International CTIA WIRELESS I.T. & Entertainment 2009 (San Diego, October 6-9, 2009)

This year’s wireless convention was a bit slow which could be expected from the economic conditions, but still had a lot to offer to its attendees. Even with the moderate show floor traffic, being the largest wireless technology event of the industry the range of displays can be a bit overwhelming. To illustrate what I mean, consider that this year there were 208 exhibiting companies present on the floor showing off a wide range of products and services in seven key areas: Wireless Health, Smart Energy, Intelligent Transportation, Mobile Media & Content, Mobile Enterprise, Mobile Consumer Electronics, and Mobile Applications.

Besides the open exhibits people had the opportunity to view eight keynote speeches from industry and regulatory leaders, attend educational sessions, and watch a number of sales pitches from the fastest moving innovators in the industry.

Keynote Speakers and CTIA Fund Fest

The following list is a breakdown of the keynote speakers and companies that had the opportunity to present at the Fund Fest.

October 7, 2009

• Julius Genachowski, Chairman, Federal Communications Commission
  • In this speech FCC Chairman Genachowski outlined his four-point Mobile Broadband Agenda. The plan roughly consisted of: making new spectrum available, removing 4G deployment obstacles, promoting “fair rules”, and helping consumers in the marketplace.
• Ralph de la Vega, President & Chief Executive Officer, AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets
  • Following up with the FCC Chairman’s message, de la Vega also claims that the wireless industry is the most competitive communications technology sector. During his speech de la Vega outlined 10 key facts about the current health of the U.S. wireless industry, and cautioned about the impact of new government regulation. Among de la Vega’s market facts were the following stats:
    • Wireless Subscribers in the U.S. pay an average of 5 cents per minute (as much as 60% less than consumers in other developed countries)
    • U.S. consumers have over 630 handsets available to buy from 30 companies
    • U.S. consumers use more minutes per month than any other developer market
    • Data usage in the U.S. market has grown over 5,000 percent in the past 3 years
    • The U.S. market has more 3G subscribers than any other developed nation.
• David Ko, SVP, Yahoo! Mobile, Yahoo! Inc.
  • According to Yahoo SVP David Ko, Yahoo! Mobile recently launched a $100 million ad campaign aimed at leveraging existing user relationships in the mobile content arena. David Ko also added to de la Vega’s stats citing that Yahoo’s assessment is that the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of mobile Internet users for the period of June 2007 to June 2009 is 45% overall. During the same period Yahoo’s CAGR of mobile Internet users’ was 54%. Ko also said that Yahoo Mobile already has over 100 partnerships in place with more expected, and that the company has no plans at this point to develop proprietary handsets, but instead it will focus on what it does best.
• Chris Baker, SVP – Shared Services and CIO, San Diego Gas & Electric and Southern California Gas Co.

October 8, 2009

• Dr. Irwin Mark Jacobs, Co-Founder, Qualcomm Incorporated
• Dr. Paul E. Jacobs, Chairman of the Board & Chief Executive Officer, Qualcomm Incorporated
• John Donovan, Chief Technology Officer, AT&T

October 9, 2009 CTIA Fund Fest (Source: CTIA blog)

• Chander Chawla from Mjedi demonstrated www.mjedi.com their mobile web platform, whose strength relies primarily on UPC code based price comparison and the shopping support one can gain from tapping into their own social networks with the help of Facebook.com.
• Terry Goertz and Jeff Fedor from ParkVu showcased the WITH ME and WITH MUSIC online platforms which allow replication of personal files and music to PDAs such as the Blackberry.
• Andy Kleitsch of Billing Revolution showcased their payment processing system which allows merchants and payment processors to conduct business with mobile customers.
• Todd Sullivan from Chyngle explained his turnkey platform and application which services large scale venue attendees through an iPhone. Effectively the users of the application can shop for tickets, locate the venue, order food (i.e. pizza) at the event, get event details or live event stats for sports games, and even locate a taxi ride home afterwards.
• Jonathan Javitt from TelCare explained how his remote sensor monitoring technology is capable of relaying machine-to-machine messages with the use of cellular technologies and get patient condition updates to caregivers or caregiver dispatch centers. Although his technology is currently focused on individuals with diabetes – a condition that currently affects 28 million Americans – it can be reapplied to other types of remote patient monitoring needs. For his practical business application and promising technology Jonathan Javitt from TelCare received the most of the votes from the expert panel of judges and effectively won the first annual CTIA Fund Fest.

