The international CTIA WIRELESS 2008 trade show announced that Virgin founder and chairman Sir Richard Branson will deliver a keynote address on the show’s opening day, April 1 at 9:oo a.m. Keynote speeches will take place in the Barron Room at the Los Vegas Hilton. CTIA WIRELESS will take place April 1-3 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Conceived in 1970 by Sir Richard Branson, the Virgin Group has gone on to grow very successful businesses in sectors ranging from mobile telephony to transportation, travel, financial services, leisure, music, holidays, publishing and retailing. Branson and Virgin have created more than 200 branded companies worldwide, employing approximately 50,000 people in 29 countries.

“From mega brand to emerging brand, wireless is a key component of building, running and growing any business; today all brands are wireless,” said Robert Mesirow, CTIA vice president and show director. “CTIA has aggregated leaders from all wireless industry segments to convey their visions to our global audience. This year’s keynotes should not be missed.”

Slated to speak on the first day of the show, Tuesday, April 1 at 9:00 a.m. are Lowell McAdam, president and CEO of Verizon Wireless and CTIA chairman; Sir Richard Branson, founder and chairman of Virgin Group; Robbie Bach, president of the Entertainment and Devices Division at Microsoft; and Dan Hesse, president and CEO of Sprint Nextel.

On Wednesday, April 2 at 9:00 a.m., Arun Sarin, CEO of Vodafone Group and Marco Boerries, president of Yahoo! Mobile will deliver keynote speeches. An Infrastructure Roundtable will conclude the session, discussing real-world plans and technology developments hastening the availability of 4G services for mobile subscribers. Panelists will include Simon Beresford-Wylie, CEO of Nokia Siemens Networks; Patricia Russo, CEO of Alcatel Lucent; Carl-Henric Svanberg, president and CEO of Ericsson; and Mike Zafirovski, CEO of Nortel.

Additional information about the April 3 keynote session will be released shortly.
To register for the conference, or to get more information on keynotes, see links below.

Registration
Keynotes

T-Mobile USA reported good numbers for the fourth-quarter of 2007. The company added 951,000 new customers and generated $4.4 billion in revenue. These numbers are up from 2006’s fourth-quarter, when T-Mobil USA added 901,000 customers and had $3.81 billion in revenue. By the end of 2007, T-Mobile was the fourth largest cell phone service provider in the United States with 28.7 million customers.

“In 2007, we increased growth to more than 3.6 million net new customers,” said Robert Dotson, T-Mobile USA’s CEO and president, in a statement. “MyFaves was a major contributor with 5 million customers at year end using the service.”

T-Mobile has introduced some innovative features and services, including Talk Forever Home Phone, which is being tested in Dallas and Seattle. It has also launched HotSpot@Home, a service that allows users to make unlimited nationwide Wi-Fi calls in their homes.

Nortel Networks, a telecommunications equipment maker, lost $957 million last year and announced another reorganization. To stop the bleeding, the company will cut 2,100 jobs and move another 1,000 jobs from North America to low-wage countries.

News of the staff reduction sent shares down 13% to $9.93 a share in New York trading. Several analysts are questioning Nortel’s reliance on a fading cellphone network technology and its withdraw from a new technology that may be the future of telecommunications.

“The big question that looms over the company’s head is: when we look out over three or four years, is Nortel still relevant to their target markets?” said David Hodgson, an analyst with Genuity Capital Markets in Toronto. “Nortel continues to cover a lot of bases, and one questions whether the company has the money and the scale to continue its very broad-based approach.”

In a conference call, Mike S. Zafirovski, Nortel’s chief executive, acknowledged during the call that the company was not a market favorite.

“We’re not blind to the skepticism facing us,” he said

Gimme Credit, a debt analysis firm, said that Nortel’s revenue and profit come almost entirely from sales of wireless software and equipment based on an aging technology known as C.D.M.A. This technology is used in North America but isn’t used much in other parts of the world. Currently G.S.M. is the global standard, and Nortel is a relatively small supplier of this system.

Now both C.D.M.A. and G.S.M. are on the way out to be replaced by a faster, more data-friendly technology, U.M.T.S. Nortel has abandoned its efforts in U.M.T.S. Analysts are asking what Nortel is going to do to offset the inevitable decline for C.D.M.A.

Nortel is working on products for the next generation of wireless networks but it will face tuff competition from larger firms. It has been ten years since Nortel began promoting a unit that makes equipment for high-speed local, rather than nationwide or global, networks. Little has come of this initiative.

Nikos Theodosopoulos, an analyst with UBS Securities, isn’t sure what will work for Nortel, but he thinks Nortel should jettison most of its current businesses and focus on select precuts and services.

