Archive for CTIA
by Imran Ali
March 26, 2008 at 1:16 pm · Filed under CTIA, Events
As Las Vegas gears up for CTIA next week, MM2.0 bloggers will be in town to cover the show itself, but there are a bunch of interesting ancillary events and parties shaping up too.
mTrends’ Ruby De Waele just tipped me off about the Mobile Jam Session taking place in Las Vegas on 31st March, the day before CTIA opens.
The format sounds like a lotta fun and productive too. The day begins with an hour of concept and idea pitches from developers, followed by a panel session with participants drawn from Orange, Symbian, Sony Ericsson and Motorola’s developer and partner programmes.
The latter half of the day will consist of six ‘improv’ sessions - Mobile OS & Platforms, Mobile 2.0, Testing & Certification, Getting to Market, Development, Open Source Handsets - where a moderator facilitates a group ‘jam’ or discussion.
This should be an interesting mechanism for mixing people up from various disciplines, whether business, cellco and product guys or developers, hackers and entrepreneurs…as Rudy describes it, ‘new tunes often come from unlikely associations, so…Jam On!‘
If you’re in Las Vegas for CTIA and interested in jamming with this crowd, head over to the official blog + site to request an invitation (it’s free!).
by Ewan Spence
October 30, 2007 at 8:13 pm · Filed under SMS, ARPU, ATT, Twitter, Microsoft, Instant Messaging, Orange, CTIA
To me, coming from a number of European Conferences, CTIA was a bit of an eye-opener. Not because of the location (it’s hard to find fault with Moscone South in San Francisco), nor with the scheduled presentations and round tables put on by the organisers and attending companies at the event. The eye opener was the influence that the US networks have over their networks, the infrastructure, and the handsets available.
Every network, naturally, has to look out for the bottom line; but at the same time there should be a certain amount of respect for customer, developers, and handset manufacturers… basically the entire chain of the system. American networks, in my view were incredibly authoritarian – but I suspected that part of that was due to the distance I am from the US. After sitting through a number of presentations, and walking the show floor taking to every part of the chain, I have to wonder what the future of mobile messaging will be?
A quick example – the AT&T Tilt, a Windows Mobile smartphone that I’ve been spending some time with - has the usual set of applications and features onboard. But when I try to use the Instant Messaging client, I’m told that connecting via the built-in WiFi client is not allowed… why not connect over the air and use your cellphone’s data plan? You’re happy for IE to use Wifi but not the IM?
I’m sure the carriers will have a nice PR friendly answer as to why, but I’m also sure that the answer will come down to ‘we don’t want to loose a single cent from our SMS revenues.†And I think this ‘must… not… cannibalize…’ is going to be a big problem for any innovation that may occur in the space. When (not if) the next step comes along, I’m worried that it’s going to completely pass us by because it’s not going to be financially acceptable to a few companies with massive leverage on the system.
Twitter, driven by SMS, should be embraced. Where’s my option of a $5/month all you can twitter on top of a regular SMS package? Why, after being around for 18 months, and in the heavily trafficked world of widely adopted Web 2.0 services since Feb/March of this year, is this not available? I mean it does nothing to impact the network code, it’s just SMS, and it drives more traffic for the networks? It’s one isolated example, but I’m sure you can all come up with more. Maybe you can even come up with a service that has been amplified by the networks?
I think mobile messaging has a future, and I think that we will see a new form in the future. But in my opinion it will be in spite of the networks, not because of them.
by Ewan Spence
October 25, 2007 at 12:30 am · Filed under Devices, MMS, Events + Conferences, Podcasts, iPhone, Mobile Advertising, Google, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, Convergence, CTIA
The second day at CTIA IT and Entertainment 2007 in San Francisco, and Debi, Paul and I meet up at the end of the day to discuss the major issues as we see them. In this podcast, we’re talking about the resurgence of voice, but in applications; the new forms that mobile messaging could take; monetisation and making mobile payments; why aren’t we talking about MMS as the new message?; Microsoft’s $240 million dollar deal with Facebook; what that deal means for Google and their opening up of mobile; and a few points about hype.
by Ewan Spence
October 24, 2007 at 1:09 am · Filed under Mobile messaging 2.0, Podcasts, CTIA
Debi Jones, Paul Ruppert and I sat down after the first day of the CTIA IT and Entertainment Show in San Francisco to talk about the big themese and features of the day. Starting with a look at the control that the carriers feel they need to exert, we discuss the game-chaning nature that Apple’s iPhone has brought to the market; the (non) effectivness of mobile advertising; user generated conent and branding;and the impact of social networking on the smartphone.
Comments are, as always, welcome - and we’ll have a second in-depth podcast from CTIA tomorrow.
