CTIA 2009 Winding Down

It's been a couple of full days at the Las Vegas Convention Center for CTIA; we've seen the big players, taken advantage some complimentary stress balls/cubes/penguins, and gotten the overall gist of this year's showing.



CTIA has shown a noticeable lack in flash. Certainly the recession is having an impact. Still, there have been a few eye-catchers and the big players are obviously still trying to put on a good show.

Take LG for example. They didn't have much of anything really new to show that we haven't seen already. But with some appealing decor we were drawn in (it was probably the dinnerware).

Even more disappointing than the general lack of pomp (and circumstance, for that matter) has been the lukewarm news. Don't get me wrong; there have been some new handsets/services/apps unveiled, but the common denominator is always "we expect it sometime in Q2. Providers and price are to be determined." See the new (but not jaw-dropping) phones here: Nuvifone, Samsung Impression, Instinct s30 & Propel Pro, Nokia E71 & N97, Motorola Evoke, HTC Snap

As expected, we've seen a few other common themes that are primarily driving the show:

• Touchscreens (with slideout keypads) are the new flip phone


• Cameras and GPS are features that go without saying


• Apps for everybody!

And here's a few of the things we expected to see that didn't make an appearance:

• Palm Pre


• Dell Smartphones


• HTC's new Android phones


• Billy Crystal

If there's one way to sum up our experience at CTIA this week, it's that Vegas can officially claim AT&T's slogan "more bars in more places" this week, in all regards.

For more "sobering" CTIA news, see the following drafts:

HTC Snap - Email's New Inner Circle

Verizon to Doctors: Can you Hear me Now?

CTIA Keynote Day 2: ClearWire, Wireless Health and Microsoft

MSI X-Slim Netbook Spotted at CTIA

Hands on with New Samsung Phones: Impression, Instinct S30 & Propel Pro