“I don’t know what the magic formula is,” he said. “But I know the magic formula is not ‘all of the above.’ ”

Ms. Noland agreed that Nortel was spread too thin. “Right now they’re muddling along,” she said. Though there is not a crisis, she added, there also “doesn’t seem to be a clear path for improvement.”

The speakers for this year’s International CTIA Wireless 2008 Educational Sessions, which takes place in Las Vegas April 1-3, have been chosen. Approximately 175 speakers will lead discussions on this year’s topics. These sessions will address the most important issues facing wireless carriers, mobile device and infrastructure manufactures, content developers, media companies and technology enablers. The conference will focus on the changing marketplace as the wire line and wireless industries converge, impacting nearly all aspects of life and business.

“The CTIA Educational Sessions are designed to explore the complex issues impacting the wireless industry,” said Robert Mesirow, show director and vice president of CTIA WIRELESS. “We have made some exciting additions to our program this year that reflect new developments in infrastructure, the emergence of new players in the industry, and the widespread adoption of wireless technology worldwide. Attendees can look forward to two days of insightful commentary and discussion from the leaders who are shaping a new generation of technology and enabling an even greater wireless lifestyle.”
This year’s educational sessions are broken into three categories:

Mobile Blueprint – Addressing the technical strategies for building wireless networks, devices and applications, this track will delve into issues surrounding open networks and the impact on devices, services and applications. Andrew Seybold will moderate the opening session on Open Networks along with Tony Mestres, GM of Mobile Communications at Microsoft, and former CTIA keynoter Atish Gude, senior vice president of Mobile Broadband for Sprint’s Xohm business unit. Other sessions in this track will address the emergence of mobile widgets; 4G technology; the outlook for handset features; cost concerns associated with cell site backhaul; mobile operating system technology; security trends and technologies; and the distribution of applications as software (rather than through service plans).

Mobile Lifestyles – This track, focusing on the content and usability of wireless devices, will feature two high-level carrier panels with representation from Alltel, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless. On Tuesday, April 1, carrier executives who have P&L responsibility for mobile content will engage in a discussion about new products and services aimed at gaining subscriber revenue. On Wednesday, April 2, Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) from leading carriers will discuss how they are adjusting their business models and strategies to compete in the future with open networks and fixed/mobile convergence. Other lifestyle sessions will address the rise of the “Pro-sumer”; issues associated with the use of one device in both personal and professional lives; mobile social networking; technologies to facilitate mobile shopping; mobile search solutions; and developments in wireless Internet access and content distribution.

Mobile “Customer-ization” - This track will explore the many ways in which customers are receiving and utilizing mobile content. Sessions include managing mobile content sales and strategies; mobile video adoption and monetization; cameraphone code scanning technologies; mobile brand advertising; new demographics of mobile users; and commercializing location based services.

For a list of speakers or to register, see the links below.

Speakers

Registration

Opera announced today that Google will become the default search engine in Opera’s mobile Web browsers on March 1 of this year. Anyone using Opera Mobile or Opera Mini can access Google directly from the browser start page.

Opera Mini targets mobile phones that posses limited browsing capabilities. Opera customers tend to use the mobile Web more frequently and actively than consumers with more static, less dynamic mobile Web browsers. Opera Mini users brows more than 1.7 billion pages a month, with much of that traffic generated through the search function in the browser.

Opera’s partnership with Google covers all global territories except Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States, and includes all of Opera’s standard mobile Web browsers.

“Google and Opera have established a valuable relationship over the years and we look forward to continued collaboration on mobile products,” said Jon von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera. “With 2008 poised to be the year the mobile Web goes mainstream, Google and Opera are
extending this collaboration to give our users immediate access to the quality and convenience of Google’s search results. We’re excited to extend this productive relationship and we hope that the
nearly 100 million people using our mobile products will agree.”

If you are interested in one of the Operas, see the links provided below. Opera Mini is a free service and Opera Mobile is available free for a trial period on select platforms.

Opera Mini
Opera Mobile

In 2007, over one billion mobile phones were sold worldwide for the first time. With growth expected to grow in Asia and other developing markets, 2008 may surpass last year’s numbers. Industry watchers are asking if Nokia can expand in North America and if Motorola can stop its loss of market share.

According to figures from Gartner, sales of mobile phones surpassed 1.15 billion units in 2007. This number is a 16% increase from 2006’s numbers of 999 million units sold. Much of this growth is due to emerging markets like China and India where many people are buying their first handset.

Nokia is still the world’s alpha male of mobile phone manufacturers. It sold 435 million handsets last year. Throughout 2007, Nokia controlled 37.8% of global market share. For the first time, Nokia accounted for 40% of all sales in the fourth quarter.

Nokia is followed by Motorola, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, and LG. Every company except Motorola increased its market share. In the fourth quarter of 2007 Samsung bumped Motorola out of second place. For the full year Motorola’s market share was 14.3%, down from 21.1%. Samsung increased its market share from 11.8% to 13.4%.

