I’m still recovering from PCS ’96 in San Francisco.
Between the 400 exhibitors, about 15,000 attendees and 30 sessions, I just couldn’t take it all in. In fact, PCIA said it had to turn away numerous companies that wanted to exhibit.
It’s always difficult to take in a year’s worth of announcements in three days, but here are a few of my (albeit scattered) thoughts on the show:
Nobody is mentioning the acronym PDA (personal digital assistant), but a number of similar devices were introduced at the show. These neo-PDAs were disguised as Nokia Corp.’s smartphone, and Motorola Inc.’s PageWriter.
Wisely, the marketeers of these new text messaging devices don’t want their products to be included in the same category as Simons and Newtons. A few years ago, those devices were the ones that made the big splashes at the trade shows.
For my money, the most attractive device out there is the InFLEXion voice pager, demonstrated by Glenayre Inc. and Motorola Inc. Let’s face it, life is getting way too complicated. Alphanumeric paging has its place, but voice is still one of the most effective methods to convey messages between people. And in either demonstration, I didn’t hear any problems with the voice quality.
Although voice messaging appears to be mostly a consumer product, I see its place in business applications, too. The different inflections (inFLEXions?) in my boss’s voice certainly conveys the importance of the message.
My only hesitation with voice messaging is the price point. I think the product has to be around $10 a month to gain market share. Since limited cellular service can be purchased for about $20 a month, I think voice messaging only becomes attractive to the consumer market if it is significantly cheaper.
The show is too BIG!! Let me preface this by saying that every single person I talked to about this avidly disagreed with me. But the PCS show I went to six years ago was small enough that I could visit the exhibit floor, talk with the industry execs I wanted to meet and still have time for a few sessions.
Not so this year. (Or last year). Although our editorial team can properly cover the show, I want to see it all myself. I want to hear it all myself.
I had 15 free minutes and walked into a customer service session, where Mark Nielson from Subscriber Computing Inc. was speaking, and his information was great! (I know, buy the cassettes). The rapid pace of the show mirrors the frantic pace of this industry.
The only complaint I have about the show was the wireless coverage. About half of the time I tried to make calls, I couldn’t get through. And the lines at the pay phones were always long. Go figure.
