Duck for cover in San Diego. Wireless industry exploding like fireworks over Wrigley Field.
What a year. What a meeting. The staid event, once a quiet get-together of mobile carriers and vendors now touting the latest mobile and wireless devices at CTIA.
After a reprise by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski about lack of wireless spectrum, reported by MobileBeyond last October, and his keynote address this year making television broadcasters cry, the roof flew off the convention headquarters.
Sprint’s CEO Dan Hesse, recently resurrected from the grave as the company’s chief spokesperson again, introduced the 4G EVO Android mobile phone while proclaiming “forget the minutes, let’s count megabytes” and “go 4G!…it’s a revolution…”
Enter Samsung’s Galaxy S superphone and it’s becoming clear that 2010 may become the “year of Android.” Forget the tired phrase “the year of mobile.” The wireless industry and mobile phone geeks don’t need convincing.
Now if the cell phone manufacturers could convince battery manufacturers to beef-up the juice, maybe there’s a future for smartphones that drain like SUV’s at 80 mph.
Meanwhile, AT&T’s besieged Ralph De La Vega wants to connect every AT&T handset to the mobile Internet, despite the iPhone clogging its 3G network in metro areas across the country.
But Wi-Fi and more spectrum are the answers, says the talkative CEO. Just think, if everyone uses it, AT&T cell phone towers won’t collapse in New York and San Francisco, two sore spots for iPhone owners.
But…WIMAX, Sprint/Clearwire’s answer to mobile spectrum drying up like water in the Mohave desert is coming on strong this year. Who needs a hundred cell towers when a gigantic WIMAX cloud can saturate hundreds of square miles with wireless broadband?
Even the schools in Portland, Oregon, know that the answer to lack of spectrum is WIMAX. Samsung must agree as it pushed its new Mondi Wi-Fi phone. Wireless industry exploding.
The wireless health crowd is in full force in SD. Don Jones of Qualcomm, appeared happy with the announcement of $45M for West Wireless Health. (Mark your calendars in April for a podcast interview on MobileBeyond with him).
Back comes Sprint in the limelight on mobile learning teamed with the folks at Blackboard. Again, wireless industry exploding.
Not to be left out – augmented reality for the visually impaired. Ipplex and its “Look-Tel” AR solution – voice and all. (See Brian Dolan‘s article and videos in MobiHealthNews.) Could beat Pranav Mistry’s SixthSense Technology.