According to Gartner, this year will see even better sales. Nokia is expected to extend its market share by growing in North America.

“In most markets Nokia’s market share is larger than 40 percent, in North America it’s close to 10 percent,” said Carolina Milanesi, research director at Gartner.

Nokia has tried to expand its market share in North America in the past but hasn’t been able to make much progress. According to Carolina Milanesi, this year could be the breakout year for Nokia’s moves into North America.

“Verizon has said it plans to open its network, which might be more on paper than in reality. But North American carriers are starting to realize they need to be more flexible than in the past. For Nokia, and everyone else, it means not having to build Verizon-specific phones, and faster time to market,” she said.

Nokia isn’t the only company that has potential to improve in the North American market. “Sony Ericsson has a very interesting lineup. With the addition of Windows Mobile it has a chance to grow in North America,” said Milanesi.

One of the biggest questions of 2008 is how Motorola will deal with its declining handset sales. There has been speculation that Motorola will sell its mobile phone division. Analysts think if the phone division is sold, it will be bought by a Chinese company like ZTE.

Texas Instruments announced today that it will add new chip applications beyond the mobile phone market. The new chips will be used in everything from music players to medical equipment. The company, which faces stiff completion from Qualcomm in the wireless arena, will expand its OMAP product line. OMAP is currently used to support gaming and video in cell phones.

“We’re basically making this technology available to thousands of customers instead of tens of customers,” said Neil Anderskouv, vice president of TI’s digital systems business.

Texas Instrument’s OMAP 3500 line of chips will support features such as graphics displays in navigational equipment, medical imaging equipment or music players, Anderskouv said. Texas Instruments is working with up to 100 clients on making products using the new chips, he added. No client names were revealed.

Texas Instrument’s biggest customer is Nokia, the world’s largest mobile phone manufacturer. Texas Instruments generates about 40% of its revenue from the sale of wireless chips.

The company said its OMAP3503 chipset would ship within four weeks. It also said that OMAP3515, OMAP3525 and OMAP3530, would be available in the second half of the year.

Apple’s iTunes digital media store has beat out Best Buy and Target to become the second largest music retailer in the United States. Wal-Mart is still number one according to data released today from the tracking firm NPD Group.

Sales made in 2007 show that legal music downloads account for 10% of all music sales in United States. But an increase of download sales hasn’t been enough to offset a decline in physical CD sales, NPD said. Digital sales rose 6% but actual spending across the industry declined by 10% because of poor CD sales.

Around one million consumers stopped buying CDs in 2007, according to NPD.

Apple’s iTunes store has over 50 million customers and has sold more than 4 billion songs since its inception.

Daem Interactive has developed Skuair, new technology that it is calling the next generation of 2d code readers. Skuair isn’t limited to reading barcode lines and numbers but can read product logos or images. Skuair works with any mobile phone camera and is easy to operate. The user simply takes a picture of an advertisement or product logo and a low resolution image is sent to the recognition server and an associated URL is returned. The user can receive a variety of multimedia content from the company or person who owns the image.

User generated tags will be launched later this year. A short demo of how Skuair works can be linked to below.

Mobile phone bar code readers have been around for a few years but the technology hasn’t become popular. Maybe Skuair will help make this concept catch on. There is a large potential for advertisers and people who want more product information from applications like Skuair that is yet to be tapped.

Skuair Demo

Daem Interactive

Qwest Communications International announced today that it plans to deepen partnerships to offer better video, Internet and wireless services. The company plans on spending around $1.8 billion for capital improvements. Qwest forecast that revenue for 2008 will be flat or down slightly as improvements are made.

Recent quarterly profits have been up, thanks to a tax benefit and an increase in high-speed Internet subscriptions. But Qwest is vulnerable to growing competition from cable operators and declining sales of traditional phone services.

Qwest is working on a new wireless partnership as its current arrangement to resell Sprint Nextel services is inadequate. Shares of Qwest jumped 7% after the news was announced by Chief Executive Ed Mueller.
“We need a wireless partnership that is different than the one we have today,” Mueller said. “We have a hole in wireless.”

Mueller wasn’t clear on what partnership changes might be made. Some analysts have said Qwest may be negotiating changes with Sprint, while others say it may be looking at other tie-ups.

Qwest has a marketing partnership with satellite television service provider DirectTV Group Inc DTV.O, and has shied away from expensive investments in Internet-based video services of its own like those AT&T and Verizon.

Qwest shares were up 29 cents or 5.5 percent at $5.56 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange, after hitting an earlier high of $5.68. The stock remains below its 12-month high of $10.45 on May 31, 2007.

Qwest Communications International