My impressions of Day 1 of the International CTIA Wireless 2010 Show
Technically, this is day 2 of the International CTIA Wireless Conference, here in Las Vegas, Nevada… but day 1 was “pre-conference” training type of stuff, so let’s just call today “Day 1″ 
My goals for this trip are somewhat modest, really. A main reason for coming is an AT&T sponsored event tomorrow where we get to present one of our mobile applications, LiveCycle Workspace Mobile (Blackberry edition) as part of a contest for Enterprise applications. We were chosen to advance to round 2. The other goals I have are:
- Gain a better understanding of the mobile ecosystem. Writing apps in a vacuum without understanding the underlying flow of the industry is probably a bad idea, and to tell the truth, I am fairly new at the mobile game. I just kinda became the enterprise mobile guru one day at work (well, I chased after the opportunity actually).
- Platforms Platforms Platforms. What are we missing? Do we need an Android port? A Windows Phone 7 port? Should we be targeting some functionality to “feature phones” and other phones not in the “smartphone” category?
- Network. Well, maybe I run into some people that we could explore partnerships with or at least are on our same wavelength.
So far, well, I am learning quite a bit about infrastructure. I always knew the world of “broadband spectrum” and LTE and component manufacturers existed, but being the typical software guy… well… I just counted on all that stuff being there. Well, now I know that software (in the “app” sense) is a small part of all of this. American carriers are spending $45bn, yes, BILLION in 2010 on network bandwidth buildout. It just amazes me how these guys are putting their money where their mouths are. This morning during the keynotes by Ralph de la Vega, Randall Stephenson and Iñaki Urdangarín, the impression I got was that the growth of Mobile is relentless, and the bulk of the work right now is in just changing government policy around wireless, acquiring more spectrum and building the most network capacity possible. I often think that Software is the end and the means to everything… but it really isn’t. The software — the applications in addition to the insatiable need of human beings to network, connect and be free is what is pushing this industry to do do what has to be done: extend the network to underserved areas, remove bandwidth barriers and reduce cost.
Anyway, my thinking on the whole wireless industry…which I think is actually a bit different than what I refer to as the “mobile industry” is changing now for the better. This is about freedom and universal reach to me now, instead of simply “extending functionality to new platforms” or “driving sales”. Those goals are very important, but I think we need to pay attention to the overarching vision of limitless bandwidth and network availability…because when we have that, well, the applications my companies build can ultimately reach more people and improve their lives immeasurably while still turning an amazing profit.
Platforms/Phones/Operating Systems… I’ve come up short on this topic thus far. The focus here is very much on infrastructure, and the infrastructure folks are most concerned with bandwidth, # of connected clients, etc. I went looking to see what MSFT had in Windows Phone 7, and I was very impressed with the UI… MSFT may just have gotten something right with all of its “7″ products. I was, however, very disappointed that there was no partner hardware available for me to handle running the OS. Lots of fancy demos…talking heads and booth people, but in terms of showing me the goods… MSFT gets a fail. RIM has a big display area, but most of it is taken up by its app dev partners. Its nice to see that kind of marketing, but I don’t really go to a conference to get a demo of Twitter on Blackberry (for example — not picking on that app by any means ). I’d hoped to see some prototypes, etc.
Networking… well, still early on that front. I’ll get to that straight away.
This is a very large, and very interesting conference, but you can tell its used by many as a convenient way to setup meetings with vendors, suppliers, etc all at one time. Its value must be immense to the hardware guys.
That said, I’d better get back to the conference soon