This past week, I attended the CTIA International Wireless event in Las Vegas with @garykoelling. 

I had expectations going in:

–                   Meet some startups

–                   See some new tech

–                   See a glimpse of what is coming soon

–                   See thought leaders debate

–                   Learn

Some of this happened.

We saw a demo of: 

• Motorola ScanLife–  A proprietary 2D barcode and reader of a proprietary code format called an "Easy Code."  Why?  Why do you want to avoid joining a standard?  The representative explained the benefits ScanLife will deliver will come through mass distribution of the software.  To me, this is a company delivering something THEY want to succeed but not something that is adding value for the users.  It sounds like the same mentality of Microsoft Tag.  Both of the solutions create unnecessary dependencies when a universal standard would be more appreciated and useful by the public.
  
• Phone Watch – This product from Kempler & Strauss was totally geeky and quite nifty.  I don't see it gaining a mass adoption.  If anything, it is proof that a screen can get too small.  But, my inner geek wants one.
• Samsung Bada -  Perhaps the pending demise of Palm leaves room for another mobile platform.  As part of a development team, I kind of hope it fails.  Do we really need another platform?
  
• The new Samsung Galaxy S phone – Touch.  Big Screen.  Runs Android 2.1.  Cool.

We had conversations with:

• Localytics – We are looking forward to learning their unique value propositions and capabilities for mobile app analytics.
• TF Payments – Offers a BlueTooth connected device for making mobile transactions with a distributed workforce.  Think plumbers... direct sales companies... small retailers.
• LiveCrossing- They were doing some hokey marketing ploys on-site there but their capabilities are actually interesting.  On the fly conference calls, and mobile marketing management capabilities.

The expo was impressive in size and participation by exhibitors.  Many of the booths were impressive.  Clearly the exhibitors went to great lengths to draw attention.  One could argue that Lamborghini's and booth bimbos are a fun bonus for a show who's attendees are mostly men.  For the record, we spent the most time with some of the smallest exhibitors who lacked such frills.

One could also argue that the product, technology, or service you have to present should be interesting on its own merit.

The sessions I attended were less informative or controversial than I had hoped.   I attended a session listening to some mobile commerce leaders discuss the future of their industry.  The panel had representatives from PayPal, MasterCard, Clair Mail, FireThorn, and First Data.  Their discussion seemed to point to work and agreements needed with carriers and handset manufacturers to really enable mobile commerce.  When asked directly, one panelist said that demand for a standard has not yet surfaced.  Listening to them made me think that the near future state will be a wild west land grab followed by everyone scratching their heads about why no one can build ONE standard.  Plus, pointing a finger at the carriers and handset manufactures just seems to further create the appearance of years between now and the time that phones can replace plastic credit cards.  The conversation felt short-sighted.

Location Based Services (LBS) are all the buzz in mobile these days.  One panel was a group of leaders from this business who represented a division of TomTom, Tele-Atlas, Loc-Aid, Smarter Agent, and Where.com.  There was not a representative in the room from Google but they were a huge part of the conversation.  This group spent much of the time discussing how their multi-billion dollar LBS business was still relevant in the presence of Google Maps and free turn-by-turn navigation offerings.  Only one word came to mind - denial.

If I attend this show again, I will approach it differently.  I will do more pre-planning.  I will spend more time asking questions.  I will dig for more new developments. 

On a separate note, the organizers of CTIA should take a lesson from SXSW.  I downloaded two Android CTIA apps.  One was completely useless.  The other was mostly useless.

The app that was completely useless was supposed to use my location to trigger messages about happenings around CTIA.  It may have sent me one message in three days.  The other app had sessions and events schedules for the conference and allowed the user to pick events for sms reminders.  I could have used my Google Calendar to do the same thing.  The user experience with both apps was rough and bordering on painful.

I'd ask that the CTIA Show site be built so that when I log in, I can mark the events and sessions I wish to attend.   The site should integrate with phone apps and/or push the events to Google Calendar.  I found the website to be busy, difficult to navigate, and lacking in the ability to create a bridge between the online and show experiences. 

CTIA, feel free to call me if I can help.

Cheers.