In the end, CTIA was as quiet as most people had feared / predicted. The absence of any blockbuster announcements, modest foot traffic at all but a few booths, and noticeably more subdued analyst and press events had the combined effect of dampening one’s enthusiasm. But despite of the quieter tone overall, most of the people and companies I spoke with expressed continued optimism, fueled by a steadfast belief in the innovative spirit of industry participants. In fact, innovation was a common theme here in Las Vegas. From CTIA chairman Robert Dotson’s kick-off keynote address lauding the efforts of garage developers everywhere, to the vast and empty Nortel booth – which served as a painful reminder that the failure to innovate has consequences – innovation was one buzz-word for a show short on buzz. Here are a few examples that stood out:

Innovative Devices - AT&T President of Emerging Devices Glenn Lurie spoke at lunch yesterday about how his door is open for all new devices, even those “cobbled together with duct tape” as the operator looks beyond traditional form factors. Verizon Wireless made similar statements, acknowledging that it had certified some three dozen non-phone devices, including wireless patient record tablets and smart grid energy monitors. Yankee Group has long been talking about the inevitability that nearly every device – from umbrellas to vehicles to appliances to dog collars (apparently Lurie’s favorite example) – will be a connected node on the Anywhere Network, and this week’s announcements suggest the largest industry participants are doing their part to make this happen.

Innovative Services - As connectivity percolates into every corner of the human experience, a number of compelling new mobile services were announced. A particular area of focus was healthcare, where keynote Dr. Eric Topol summarized some of the recent advances in wireless medicine, and a number of new solutions were announced for the first time – from patient monitoring tools to ‘virtual eye’ applications for the visually impaired. M2M services were another clear area of focus, as a host of companies offered remote monitoring solutions for just about everything under the sun. Even Ford got into the mobile services action, promoting a new line of connected trucks (with an in-dash touch-screen computer, pre-loaded with Opera’s mobile internet browser) and a suite of truck-based mobile applications tailored to the needs of field workers in construction and farming.

Innovative Pricing - As the number of connected devices and services explodes, operator business models will need change to keep pace. AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega stated that future wireless plans would likely be exclusively data, and that per-minute voice pricing would soon be a thing of the past. De la Vega also acknowledged that data bundles – enabling a consumer to use multiple connected devices with one just one wireless plan – would have to emerge to support changes in consumer behavior. 

Of course too many of the innovations offered at CTIA were not ready for primetime; “we expect to launch sometime in 2010” was an all-too-frequent refrain from company presenters. But maybe that’s not such a bad thing: even as the rest of the world buckles down and prepares for a dismal 2009, wireless companies big and small are looking ahead.