• The GSMA has announced its keynote speakers for the 2010 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. CEOs from several communications companies will speak, including representatives from Alcatel-Lucent, China Unicom, Ericsson, Google, Huawei, KDDI, Telefonica and Vodafone. The GSMA also said it will hold an event, called App Planet, which will focus exclusively on mobile application developers.
• Cricket Communications is introducing the LG HELiX and AWS-capable camera phone with an external color display. The LG HELiX will be available in two colors: silver and pink. This is the first time Cricket will be offering a pink handset.
• A consumer survey conducted by mobile marketing firm HipCricket found that 37 percent of consumers would be interested in participating in a mobile customer loyalty program, while 83 percent say their favorite brand has yet to market to them via their mobile phone. In addition, the firm found that of those consumers who have received mobile marketing offers, 47 percent have brand recall and 94 percent of those remember the specific call to action. The survey was conducted in September via e-mail and is based on 511 respondents.
• Mobile Messenger has appointed Edward McCormick as senior vice president, Human Resources, and Israel Niezen as senior vice president, Strategic Marketing and Business Development. Both McCormick and Niezen have held key positions at mobile and marketing companies. Mobile Messenger supplies technology for the marketing, distribution and monetization of digital content to mobile devices.
• Telular Corporation says that it has reached a half million households and businesses now using Telguard Digital cellular alarm solutions. Telular's portfolio of UL-listed solutions enables security dealers to provide primary and backup wireless alarm communication solutions for residential and commercial customers over the nationwide cellular network.