April in Las Vegas is pretty nicecool in the evenings and pleasant during the day. I stayed at the Riviera Hotel, a short 10 minute walk from the Las Vegas Convention Center, site of the CTIA Wireless World 2006 convention. The last CTIA show I attended was a little over a year ago, at the now-infamous New Orleans Convention Center. Las Vegas reminds me of New Orleans as it was before Hurricane Katrina devastated it last summerboth are well suited to the anything-goes spirit of the wireless industry.
This year's show was a mind expanding experience for me. Most future Windows Mobile devices will have an integrated phone as well as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth capability. As this happens, services and content, based on the Internet or provided by wireless carriers, will become a lot more important. Our readers can expect to see more in these pages on content and mobile services. But don't worry; we'll continue to cover devices, accessories, software, how-to's, and the other tradition fare you've come to expect.
The Convention Center was packed with everything wireless: far too much to report in a single article. Here are a few of the things that caught my attention.
New Windows Mobile devices
Audiovox will introduce new devices this year
Audiovox, now a division of UTStarcom, announced that they will introduce a number of GSM phones in the U.S. this year, which is news because they have traditionally focused on CDMA handsets. Unfortunately, they gave no specifics, or any indication as to how many of them will incorporate the Windows Mobile OS., but some surely will.
Symbol rugged Pocket PC
Symbol Technologies (http://www.symbol.com/MC9097) announced a new device in their MC9000 series. The MC9097 is a Windows Mobile 5 Pocket PC Phone Edition device that works with the Sprint/Nextel network. The phone capability is the key here. We're starting to see more ruggedized niche devices with built-in phones, and we expect this trend to continue. In addition, the device has integrated Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, a barcode scanner, and a digital camera. The MC9097 is offered in two versions: one with a separate keyboard and number pad (shown here) and another with a single alpha-numeric keypad.
Symbol's new MC9097, a ruggedized Windows Mobile 5 handheld with built-in phone capability over the Sprint/Nextel network.
Wireless networks to get faster and offer more services
According to a report from Seamus McAteer of M:Metrics, the number of subscribers to 3G wireless networks has increased dramatically. A year ago there were less than 100,000 subscribers to these super-fast wireless data networks in the U.S. By February of this year that number had risen to 3.9 million. He believes this number will continue to increase due to the introduction of inexpensive EV-DO-capable handsets, Sprints' push to promote adoption of the technology, and the upcoming rollout of Cingular's UMTS-based services. The expansion will encourage the use of broadband services by consumers, and the development of applications and mobile media content by vendors.
Converged Wi-Fi/Cellular service
I saw a number of new cell phones with integrated Wi-Fi, including the T-Mobile MDA. We've mentioned this Phone Edition device before. It's an EDGE-capable GSM/GPRS device with integrated Wi-Fi and a slide-out thumb keyboard for messaging and text entry. It's based on an HTC design, and versions of it are marketed by carriers around the world. The interesting thing I learned is that T-Mobile Germany plans to offer converged Wi-Fi/cellular services sometime this summer. Combined with Voice over IP technology, this should eventually help reduce the cost of phone service. We can expect to see these bundled services offered in the U.S. sometime in the near future.
T-Mobile's MDA embodies the growing trend of including W-Fi capability in phone-enabled Windows Mobile devices.
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