First impressions on CTIA
GWAVA’s Richard Bliss reporting from CTIA.
Though I’ve been to numerous tradeshows in the past [hello Internet World 2000!] I’m always excited to visit CTIA, North America’s largest event strictly devoted to wireless and mobility.
While I love discovering the new trends and seeing the cool new tools and products, the best part of CTIA for me is always talking to lots of interesting companies and learning more about the evolution of my industry.
Day one, I explored some vendor booths in both halls, saw a couple sessions and got my sea legs on. It was a good mixture of gadgets for consumers all the way back to the weeds with numerous back-end products.
Day two got interesting as Richard Bliss, VP of global marketing at GWAVA, joined me walking the floor. Richard was officially there pitching GWAVA to the AT&T Fast Pitch. Unfortunately we didn’t win, but it was a great experience. See Richard’s blog for his view of the CTIA.
Richard was also at CTIA writing a couple of posts for Ewan MacLeod’s excellent SMSTextNews. So, we talked to some vendors, walked around and then Richard banged out some reviews.
Once we were done with official duties, I broke out my digital camera with limited video functionality and suggested we [and by “we” I mean “Richard”] do a couple quick reviews of vendors.
I thought the results came out decent for such a low-res camera. And heck, posting it on YouTube didn’t hurt. Do a Google search for CTIA and GWAVA, and our videos appear in the top 10. Not too shabby.
So, my quick rundown from the show is this:
1. Where was the iPhone killer? I played around with a lot of phones at the show and none of them compared with my iPhone [lack of video notwithstanding].
2. Mobile social networking. Lots of vendors had mobile social networking products. Not buying it. Why not just use Facebook on your mobile? Like James Wanless of Talkster asked when he and I were talking trends, “Will people really add yet another social application to their lives?” Totally agree.
3. I was surprised that mobile advertising wasn’t as cool on the show floor as we’re seeing with MoPR clients like Talkster, Hovr or Copernic. One “text ad agency” I spoke with demonstrated a campaign to me. And it still relied on txt msgng for yr nxt cmpgn. I am fascinated by this space and will keep following it and hoping for the best.
4. Product overload. And that’s a good thing. There were so many new and innovative products that my suitcase was stuffed with product brochures.
5. The mobile and wireless industry is alive and very much kicking. What recession? There are newer and better products being released and more room is needed every year at CTIA for more vendors. Can’t wait for the next one!
Look for more posts on CTIA in the next couple of days on the MoPR blog.
