The Buzz from CTIA Wireless IT & Entertainment
More specifically, the lack of buzz from CTIA Wireless IT & Entertainment show in San Francisco was the big story line. In my opinion, the most interesting vendor announcement to me was expansion of the Yahoo! Blueprint platform (http://mobile.yahoo.com/developers/roadmap) and OneConnect messaging integration to include aggregation of Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Flickr and Friendster. Yahoo! has made considerable inroads in the mobile space, I am not sure if they are able to really monetize these offerings or if the real money is simply with mobile search where Google is leading quite handily in most western markets according to the last comScore research (http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=2469).
The other interesting story line was the call for “open” networks. I feel this is a desirable endeavor, but mired in the debate of what “open” truly means. It is a multi-faceted issue which affects various parts of the value chain from core network elements to development environments. Additionally, the people receiving the customer support calls (e.g. mobile operators) typically like to control events to limit any potential issues which inherently restrict “open”. This debate is obvious from the comments of the keynote speakers as they provided their own definitions of “open” networks.
If you can’t get enough online video or are tired of reading my posts, you can view my interview at CTIA with Michelle Sklar from bnetTV where she asks about current industry trends (http://www.bnettv.com/player.php?id=1686&title=Infosys&actionLogin=fail).
