Recent changes in the handset value chain and global market have facilitated the rise of handset reference designs as a means of cutting time to market and controlling costs in the development of mobile devices.

The growth of reference designs as a model for handset development, design and deployment is pertinent to all players in the value chain, including handset manufacturers, component providers and software solution manufacturers.

Key Themes

• From paper to product - How OEM’s/ODM’s transform reference designs into a physical product
• Exploring what the market requires from a reference design
• Improving reference design for manufacturability
• Who owns integration problems in reference design?
• Improving collaboration - How will the value chain cope when working with many more players?
• Reducing costs in platforms of the future - How will this be achieved?
• Convergence in the mobile environment - What demands does this place on reference design?
• Android and Ovi - What do these mean for operators? Will there be disintermediation?
• What is the ROI in terms of operator handset customization?
• The role of reference design and regulation within the Femto cell market
• Virtual reference design - lowering costs and time to market
• Examining the shift from hardware to software and the importance of the UI
• Who would want to be an ODM with operators as influential as Vodafone in the market?
• Reference designs as a key contributor to competition
• Who is responsible for what parts of a reference design? Is supplying a complete design a business benefit?
• Using applications to achieve margin and differentiation
• Virtual Mobile Reference Design
• Mobile web and reference designs - How can the CPU and memory enable this?
• Examining the move away from hardware differentiation to software - How do handset manufacturers successfully differentiate their products?
• What technologies are people building into their reference design?
• What’s in the box of next generation devices? What do reference designs need to be able to offer?
• Emerging markets - How cheap can you go? What’s reference designs role in producing low cost handsets? Volume in very cheap handsets - Sub $40
• What’s beyond 3G? WiMAX, LTE, 4G? Who will be the winner out of these cellular connections?
• What new features will be winners? Will video take off?