Forum to Advance the Mobile Experience(TM) (FAME) Begins Global Effort Focused on Wireless User Marketing

New FAME Advisory Board Includes Mobile Marketers and Visionaries From Leading Players Across the Wireless and Mobile Ecosystem

The Forum to Advance the Mobile Experience(TM) (FAME), a strategic authority leadership initiative to accelerate marketing and research aimed at driving wireless service and product adoption, today launched its global initiative with the announcement of a high-profile advisory board consisting of top marketers and industry experts from 24 of today's leading mobile technology companies. The FAME leadership advisory board includes executives from ARM, Alcatel, Autodesk, British Telecom, Casabyte, Cingular, Digicel, GSM Association, Gemplus, Good Technology, Google, Intel, Lucent, Nokia, Nortel, Openwave, palmOne, QUALCOMM, Sybase, Symbian, Virgin Mobile, Visto, Vonage and Yahoo!.

FAME Advisory Board members include senior level executives from component manufacturers, wireless carriers, handset vendors, mobile application vendors, content providers, mobile game vendors, OS providers and middleware players that hold a key stake in the acceleration and mass-market adoption of mobile device/application usage. These executives, representing some of the world's most prominent and active brand names in the wireless space, share a common interest and concern in advancing the user experience.

FAME's user-centric mission is based on the critical importance of usability and the user experience in driving adoption rates within the mobile marketplace. More than in most technology markets, the mobile user experience is being shaped by an entire ecosystem of companies, which are represented by the advisory board. FAME allows these industry leaders to work together to drive major initiatives designed to spearhead the development of user-oriented solutions for the mobile workforce and consumer.

Sales of mobile handsets worldwide rose 17 percent from last year to a record 180.6 million units in the first quarter of this year, and global sales will approach 750 million units this year, according to the latest data from market-research firm Gartner. The dramatic increase in wireless handset usage will lead to an increase in user demand for "bundled services" that add wireless phone service to VoIP, television and Internet services. However, this increase in end-user demand will be dependent on content providers, vendors and carriers providing the mobile consumer with the best and most enriching user experience.

FAME is a strategic initiative of the CMO Council, an elite affinity group of 1,300 chief marketing executives from technology companies worldwide dedicated to high-level thought leadership and knowledge sharing. Critical stakeholders in FAME will team with the CMO Council to:

--  Evangelize the use of new mobile applications among consumers and the
    press

--  Work with software and hardware vendors to improve the usability of
    these new services by pooling resources for key consumer research

--  Demonstrate thought leadership on issues around privacy; mobile user
    experience; techniques to drive user adoption and retention (see initial
    Remote Revolution Mobile Workforce Survey around uptime issues,
    implications, and imperatives at:
    http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=11812858462)

--  Facilitate market understanding of the opportunities and challenges of
    new wireless applications such as opt-in advertising, health monitoring,
    and streaming video and audio
    

"Industry collaboration to benefit the mobile user experience is of paramount interest in the industry today, and I welcome the chance to work with the CMO Council and other market leaders to address these issues head on," said Jeff Belk, Senior Vice President of Marketing at QUALCOMM and Chairman of the FAME Advisory Board.

"The extensive experience, vision and knowledge of the Advisory Board members will provide significant insight and valuable feedback for our current marketing and research efforts," said Donovan Neale-May, Executive Director of FAME and the CMO Council. "We have experienced a very encouraging reception to FAME and its goals to date, and we look forward to continuing to tap into the expertise of the Advisory Board to develop very targeted and relevant information, insights, and perspectives."

About FAME

The Forum to Advance the Mobile Experience(TM) (FAME(TM)) is a member advocacy group and strategic authority leadership initiative to accelerate marketing programs and research around advancing the wireless user experience. Formed by the CMO Council, FAME promotes the adoption of wireless applications in the best interests of industry players. FAME brings together influential senior marketing leaders from top mobile technology companies that will join in the pursuit of innovations and best practices tailored towards the advancement of end user wireless applications. For more information on membership or sponsorship opportunities with FAME, please visit www.fameforusers.org or contact Aparna Aswani at aaswani@globalfluency.com, 650-328-5555 ext. 132.

About the CMO Council

The CMO Council is a private, non-profit organization dedicated to high-level knowledge exchange, thought leadership and personal relationship building among senior marketing and brand decision-makers in the global technology industry. Based in Silicon Valley, the Council works to further the stature, credibility, influence, and understanding of the strategic marketing function among business executives, opinion leaders and critical stakeholders in the technology sector. More than 1,300 technology companies are currently represented on the CMO Council, accounting for well over $500 billion in aggregated annual revenues. These include top decision-makers controlling more than $40 billion in global marketing expenditures for many of the world's foremost computer systems, software, networking, communications, consumer electronics, component, distribution, and consulting brands. For more information, please visit our web site at www.cmocouncil.org.

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