CTIA and the current Tech of the Mobile Industry.

CTIA Opening

The CTIA Convention was held this past week and I was following the Tweets coming from the convention. Simply amazing that the conference went a different direction this year. Even though you have a ton of booths promoting different pieces of the puzzle, one thing made it's presence known to every attendant. Apps is the biggest thing to hit our industry and its time to scramble to bring them to the market place. Lets think of it like this. You go to the store and purchase a brand new laptop. After unloading it you find out there isn't much that you can do with it. At this point you want to connect the internet and search for software that assists you in your daily goals. These goals might be for career, hobby, entertainment or finance. As you know the list of software is endless and there is always something out there to aid in whatever your goal might be.

In the wireless industry we are also in the same boat. The first step is improving connectivity. We are on a constant search for speed of internet to support our software along with specifications of the phone we are using for ease of processing the software. To resolve the issue of connectivity the FCC announced that it will reallocate as needed to make more spectrum available and improving a tower siting process.

As for the the other end, processing speed the handsets are improving by leaps and bounds. Earlier this year snapdragon released a 1gig microprocessor. This year all of the high end phones released contain an average of 800 mghz. Some of the highlighted phones this year were the Nokia N900, Samsung Mondi (Android), Samsung Moment (windows), Nokia e72 & Surge, Garmin Nuvifone, and the Palm Pixi.

A few of the numbers presented at the CTIA that supports our vision of a world of wireless connectivity is where we are headed.

• Wireless Data Service Revenue ~ For the first 6 months of 2009 $19.4 Billion revenue was generated. That is a 31% increase from 2008.
• Carrier Revenue ~ Wireless Data Revenue accounted for 25% of all wireless revenue. Thats a 38% increase from last year
• Growth ~ Our industry is growing 5 times faster than the overall economy.

Now lets talk about the Buzz going around the CTIA. I saw a posting that mentioned that everyone at the CTIA had a blackberry and an Iphone. Just as we carry the 5800 and e63 it seems that the true power users are using one phone for business (blackberry type phones) and one phone for entertainment (iphone type phones).

The buzz word for the CTIA was Applications, applications, applications. Now we have these cool phones and we know we can make calls, send pictures, and text someone, but what is the next level of the experience. Integrating software into your phone that you are interested in.

Lets look at some of the hottest techs released at the CTIA. Notice that most items revolve around additions to our basic phone package we offer.

Community

At the CTIA the $1 million dollars was donated to one economy. The donation was to launch a project that will train the youth of lower income areas about wireless technology and what it can do for their community. The projects longterm goal is to take these lessons and duplicate them within communities.

Explanation of One Economy goals.

Marketing

Mobile advertising is growing. Leading brands are looking for ways to advertise on mobile platforms.

The transition is at a beginning but we are trending to mobile advertising. Imagine a world where your favorite bakery can send out tweets to your phone to notify you that they are taking blueberry muffins out of the oven. On the opposite end imagine if when tracking calories for a diet all you had to do was take a picture of the item sku and it would register calorie intake.

The Future

LTE is coming~ What is LTE (long term evolution)? It is the next step of wireless internet deployment to better access. If you are interested in learning more there is a course that is running in Madison WI about LTE. The link at the beginning of this paragraph will lead you to registration.

Here is a great video that explains where AT&T will use LTE to their advantage. They also make some great points about why it is important to plan on deploying LTE.

Lets talk a little bit about Google Voice. No one is really sure what Google plans on developing from this technology. They have created an online server that allows you to pick a number and use it as your main number. When you are called on this one number it will then forward the call to multiple lines that you have it set up for. When testing google voice I set it up with my home phone number as well as my mobile number. Both phones would then ring displaying the original callers number. I then have the option of answering the call or allowing it to route to voice mail. If a message is left google voice will then transcript my message and text it to me in addition giving me online access to the transcripts. I can also play the message and text or call the number directly from my computer. Here is a video that will show you an example of google voice.

Speaking of Google I think it is important for everyone in the technology sector to pay close attention to Google Wave. I recently received beta access to Wave and it is incredible. I am going to post a few links to google wave videos.

Simple overview of Google Wave.

Google wave used for customer service.

Google wave used for conferencing.