I really love apps that make my life easier so I tend to lean more towards apps that provide utility. Starbucks has a fantastic app that I use often and I wrote about my experiences with it at MobileGroove.  It not only allows me to find the nearest store, but it also includes their loyalty program and best of all I can pay with my mobile!

I also love to play games so my favorites of the moment are Akinator Genie and Temple Run. The Akinator Genie is a guessing game where you pick a character (real or fictitious) and it asks you a series of questions until it guesses your character. Temple Run is really great, fantastic graphics, but I’m miserable at it. My daughter holds the record in our house. Oh, and my son would be very upset if I didn’t mention Angry Birds – we all love it, but he’s truly the champ.

iPhone 4, but I really want to upgrade to the 4S. I’m a fan of Siri.

I like Onavo for their data-monitoring app. It’s very clever and helps with transparency of data costs and usage. Dwolla is interesting as it has developed its own mobile payment network that uses digital cash instead of credit-based money. It also incorporates location and social media to send money to friends and family members.

I’m very excited about my current focus at work. I have expanded my responsibilities and now head the marketing for our Mobile Commerce solutions. Our portfolio addresses the entire lifecycle of user purchases from promotion, discovery, to storefronts and settlement based on our Optism™ Permission Mobile Marketing, Mobile Wallet and Digital Media Store assets.  Stay tuned more to come.

I think we’ll start to see a strong fusion of location-based mobile marketing with couponing, loyalty programs and mobile payments. The lines between mobile and social will continue to blur even more this year. Transparency, personalization and privacy will be the cornerstone for these services and all members of the digital commerce ecosystem will need to ensure that the user comes first and is respected at all times in order to increase relevance, responsiveness, and retail redemption.

I can’t have just 3! My usual go-to people are Tomi Ahonen, Jonathan MacDonald, Jeff Hasen (CMO Hipcricket), Joy Liuzzo (InsightExpress), Peggy Anne Salz, Michael Becker (MMA Managing Director North America), Thomas Husson (Forrester), Nora Goodman.

I was at Lucent Technologies as a Senior Marketing Manager responsible for designing global marketing campaigns for the Broadband Solutions and IPTV business.

Ken Herron was a fantastic boss at Lucent Technologies and still is my consigliere for all things marketing. Ken is currently the Vice President of Marketing at Purple Communications, Inc. He really encourages you to “think creatively” when solving challenges and is a serious social media guru.

Jeff Hasen of Hipcricket

Joy Liuzzo of InsightExpress

Michael Becker of the MMA