With the 2010 CTIA Enterprise & Applications conference behind us, it's time to reflect on what we saw and heard at the annual confab.
Thanks to the proliferation of mobile broadband coverage throughout the U.S., and the advances in smartphones and other embedded wireless devices, it is clearly time for the enterprise to finally adopt mobility.
But the enterprise market is not an easy area to tap. Each vertical group (transportation, healthcare, energy, retail and others) has very specific requirements that must be addressed. And meeting those requirements takes time and investment.
CTIA is trying attract representatives from all the various vertical groups to the CTIA Enterprise & Applications show to meet with operators, vendors and app developers. But that's a big challenge, and we found the show slightly lacking because of this.
Nevertheless, some companies did make the fall CTIA conference a venue for their news announcements. Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ) attracted a lot of media attention with its revelation that it will launch 38 LTE markets before year-end instead of its original estimate of 25-30 markets. The company also named the markets (though we would have liked to get pricing information and an actual launch date for the service, but Verizon declined to provide those additional details).
Meanwhile, other companies used the conference as a place to announce their upcoming Android smartphones targeted at the holiday buying season. Still others used the show as a place to tout their M2M efforts. For complete coverage of the show, visit our CTIALive minisite.
The Fierce editorial team took a few days to reflect on CTIA, and we have compiled our observations into a scorecard. We've highlighted the companies and technologies we think emerged as winners and losers at last week's gathering in San Francisco. Clearly, some companies emerged stronger than ever, while others seemed to lack momentum. Check out our scorecard:
- Smartphone operating systems
- Industry trade shows
- Apps and services
- Netbooks, tablets and beyond
And, as always, let us know what you think. --Sue