By Tomorrow kicks off CTIA Apps & Enterprise and Quentyn and I are on-site and ready to hook up the Android goodness. There is a ton going on, but a lot of the more interesting, set-in-stone agenda elements are both exciting and vague. We’ll have to wait until tomorrow for the full scoop, but here is what you should know heading into the week:
Verizon & 4G
Tomorrow at 11AM (Pacific), Verizon will be presenting details on their 4G LTE network to launch later this year. We already know it will launch with up to 30 cities, covering almost 1 million people, but exact timelines and supported devices are unknown. Keep your fingers crossed for 4G device announcements, but at a minimum, expect some application announcements that will run only on their 4G network. Afterall, this CTIA event is called Apps & Enterprise.
Sprint Announcement
Following on the heels of Verizon’s press conference, Sprint CEO Dan Hesse will be making an announcement that they’re promising will be an industry first. With not a ton of upcoming devices in the pipeline, we’re hoping to learn more in that regard, but again the announcement of services pertaining to their 4G network wouldn’t be a shocker. And both would be best. The Sprint event is perhaps the most set-in-stone yet wait-and-see of all CTIA happenings.
Motorola & AT&T
Earlier today we saw AT&T and Motorola announce the BRAVO, FLIPSIDE and FLIPOUT. They’ll have all three of these phones on site at CTIA and we’ll be sure to get hands-on if possible. All three phones have Android 2.1 and BLUR and anyone considering these as your next phones will definitely want to stay tuned to our CTIA coverage!
Mobile Focus
An evening event called MobileFocus will not only help us cover a larger scope of mobile news but also help us drink some alcoholic beverages. The invitation for the event calls for us to, “Preview new innovations from companies like BlackBerry, Energizer, Lenovo, LG, Nokia, Samsung, T-Mobile, and many more! While sampling the latest innovations in technology you can also enjoy Napa’s finest wineries pouring their newest vintages!” Sounds like a plan to me! This is on Wednesday night.
Meetups with Verizon, Netshelter, More…
We’ve also got some more casual meetups planned, for example with our friends at Verizon – the first sponsors of Phandroid Live – and Netshelter, the amazing folks who show you the uber relevant phone and tech ads that so entice you to click through. If you’re at CTIA and want to hang out, give us a shout! We’ll probably be busy working every angle of all the articles we can, but we’ll try to squeeze some chill time as well.
Samsung
We all expected Samsung to be on hand for this event – they announced the Galaxy S at the previous main CTIA event – but to what degree? They’ll be showing off their Galaxy S phones and the Galaxy Tab that we’ve seen so much of, but they’ve just announced they’ll be partnering with some premier developers to provide enterprise solutions for the business users who need a bigger device on the go with the functionality to keep them connected to the office. Just a few of these include Sybase, Blackboard, and Citrix. We’ll be stopping by to take another look at how the Tab’s coming along since we last saw it in New York a couple of weeks ago.
Apps
The name of the event is CTIA “Enterprise and Apps” so you know we’ll be all over the show floor trying to get as much hands on time with the many apps that’ll be on hand. A lot of major developers that have been featured in the Android market will be there to show their digital wares and we’ll be just as excited about that stuff as we’ll be about any hardware announcements. Just expect a lot of Android love and a lot of Android fun.
Today is just pre-CTIA and there are a couple of meetups we’ll probably be heading to shortly, but tomorrow is when all of the real fun begins. We’ll see you guys later on with everything to come out of the affair!
I’ll be waiting on dat sprint industry first let’s see wat is gona be da case being that I have an evo I wana wait n see
Awesome sauce. Looks interesting.
Can’t wait to see all the awesome Verizon 4G info. Sucks as I can’t upgrade for 20 months, but hopefully it rolls out smoothly. Living just outside Philadelphia, coverage should be good here.
am i the only one who thinks that energizer being there may be a bit exciting? so… are we finally going to start seeing some “next generation” batteries to feed our hungry phones for longer periods of time?
@elnene20, are you illiterate?
@john, My money is on inductive charging technology from energizer.
@elnene20, do you mean, “I’ll be waiting on that sprint industry first let’s see what is gonna be the case being that I have an evo I want to wait and see”?
@JRDroid, Gee, that makes it so much more understandable…
Thanks in advance for trying to grab any info relative to upcoming at&t android phones… We have been waiting for a high end HTC for too long now.
” they announced the Galaxy S at the previous main CTIA event – but to what degree? ” That keynote gave me all the reason to wait 6 months for a phone, and confirm my belief that I wouldn’t be going with an iPhone which I desperately wanted to avoid on principle alone (vote with the wallet!).
I think to expect an announcement on the 2nd generation Galaxy S is not too much to come out of this event, or CES. After all, it’s not like they are going to be resting on their laurels after selling 5M primarily because they had amongst the, if not the, best smartphone on the market. They really like Apple’s business model when it comes to high end hardware, so expect an annual refresh that is a bit more aggressive on hardware, plus they’ll try to further drop the price of the Galaxy S around the time of the SGS2 in order to push 20M devices in 2011.
“am i the only one who thinks that energizer being there may be a bit exciting?”
Yes… Energizer batteries suck. And their rechargable batteries are even worse. Rebadged Sanyo garbage…
Has it begun and if so were is the coverage? I’m currently searching, but the CTIA site is garbage…