If Las Vegas could scream, it would most certainly yell “Get out, you boring wireless convention companies! I was happy with my casinos, my hotels, my exciting life and my numerous lights, you had to come and prove to the world that I can actually be dull!”. Well, Las Vegas wouldn’t be the only one, we would chime in, because quite frankly we’re sick of it. Every time a great mobile and technology congress is close, the anticipation builds, the leaks start flooding the web, the adrenaline rises. Every gadget site and blog is going there, every company has reserved a space on the show floor, and everyone else is glued to the computer waiting for the BIG news that … never comes.
So CTIA has come and gone and what do we remember from it? Certainly not the launch of the groundbreaking Windows Mobile 6.1, nor the announcement of the oh-so-surprising N810 WiMax Edition, nor the new Motorola devices (wasn’t my April’s fool more interesting?) nor the launch of the HTC Touch in the US, nor the hands-on with the SE XPeria, nor the countless demos of products we’ve known for months if not years. We won’t link to these because that’s all there is to know. Ok, there was the “new” idea of Nokia getting into OTA updates with the new version of OS2008 (which got confirmed), but until this feature becomes widely available on S60 3rd devices, forgive us if we don’t scream in astonishment.
But how about’em Eseries Nokia? How about more details on Comes With Music, or Ovi? Oh and remember that thing you called S60 Touch? Oh sorry, that news requires a plane for the press conference, and not just a 180-feet over the air (pun intended) press briefing! And to the rest of the industry, where is the INNOVATION? We’re not asking for mind-blowing groundbreaking glass-shattering inventions or creations! We just want one thing that will make our eyes open and our mouth salivate a little.
Think that CTIA was all boring? Honestly, no, you had to look at it with the right perspective because, quite frankly, the coverage I enjoyed most from the floor came from Ewan of SMSTextNews. Somehow, amongst the series of everlasting and dull stands, Ewan managed to grab the funny bits of CTIA. Of course, he did his serious reporting as always, but he added a nice personal touch with a couple of posts.
So let’s see, there was his (blurry) picture with famous Darla and Bena: I bet they were having more fun than the speechless Carlo (we feel your agony man). There was also that stunning company that couldn’t get one word out about anything new they had, as well as the news that Yahoo! moved into the icecream business (well they should have) . Add to this a great picture composition of big and little men at the SpinVox stand as well as the innovative idea that your device is now important enough to get its own crocs, and you’ve got yourself a good half hour of humor and laughs right from the show floor.
In the not-so-funny category, is the fact that Ewan also lost his beloved E90 in Vegas, and was still feeling the ghost of it in front of him, but at least he realized a long-time dream by learning how to pronounce Acision.
But the big news remains that a Pizza exposition was going on at the same time, in the same convention center. It’s officially called International Pizza Expo and this is on their site: “Can you imagine a place the size of five football fields with nothing but pizza-related goods, equipment and services?“. Hear that? My stomach just whispered to me that this must’ve been more interesting than CTIA. Just think cheese, tomato sauce and pepperoni, and cheese, and … more cheese, the size of 5 football fields! Well at least it would’ve made the flight to Las Vegas worth it.
What we have learned from CTIA is that next time mobile companies throw at us a boring convention and go there just because they are “supposed” to show up, we will look around the corner. There surely is something worth watching going on.
