Dial 0 for Opinion: CTIA day one fails to impress

The largest cell phone expo in the United States is being held in Las Vegas this week and with the opening day of the show the industry has generally failed to impress. The biggest announcements coming out of the Las Vegas Convention Center today were Sprint launching an iPhone competitor, the Samsung Instinct (video) and Nokia announcing a Wimax enabled internet tablet (article). Wimax is one of the contestants for the next generation of mobile networks and Nokia N810 with Wimax represents their first attempt with the technology. Ironically this announcement was also related to Sprint as they are scheduled to launch the only Wimax network in the United States later this year.

Even these "highlights" won't set the world on fire and apart from them we've seen a wide array of low to mid end handsets and minor upgrades to existing lineups. The events of CTIA so far are in sharp contrast to the major announcements made two months ago at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. These included Sony-Ericsson adopting the Windows Mobile operating system with the Xperia X1 (video) and Nokia revealing a slew of new handsets. This may be the result of the rapid globalization of the mobile industry and press with regional and national shows like CTIA becoming less important as a venue for launching major handsets and initiatives.

The unseen presence at CTIA 2008 this year is, of course, Apple's iPhone (review). Apple eschews industry events like this preferring to make announcements at their own events. Nine months after the handset was launched the industry has seen a slew of touch screen devices included the aforementioned Instinct as well as the LG Vu (video) for AT&T. Carriers and handset manufacturers seem to be scrambling to combat the popularity of the iPhone with their own rival devices. It's also possible that the apparent slow down in announcements at this year's CTIA may reflect a shift in the industry brought about by the iPhone as manufacturers retool their R&D to try and compete with the device.

Whatever the underlying reason we hope that things pick up on day two of the show. If not, next year can't come soon enough.