The CTIA fall show (otherwise known as CTIA Wireless I.T. & Entertainment 2008), runs from September 10 to the 12. It’s the largest wireless data event in the internet, wireless and telecommunications industries. The fall CTIA is really a show with dual personalities: one catering to a corporate information technology crowd and the other geared toward entertainment and advertising executives, says C/Net.
Verizon Wireless and AT&T have both jumped on the same social networking bandwagon, each announcing new mobile portals that integrates multiple social networking communities into a single interface — both based on the same vendor’s platform.
Called SocialLife on the VZW deck and My Communities on AT&T’s, the applications are powered by Intercasting’s Anthem platform, a social network aggregator. Verizon Wireless meanwhile is charging $1.50 a month for access to SocialLife in addition to data charges, while AT&T is charging for My Communities $3 a month. Notably absent from the both operators’ lists is Facebook, the fastest-growing social network community on the Web.
RCR Wireless News and C/Net has full coverage of the show:
Among the announcements:
- Yahoo announced a preview iPhone application called OneConnect that can centralize communications and social-networking activity. Yahoo is racing against Google and others to bring more applications to mobile devices in an effort to tap into the growth of mobile Internet use, notes C/Net.
- Sprint announced a new iDEN-only phone with the Motorola i576. It sports a flip phone design with rugged packaging.
- Sprint launched One Click, a new user interface designed to be highly customizable and easy to use. It includes the texting interface, Web access, e-mail, Sprint Navigation, Sprint TV Sprint Music, and other features. One Click is only available for the LG Lotus, the Samsung Rant, and the Samsung Highnote for now.
- Sprint’s HTC Touch Pro is similar to the HTC Touch Diamond for Sprint but has three major differences: 1) the smartphone features a slide-out full QWERTY keyboard; 2) it has expandable memory; and 3) the 3.2-megapixel camera has a flash. The Windows Mobile 6.1 smartphone will go for $299.99 with a two-year contract and after rebates.
- Sprint and LG announced the LG Lotus, a messaging phone with a foldout QWERTY keyboard.
- The web orientated Sony Ericsson G-705 packs WiFi and quad-band GSM with HSDPA and HSUPA, built in accelerometer, 3 megapixel camera with LED Flash, and ability to upload video direct to YouTube.
- Nokia plans to expand the number of devices that can access Microsoft corporate e-mail. All of Nokia’s third-edition S60 devices will enable the Exchange ActiveSync e-mail, taking aim at smartphone rival RIM.
- Research In Motion (RIM) today unveiled the BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 smartphone, the first BlackBerry phone to come in the popular flip form factor.
- Reuters says T-Mobile will start selling an Android-based phone — otherwise known as the HTC Dream (below) — in New York this month. The device is expected to be priced at about $399 full retail or about $150 with a two-year contract from T-Mobile.
The Wireless Association announced today that wireless data service revenues for the first half of 2008 rose to $14.8 billion, a 40% increase over the first half of 2007, when data revenues totaled $10.5 billion. Some 75 billion text messages were reported in the month of June 2008 alone – an increase of 160% over the 28.8 billion messages reported in June 2007. The CTIA says there are more than 262 million wireless users in the United States, as of June, 2008.
In other news, US Senator Herb Kohl (D-WI), chairman of the Senate Antitrust Subcommittee, has asked the four major cellphone carriers to explain their bewildering price increase on text messaging. In three years, he says, text message charges have doubled for wireless customers. AT&T, for example, charges the equivalent of over $1,300 per megabyte for text messages.
