The GSM Association (GSMA) has confirmed a number of the keynote speakers for the 2010 Mobile World Congress (MWC), which will be held from 15-18 February, 2010 in Barcelona. The GSMA has also unveiled App Planet, an event focusing on application developers, which will be held at MWC.
The list is headed by Eric Schmidt, Chairman and CEO of Google, and also includes Vittorio Colao, Chief Executive of Vodafone; Csar Alierta, Executive Chairman and CEO of Telefnica; Ben Verwaayen, CEO of Alcatel-Lucent; Chang Xiaobing, Chairman and CEO of China Unicom; Hans Vestberg, President and CEO of Ericsson; Guo Ping, Chairman of Huawei Communications; and Tadashi Onodera, President and Chairman of KDDI Corporation.
Under the theme of Vision in Action, the event will feature a conference programme that will explore a range of issues and topics including new business strategies and growth opportunities enabled through mobile; developments in key technology areas such as embedded Mobile Broadband, LTE, femtocells and cloud computing; new mobile applications, services and content; and the benefit of mobile on society and the environment.
The inaugural App Planet event will feature application developer conferences focused on the most influential mobile platforms in the market; an interactive exhibition where attendees can preview the newest and most innovative application technologies; and the Apps Garage which will showcase GSMA initiatives in the mobile applications space.
Initial App Planet partners include Research In Motion (RIM), Wireless Industry Partnership (WIP) and the International Mobile Gaming Awards (IMGA), as well as more than 40 exhibiting companies who will be showcasing their technologies and solutions.
Mobile application development is perhaps the most exciting and rapidly changing segment in the mobile communications industry today, says GSMA Chief Marketing Officer, Michael OHara. The creation of App Planet, which provides dedicated exhibition and networking facilities, as well as focused content, squarely addresses the demand we see in the market for greater resources, information and business development opportunities for the mobile application developer community. 
