Tole Hart

The CTIA IT show in San Diego was fairly quiet but had some strong undercurrents.

 Smartphone continue to gain traction

 The importance of smart phones and OS loomed large as Verizon announced a deal with Google to use Android phones as part of Verizon’s handset portfolio.  The lack of an iPhone and the need for a highly consumer friendly phone with a strong applications portfolio was probably the main motivation. The fact that Verizon will have some control over the look and feel of the phone UI was also a plus for them. Features like having the main app store being the Verizon applications store as an example. The deal also offers another strong option outside of Blackberry for smart phones.  Samsung also announced an Android phone called Moment.

 For more information on smartphone trends see:

 http://www.gartner.com/DisplayDocument?doc_cd=171459

 Carriers focus on wireless data

 There is growing trends of carriers offering applications stores and full service browsers to compete with smart phones.  In the applications store front and application develop platform area there are a number of companies talked about their solution including Qualcomm with Plaza, Open Market, and Zed with MPC (Mobile Content Platform). Each of these companies comes from a different angle.  Qualcomm with BREW had developed a fairly closed ecosystem with a complete storefront, applications development program and carrier billing integration, and is expanding this with Plaza for more OSs. Open Market comes from the billing integration angle and Zed comes from the content delivery angle.

 Opera was showing off its tiles web browsing UI and talking about its deal with AT&T. The general gist of the conversation was that carriers are looking for fully functional browsers to compete with smart phone browsers, and they need this capability to get additional wireless data subscribers as expectations have been raised.

 Funmail is offering a service that allows you have MMS type capabilities with SMS. These pictures with a message can be easily sent to Facebook and to Twitter. It can be advertising based or sold on a monthly subscription.  This seem to be appealing to the express yourself generation of younger people. The MMS functionality off of an SMS message will make it more usable.

 Application News

 Apple announced that they were going to allow Skype on the iPhone. This will probably have limited impact on voice usage as it will be used primarily by Skype fans, which already are forced to purchase voice minutes with the iPhone contract.  In addition the AT&T voice network is likely to work better than Skype on the AT&T data network.  As the wireless data networks get more robust, and this service is offered on more smartphones it will begin to have an effect.

 Sidebar showed an interesting applications platform where the user has content that match his profile pushed to him and also receive alerts that this content has arrived. This is being done on the Andriod phone but not on the iPhone, where you must call up the applications to get the data downloaded.  It has some interesting implications for content delivery, profile advertising, and m-commerce targeting. 

 For more information on top applications see:

 http://www.gartner.com/DisplayDocument?doc_cd=171017

 Other Devices

 FLO TV showed off its new FLO TV Set which will be out at Christmas and selling for $249.99 with TV service at $8.99 a month. The viewer can watch from 15 to 18 channels. The TV has a good picture, performs well, and is priced right but it needs something more to make it very attractive like DVR capability where you can also watch your favorite recorded movie or show and must see sports content like local sports.

 Nokia had a nice looking Netbook which it plans to put on sale this Fall/Winter in Best Buy. AT&T announced it will be selling this Netbook with a contract for $299.

 Also in the alternative device category is wireless digital picture frames, where a price is charged for the number of picture downloads. This is expected this Christmas season.