LAS VEGAS-Conference-goers who managed to brave the miles of show floor at this year’s annual Consumer Electronics Show were witness to a significant movement in the electronics landscape-the rise of wireless. Hundreds of wireless companies showed off their wares at the well-attended convention, and the industry’s top three handset makers unveiled a range of new devices.
In his kickoff introduction Thursday, Gary Shapiro, the president and chief executive officer of the Consumer Electronics Association, paid wireless plenty of lip service, pegging wireless hardware sales at about $9 billion. Shapiro also predicted growth in the sector will continue.
“We are working hard to grow this category,” he said, adding that the organization introduced a new certification program for wireless retailers.
For their part, wireless players were also hard at work on growing the market, with Nokia Corp., Motorola Inc. and Samsung Telecommunications America introducing phones and devices with integrated cameras, picture-sharing services, application-download capabilities and color screens.
No. 2 mobile-phone maker Motorola unveiled last week eight new mobile phones, the company’s first major new product lineup for the new year. Among those introduced were the E365 and V295 with embedded cameras, the color-screen V600, the T725 for EDGE network technology and the A835 for wideband CDMA networks, and the low-end C350 with an installed audio mixer.
The phones span the gamut of network technologies, from CDMA to GSM to EDGE and W-CDMA. Many have criticized the company for focusing on the CDMA market at the expense of its GSM portfolio, but several of the company’s new phones are for GSM networks. The Motorola C350 and V295 should be available in the first half of the year, while the V600, T725, E365 and A835 likely will be sold in the second half.
For its part, Nokia released the first color-screen phones for TDMA networks, showing that the network technology may still have some life left. The company’s 3520 phone supports Java technology, and the Nokia 3560 features a WAP 2.0 browser and multi-channel MIDI audio support.
Not to be left out, Samsung announced two new high-end phones, as well as a new $150 million deal with Agere Systems for GPRS chipsets. The company’s new color-screen SGH-v205 with an integrated digital camera is built for GPRS networks, and the SPH-I330 for CDMA 1xRTT networks features Palm Inc.’s operating system, a color touch-screen panel and Handspring Inc.’s Blazer Web browser.
The devices are the company’s first integrated camera phones for the U.S. market, and played a prominent role in the company’s expansive CES exhibit.
“We are trying to become a global player,” said Muzib Khan, Samsung’s vice president of product management and engineering.
Along these lines, Khan said the company will work to expand its GSM handset business, a move furthered by its new deal with Agere. Khan said the company expects that about half its sales for the new year will be in the GSM market, and the vast majority of its phones will feature color screens.
Khan offered a glimpse into Samsung’s approach to the market, a strategy in which the company incorporates technology from a variety of companies into its phones.
Indeed, Samsung has plans to make products working on Microsoft Corp. and Nokia software, and already sells phones using Palm software, Linux software and the company’s own proprietary personal digital assistant software.
“Samsung is never shy in adopting things,” Khan said. “Adding value to a product is of paramount importance.”
Khan said much of that value is controlled in Samsung’s manufacturing process, which the company does not outsource unlike many of the other handset makers. And Khan promised Samsung would never outsource its manufacturing. The approach differs greatly from Audiovox Communications Corp., which at the CES show trumpeted its support of the outsourcing model.
While the industry’s top three handset makers served to brighten wireless’ profile, they were not the only ones to make news. Sony Corp. introduced a new CLIE handheld, the PEG-NZ90, which features both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi wireless capabilities, as well as a built-in camera with flash. And Microsoft unveiled new wireless wristwatches.