MM20 at CTIA 2007, pt 1:
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by Ewan Spence
October 24, 2007 at 12:30 am · Filed under Devices, Microsoft, CTIA
Steve Ballmer keynoted the first day of the CTIA IT and Entertainment conference, and one of his key announcements was the launch of System Center Mobile Device Manager. This is a set of tools for Enterprise customers that would allow Windows Mobile smartphones to be managed by IT departments with the same granularity as desktop and laptop based equipment in a company.
With between 100 and 150 million instances of MS-Exchange in the wild, compared to around 8-12 million mobile inboxes on smartphones, Microsoft must feel that the discrepancy is worth addressing. Leveraging the Enterprise space to push a product is arguably the same modus operandi used previously by Redmond, but it does make a certain amount of sense, especially as thanks to Active Sync, Windows Mobile devices are some of the most well connected smart devices out there.
Providing IT departments with a feature set they are already comfortable with; and one that should slide easily into corporate IT plans; should see the continued adoption of Windows Mobile devices in the Enterprise space – with security and firmware updates handled centrally, an easy workflow process, and the promise of an Out of the Box experience that has the same ease of use as a consumer device, this could be a good medium to long term move.
One of the main issues standing in the way is that smartphones are always on devices, and almost constantly carried. While workforces don’t have an issue having a laptop dedicated for their working life, and potentially a second laptop or other computer for their personal time, having to tote around two phones is not something that is going to be acceptable to the regular modern worker. The smartphone is an incredibly personal device, and that doesn’t match up to the demand of a locked down, totally secure corporate device. How that problem is dealt with – more than a smooth rollout and remote device management – I think is more important than making it easy for the IT crowd.
I’m also wondering why Microsoft have taken the keynote at CTIA and heavily pushed the enterprise area of Windows Mobile, with no counterweight announcement in the consumer space. Redmond wouldn’t be running scared of another consumer phone that’s the darling of the press in the Valley, would they?
by Ewan Spence
October 21, 2007 at 5:09 pm · Filed under Nokia, CTIA, Symbian, Motorola
Looking forward to CTIA, there’s one question I want to be able to answer, and that’s the strategy Motorola are following. Last week’s announcement that they have purchased 50% of UIQ from Sony Ericsson, and that the two companies are looking for a third to joiningg them in owning UIQ makes for interesting reading.
Motorola’s high-end mobile strategy has been scattershot at best, with strong efforts in using Linux for smartphones and Java in other handsets. So is the choice to go with UIQ attempting to cover another base, internal politics at play, or a reset of their strategy?
What is clear is that Motorola, a founding partner in Symbian who sold their share of the organization in 2003 to allow a ‘neutral’ look at the main OS choices (including Windows Mobile), has found a way to reconcile the purchase of UIQ (which Sony Ericcson bought out of Symbian last year), and that leads me to think they’re on course to put a lot of effort behind Symbian OS and UIQ.
And this is where CTIA is going to come in. Symbian, UIQ and Motorola are all on the floor, and while it’s obvious from last week’s Symbian Smartphone Show that the European companies are excited to have them on board, the reaction form the American side of Motorola is going to be a big factor in just how important the UIQ relationship is.
For too long Symbian has been looking at the American market and metaphorically humming “New York, New York†(If I can make it there…). Nokia have never established a solid enough beachhead beyond the pay as you go market, and some isolated breakouts of the N95 and E61i – with Motorola already dug into the US market, if they’re serious they could give Symbian the place in the US market they feel they deserve.
So all I want to know when I leave the Moscone Center in San Francisco this week is if Motorola really have the hunger….
by Debi Jones
October 19, 2007 at 3:10 pm · Filed under Events + Conferences, CTIA
A few of the MM2.0 bloggers, Ewan Spence, Paul Ruppert and myself, are attending CTIA next week. We’ll be reporting on a number of developments and applications around messaging: Participation TV, multi modal messaging (voice, video, text), mobile payments via SMS, along with mobile marketing and advertising, are all potential topics.
There are some other areas that will no doubt be of interest to MM2.0 readers. Personal navigation, for example, might not be a killer application, but it’s at a minimum the top manslaughter application in the US mobile data market; more iPhone - we need more iPhone; and touch screens for all. The rise of touch screens is great news for haptics technology companies like Immersion, and M2M (machine-to-machine) messaging offers a new and lucrative application area. So there will be much to see, touch and hear. Podcasts will be a continuing component of our coverage for the event, the evening parties and a couple of press only demos. Photos? Oh yes, there will be lots of photos from Ewan, Paul and me.
You can subscribe to our feed to ensure getting the lastest messaging related news and analysis coming from CTIA next week.
Also, if you’re a reader of the blog, I’d love to meet you. Leave a comment here and we can meet at one of the many planned events or let’s do an impromptu blog dinner Sunday evening. My flight arrives Sunday afternoon in SF and will be attending the MoCo News mixer Monday evening. There are plenty of options for connecting.
