Day 1 of CTIA Wireless has passed here in Las Vegas, and dawn breaks on Day 2 for the groggy-headed masses. While attendance has been slightly subdued by the economic recession, the tenor arising from keynote statements, press releases and meetings suggests that the outlook for the industry remains enthusiastic overall.
It’s true that the foot-traffic on the show floor appears lighter, but yours truly is just coming up for air after a long day of back-to-back meetings, dinners and assorted evening festivities. Some highlights observed from Day 1:
- Apps everywhere. RIM used day 1 as a platform to officially launch its application store, Blackberry App World. The app store launches with around 500 applications, and it will be interesting to see how quickly RIM can ramp up to compete on a similar scale as Apple. Verizon Wireless announced that it will participate in the Joint Innovation Lab created by China Mobile, Softbank and Vodafone to promote the development of–you guessed it–mobile applications. And just this morning, AT&T announced its “Apps Beta” program in which developers can post applications in beta form for users to test and provide feedback prior to full-scale launch. Getting a feeling there’s an “apps” fetish taking hold among the industry?
- Resurrections. Even without a booth on the show floor or an official launch date, Palm continues to generate buzz with the awaited Pre. The device was on display in carefully controlled and orchestrated demos in an invite-only Sprint VIP lounge. This was the first time I had the opportunity to view the device in person, and the up-close-and-personal demo left me with the impression that it will live up to all the hype. Palm needed a home run with this device–it may get a grand slam. Speaking of Sprint, they are going to put all their weight behind the Palm Pre launch. They need this success as much as Palm. And finally, from the resurrection theme, we have Good Technology. Just a few short weeks after their acquisition by Visto, Good was out doing briefings at CTIA. An impressive feat in and of itself. More impressive is that Visto feels enough confidence in Good’s reputation and technology that they are rebranding the company and all related products with the Good brand and logo. This makes it crystal clear that the Good acquisition was not just an IPR play for Visto, but a strategic move designed to re-ignite its charge on the mobile messaging market. Good for Good.
- And finally, a splash for Skype. At a show with no real huge announcements, Skype has gotten perhaps the most attention for its development of a client for iPhone. Skype has always been a disruptor, and this announcement certainly isn’t an exception. This begins to raise the question of how much control operators can exert over device partners, and specifically the applications developed, launched and sold via their application stores. Regarding applications: be careful what you wish for.
Back to the show…