Manufacturers are packing mobile phones to the brim with features that have traditionally been reserved for personal computers. But if the standard mobile phone seems to have all the technical capabilities of a smartphone, what’s the difference? This panel moderated by PC Magazine’s Sascha Segan will look at how technology and design are combined to create different phones optimized for using different applications such as music, messaging and organizing. Samsung’s Pete Skarzynski, Senior Vice President of Strategy and Mobile Complete’s Mudassir Sheikha, VP Solutions will provide an inside look at how, as the technology of mobile phones becomes more advanced, the UI and external design of the phones will play an even larger role in determining what makes a smartphone a smartphone.

When: Monday, Nov 19th, 6:30-9 PM as always with a lovely networking reception compliments of our gracious host Samsung.

Giveaways: A selection of 5 Samsung handsets:

• UpStage
• U740
• Gleam
• BlackJack
• Blast

Where:

Samsung Experience Center
Time Warner Center – Shops at Columbus Circle
10 Columbus Circle, 3rd floor
New York City, New York 10022
(map)

At the intersection of Broadway, Eighth Avenue, Central Park South and
Central Park West.

Subways to Shops at Columbus Circle: A/C, 1/9, B/D
to 59th Street/Columbus Circle

Cost: FREE, please just RSVP here.

Moderator:

• Sascha Segan, Lead Analyst Mobile Phones, PC Magazine
  Sascha Segan is PC Magazine’s Lead Analyst for mobile phones and PDAs. He is responsible for testing, benchmarking and evaluating mobile phones and other handheld devices. Sascha joined the magazine in 2004 after covering consumer electronics for technology, travel and lifestyle publications, and editing the now hard-to-find book, “I Just Got a Cell Phone, Now What?” He once helped cover an election in Africa using only a PalmPilot Professional with a modem and attachable keyboard as his traveling gear.

Panelists:

• Pete Skarzynski, Senior Vice President of Strategy, Samsung Telecommunications America
  Pete Skarzynski is Senior Vice President of Strategy at Samsung Telecommunications America (STA). In this role, he is responsible for wireless handsets, infrastructure and business communications systems strategies, new business development and product planning for 4G devices. Mr. Skarzynski joined STA at its headquarters in Dallas in August 1997. Mr. Skarzynski has led the effort to establish Samsung as one of the largest mobile handset providers in the United States. He has successfully overseen Samsung’s positioning as a premium brand through the introduction of the industry’s first handheld products using voice-activated dialing, Internet access, integrated MP3 players. He also helped launch the first GPS-enabled handset and the first PDA/wireless phone combination device.
• Mudassir Sheikha, VP Solutions, Mobile Complete
  Mudassir is responsible for the Solutions organization managing all aspects of delivery of products to customers. Mudassir spent two years in Karachi, Pakistan where he established and headed Mobile Complete’s offshore development center. Prior to joining Mobile Complete, Mudassir served as a director at Solerent, a company he founded. Previously, Mudassir was part of the Venture Finance group at Garage Technology Ventures where he worked with seed-stage companies in the software and consumer Internet industry. Before Garage, he held various technical positions at Brience and Trilogy Software and he started his career as a consultant at Ernst & Young. Mudassir holds a Masters in Computer Science from Stanford University and a Bachelors in Computer Science and Economics from the University of Southern California.