The Exhibits

With 208 exhibitors the CTIA exhibit hall had quite a bit to show. As we looked through the dozen or so isles of exhibitors we found the following companies whose products and services made an impression on us and for some reason we felt had great potential. Please note that not being included on this list should not imply anything negative about any specific product or company, only that we have limited time and resources at our disposal and no way to cover all companies.

Enough Software

The company offers a development solution called J2ME Polish (a porting environment) to Java developers, that is unique in the sense that it overcomes the device fragmentation barrier and provides design, customization, and rapid development features. The company also offers application development and porting services for a number of mobile platforms: J2ME, iPhone, Android, Blackberry, and Windows Mobile.

Company Web Site: http://www.enough.de/

Homies

The Homies boasts that they have sold more than 150 million Homie figures, small plastic statuettes depicting eccentric Hispanic high school teenagers and in some cases their adult role models. Having proven the brand’s market penetration potential the company is venturing off into the area of International Calling from any cellular phone. With their NO MAS PIN # program Homie aims to rake in some pocket change every time callers dial abroad.

Company Web Site: http://www.homies.tv/

Interop Technologies

The company is a leader in 4G messaging standard solutions for wireless network operators. With 30 installations Interop seeks to be on the forefront of the 4G transitioning process.

Company Web Site: http://www.interoptechnologies.com/

LocalAdXchange

The company touts the existence of an advertising network that leverages on a business search engine which identifies businesses based on proximity to an address. The company uses the infoUSA business directory to locate businesses nearby the searched address. Advertising is displayed in conjunction with the searches thus effectively promoting local businesses.

Company Web Site: http://www.localadxchange.com/

MultiTech Systems

MultiTech has been an alternative source of leading edge technologies at price points that are within the reach of many small companies. The company is known for the ability to provide great systems at affordable costs.

Company Web Site: http://www.multitech.com/

PharmaSecure

When it comes to niche marketing in the wireless sector, PharmaSecure rides in the lead. The company developed a technology that if adopted by consumers could substantially reduce drug counterfeiting. According to company estimates, about 200,000 people die each year from counterfeit antimaterials. Not sure what antimaterials mean, but we assume they are talking about prescription drugs. The company also claims that over $50 billion worth of revenues are lost each year to global pharmaceutical counterfeiting. With these demand factors in mind the company estimates that the business of developing applications to verify the genuity of drugs would be a profitable one. Good idea, great social responsibility implications, but what is the business model?

Company Web Site: http://www.pharmasecure.com/

Sierra Wireless

An aging player in the wireless business, Sierra Wireless had a number of gadgets to showcase. Among other things, its improved wireless CPU received quite a bit of interest. The company’s wireless routers are also of high quality, able to roam between phone and satellite networks to reduce operating costs, and capable of high-speed transmissions.

Company Web Site: http://www.sierrawireless.com/

Smash

The company offers an application server that provides cookie features to mobile users. Effectively the Smash server technology is able to maintain sessions and carry on decision based communication with mobile phone users. Perhaps a bit overrated for its market potential the company has a system that is capable of doing database queries via SMS. Such technologies could fuel SMS based search engines, and business directories.

Company Web Site: http://www.smashcode.com/

Solargenix Worldwide

One of our pet companies for this show was the Solargenix Worldwide company. Both Mark and I were stunned by the product offerings of this company. Solar energy cells, cases, and stations for cell phones and laptops. Which basically translates to charging mobile devices without the need of connecting to an electrical outlet. The company sells affordable products to travelers, vacationers, and outdoorsman with hefty (50% in some cases) wholesale discounts.

Company Web Site: http://www.solargenix.org/

Complete Exhibitor Listing

Event Pictures