After a week of fun, sun and rain at Austin’s SXSW, RCR Wireless Unplugged has recharged itself for the CTIA 2010 convention in Las Vegas.
As the US’ premier tradeshow for the wireless industry, CTIA is the launch pad for a plethora of new products and industry announcements for handsets, services and related mobile technology.
The three day conference in the City of Sin will provide vendors such as Micosoft, Motorola, HTC, Sprint and Verizon with the opportunity to showcase their next-gen wireless wares.
While last month’s Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2010 in Barcelona didn’t exactly deliver any earth shattering revelations, it was abundantly clear that the environment for all things silicon, software, and handsets continues to become ever more competitive, despite the recent recession.
Indeed, word on the crowded Vegas Strip is that Microsoft will be previewing its Windows Phone 7 lineup, while Sprint and HTC are set to unveil the first 4G WiMax smartphone which has reportedly been dubbed “Supersonic.”
The impact of the cloud, the roadmap for LTE, open source software platforms and the battle between enabling processor architectures, including ARM, MIPS, SH, and x86, will also be up for further discussion as the masters of the mobile world meet once again.
Giant telcos AT&T and Verizon are expected to divulge additional information about the expansion of their networks, while 3D guru James Cameron will be participating in a panel discussion about the cinematic glories of mobile technology.
Software was the star topic at MWC, because it is becoming the key to innovation and differentiation and CTIA will likely continue this trend. Although Google’s Android continues to generate the most buzz, it will be interesting to see how new or improved operating systems like Windows Phone Symbian 4, Bada, and MeeGo fare.
We have also learned that Verizon and Skype are planning a joint press conference on March 23 during which the companies will debut Skype mobile for Verizon BlackBerry and Google Android smartphones.
But CTIA won’t be all about the apps and OS overload, because let’s face it, when in Vegas, one has to keep track of the chips.
With the debate still raging over whether mobile platforms are computing devices or entertainment devices, processor technology remains at the very core of mobile innovation, able to tip the scales in either direction.
A new generation of processors based on British based ARM’s Cortex A9 or compatible architectures will be unleashing even more powerful devices capable of handling multiple screens, HD and 3D graphics, as well as performance well above anything we have seen in handsets to date.
And with the likes of Marvell, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, Samsung, and Texas Instruments all chipping away in the same sandbox, it’s tipping up to be a fascinating show.
An Nvidia representative recently informed RCR Unplugged that the company will be demonstrating a number of advanced tablet PCs powered by next-gen Tegra processors. The long-life battery tablets are capable of flawlessly streaming 1080p HD video and offer full support for Adobe Flash Player 10.1.
“Yes, telcos will decide their iPad alternative strategy and lock down OEM selections. But clearly, Nvidia’s Tegra will dominate the iPad alternative tablet line-up until we face a credible competitor that supports 1080p video, GPU accelerated flash, animation and games.
“I would also say that wireless HDMI solutions will become the must have feature for tablets and netbooks/notebooks,” he concluded.
So fasten your seat-belts folks, because it looks like this year’s CTIA is going to be a wild and exciting ride.
