Openwave helps To Drives the CDMA Wireless Industry

Don Listwin ( inset ), president and CEO of Openwave Systems, delivered a keynote address on Wednesday, December 3rd to attendees of the 2002 CDMA Americas Congress. He outlined Openwave's vision for improving the usability of mobile data for consumers and challenged the industry to provide a single, integrated experience for text, multimedia and voice messaging.

During his keynote, Listwin also noted the struggles in the wireless sector, but remains confident about the future. Just yesterday, Listwin was quoted in the Financial Times stating, "For the first time in two years, carriers are marketing their data services globally again and we expect this continue into 2003." In Listwin's view, " ... consumers' evolving lifestyles continue to create demand for mobile data services. We have seen the enthusiastic adoption of wireless data services in Japan and throughout Asia. We are beginning to see early adoption in North America and South America."

Highlights of Listwin's comments include:

-- Openwave's IP (products) and IQ (expertise) are helping drive the CDMA industry to deliver differentiated services. For example, as announced Tuesday (link to release), Openwave's messaging and push technologies helped CDMA operator Telesp Celular to drive a 93 percent increase in data usage.

-- The browser is the foundation for ease of use on mobile phones and will lead consumers to experience multiple data services in a simple and entertaining way. Listwin used the analogy of cars and trucks, citing the demand for both mobile phones and PDAs. According to Gartner Dataquest, mobile phone shipments will reach 435 million this year, and PDAs only 15 million. This is one of the reasons Openwave's focus will remain on mass-market mobile phones.

-- With the arrival of integrated camera color phones in nearly every market, photo messaging will be a main driver of mobile data with widely adopted use outside of Japan. Many other keynote speakers shared this perspective during the 2002 CDMA Americas Congress.

Listwin will present his next keynote address during 3GSM World Congress in Cannes, France on Monday, February 17, 2003.