CTIA head Steve Largent talking at keynote sez wireless a bright spot in dismal economy.
Tmobile-USA CEO Robert Dotson also upbeat, so far speech is bland banalities, invoking Obama, Charles Lindbergh.
Dotson showing video talking up open source, sez on indy devs to drive innovation.
Dotson links stimulus bill, wireless broadband, rural connectivity & tmobile, guess who’s lining up for government cash?
CTIA survey sez people don’t want more taxes or regulation or to pay higher mobile phone bills. No s*** Sherlock.
Ivan Seidenberg CEO Verizon up now, sez 6 hours TV & online use per day, only half hour wireless use means growth opportunity.
Seidenberg wants d-block spectrum assigned directly to locals, improve broadband for first responders he sez.
Mike Lazaridis co-CEO RIM on stage, talking about magnificent – magnificent! – convergence & opportunity.
Lazaridis selling Blackberries, not doing industry leader speech like Dotson & Seidenberg.
2 out of 3 good batting average for trade show keynotes, kudos to Verizon, Tmobile & CTIA.
Lazaridis just wasting my time, l8r dood.
Met with folks from Oulu Innovation, have turned a Finnish community into a test bed for wireless apps, services & hardware.
Oulu attracting R&D operations, offers a living laboratory for proving new hardware & software for all handset makers, not just Nokia.
Met with Newbay too, 6 year old company, 250 employees, sez it’s profitable. 100% of revenue comes from mobile carriers.
Newbay creates content cloud – “lifetime cloud services” – for mobile carriers, users can store photos, sms, address books for example.
Heading back out to CTIA show floor, looking for big news. Not a packed show – can call it comfortably well attended though.
Mood at CTIA not upbeat, not down either, more like “if this is as bad as it gets I can deal with it”.
Hot party tonight is Fierce Wireless‘ at Caesars, follows free drinks at on-floor happy hour, CTIA crowd feeling good.
Omega Mobile designs mobile apps, doing well, upgraded offices in Emeryville, @scgeeks: looking for iPhone devs.
Driinn is neat, low tech gadget by Kikkerland, turns charger into a wall mounted mobile phone cradle.
Cup holder technology for a mobile age