by the level of penetration in each market. Some operators are investing in providing live television; others think that consumers will prefer to see highlights of their favorite shows and important sports events. Already, Apple's iTouch and iPhone have set new standards of expectation among consumers and forced operators and handset manufacturers to raise the bar on the quality of service and the interface that consumers will use in millions of mobile phones. The expectation is that by 2010, some 2 billion consumers will have access to video on their mobiles and operators will see higher ARPUs.
This roundtable will focus on three challenges: will the developing world leap ahead in offering extensive programming to the masses before it is fully deployed in the developed world; second, what standards and protocols must be established to make mobile TV a mass market product, and finally, what are the economics of mobile TV? What will consumers pay for; what business models are likely to prevail and who has the most leverage in this fast-evolving market.
7. Investing in Shovels: Who Will Win in Mobile?
There's a truism that those who made the most money during the California Gold Rush were the shovel makers, not the gold miners. The modern version of the question is whether the money in the next generation of mobile entrepreneurs will be made in tools, platforms, or content. The scenario is familiar: hundreds of candidates line up at the starting line and after five or more years and a costly battle of attrition, the ecosystem shrinks to a handful giants. In the mobile space, the debate over investment choices will not subside. Billions of dollars are flowing into hundreds of start-ups across the globe from angels, venture capitalists, and strategic investors. The flood of money and creativity should spawn a spate of innovations. What are the best bets for technologies that will be immediately adopted by the operators; which will require more refinement and maturity, and what are the long term bets? The purpose of this roundtable is to examine the safe investments, the higher-risk deals and the true long shots.
8. Mobile Advertising and Marketing
Where there's an audience, advertisers are sure to follow. Sometime in the next few years, the number of mobile phone users globally will reach an astounding 4 billion. Advertisers see an opportunity to reach a large audience -- with a highly personalized message. The ability to serve such a vast audience with a highly targeted message poses a huge challenge to creators of traditional advertising and to the technologists who must implement this new vision.
However, while most of the world's mobile phones are ready to receive some form of advertising message -- from video at the high end to SMS in less sophisticated markets -- the resources of advertisers have not yet shifted substantially in favor of the mobile industry. Leaders and innovators in mobile must convince Madison Avenue and its counterparts around the global that this new phase in communication is real, viable -- and requiring a rethinking of traditional approaches.
This roundtable is an opportunity to explore the new services and technologies that will enable global marketing and advertising, how they will render obsolete and replace some traditional approaches and, most importantly, how they will deliver a tangible and profitable ROI to both the advertising community and their clients and the mobile operators. Speakers from the mobile industry, telecom operators, and advertisers will share ideas and debate the challenges, opportunities, and pitfalls of this new sales medium.
9. Mobile Gaming
Mobile gaming has not managed to make a significant impact on the mobile entertainment market. As such, the prospect for mobile gaming is based more on hope than on facts. The main difficulty is trying to create a unique user experience on a small device that hopefully mimics the features of the latest console game. Despite this, many mobile companies are creating products and platforms designed to overcome these obstacles and hopefully make mobile gaming the next killer app. What types of games lend themselves to a mobile device environment? How do you coordinate the efforts from handset manufacturers, platform developers and content providers? In this roundtable, we will learn whether the mobile gaming market can create enough demand to become a key application for operators.
10. The Mobile Content Conundrum
Ten years ago, enthusiasm for mobile content distribution led most industry observers to believe that established media companies would reap a windfall from repurposing their content to mobile devices. Then along came user-generated content and its viral qualities. But even as UGC spread photos and video to millions of viewers, mobile operators and content creators all struggled to develop business models that would deliver profits. In the music space, various approaches evolved, from the tight control of Apple's iTunes to the subscriber plans of Rhapsody and its competitors. Digital rights restrictions have annoyed consumers and more liberal approaches have made content providers reluctant to make their material available. This roundtable will focus on the many innovative approaches to content, and the challenges they pose to old and new media creators and distributors.
11. Operators and Innovators: the Infinite loop
Mobile operators and innovators often have an uneasy relationship. Operators must try to extract the maximum revenue from their subscriber base. They depend on the innovators to deliver compelling applications and services. The operators must then choose which ones they believe are most likely to succeed and spend millions scaling them up. Although they don't often get credit, operators are taking risks and there is no guarantee that their choices will pay off. At the same time, innovators often feel the mobile operators are too cautious. This panel will elicit some best-case scenarios of implementations that have paid off - such as SMS an ringtones - and how the relationship between these two interdependent groups can best work. The roundtable will also examine some of the most spectacular recent implementation failures and the lessons that can be learned from them.
12. Where will the wireless industry go?
The wireless industry has made a significant impact on developed and developing worlds since the mid-1980s. But with an evolving mix of new competitors and technologies, where will the industry go from here? Established operators are experiencing an increasing menace from VOIP, emerging operators will take advantage of soon-to-be-vacant airwaves, and the lines between traditional mobile wireless and residential wireless services are becoming blurred. Another important issue is the growth in emerging markets versus saturated ones. Will innovation in the wireless sector keep up with expected volume and demand? Will saturated markets adopt a new model to spur growth? Is the iPhone a leading indicator of things to come? This panel will focus on the key disruptive issues that will have the most impact on the industry in the years to come.
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