CTIA 2008 Preview

The CTIA Wireless mobile expo begins on Monday in Las Vegas and similar to shows like CES and Mobile World Congress, you can expect some big name companies to use it as a launching pad for exciting announcements. Described as, “The convergence of more than 1,100 exhibiting companies, dozens of industries, and over 40,000 professionals from 125 countries,” we’re sure their won’t be a shortage of juicy news and rumors.
With that being said, it’s one of those rare weekends that we want to end quickly. As CTIA approaches, here are some key things to keep an eye for:

• The Wall Street Journal reported (from an anonymous source) that Sprint had been in talks with Comcast and Time Warner about possible joint venture opportunities. Could this help save the struggling company? CTIA would be a great time to clear the air.
• This joint venture might actually be the spin off of Sprint’s WiMax 4G connection product. The new CEO has made it clear that they need to focus on their core competencies and if WiMax were funded by a 3rd party (Comcast, Time Warner) and Spring could refocus on retaining and building their customer base, everybody wins.
• Motorola recently announced it was spinning of its handset division as a seperate entity. But, don’t expect Moto to walk off the edge like a lemming… if they’re smart, they’ll have some news prepared that will illustrate they plan on moving forward as a strong force in the American mobile industry. I’d call them a dark horse of the show.
• With the spectrum auction, Android on the way and other key factors in the mobile industry, OPEN will be a buzzword and we could get some clarification on exactly what mobile will mean to cell phone users over the next year or two based on how these companies pursue the idea.
• MocoNews reports that Jott will announce a Blackberry Application that will allow you to speak into your handset which will convert your voice to text for e-mails. Meanwhile, Dashwire is ready to launch a mobile app that will allow you to sync your “mobile life” with the social networking websites like Bebo, Facebook and Flickr that have come to dominate the net.
• Windows Mobile might be releasing their latest version (snore).
• Android, Android, Android! Will the HTC Dream get its first public displaying? Will other Android handsets be announced or previewed? Will we get to see any more Android Apps in use? What will Android’s roll play in CTIA 2008? We don’t know but we can’t wait!

But, as usual, nothing would excite us more than to see:

• Anything Android.
• Some killer new handsets.

Credit goes to MocoNews (twice), and CNet for scooping a lot of the above!