Well the 2008 CTIA Wireless expo came and went but there was plenty of news to go around. Rather than try to scoop up bits and pieces, we’ve put together a quick recap of the stuff you should care about.
As far as new handsets go:
Samsung stole the show with the Samsung Instinct, which looks to be yet another “iPhone competitor”.
Velocity Mobile, a new smart phone manufacturer debuting at CTIA, revealed their first 2 Windows Mobile devices which garnered some great, positive press for the company. They look great.
The Sony Ericcson Xperia X1 got a hands on look and apparently it is everything it is cracked up to be.
Verizon’s LG Vu looks to be a hot product on AT&T while the enV2 received initial excitement that was tempered after a hands on.
Nokia dropped an Internet Tablet (N810) that looked pretty sweet and should launch on AT&T in the summer.
LG Hero for Sprint aims for the basic business world – very affordable with the “connect to talk” feature and some business apps. Not stunning but does it’s job well.
Sanyo launched a bunch of basic phones, which definitely have a decent market. One is the Katana LX and three more are on a line called the Pro Series.
ZTE launched 2 ho-hum devices aimed at the more “basic” cell phone user.
Motorola Smart Rider is a mix between a phone and GPS device that will be available in June 2008
Motorola Z9 is good looking phone but doesn’t do anything incredible.
Verizon Wireless imports the HTC Touch into it’s line of products.
The Motorola Q9c will also be available on Verizon in the summer.
Thumbplay offers a GET service where you send them a TXT message and they return the favor with a link to purchase a song/ringtone. Um… mobile web please anyone?
Yahoo’s OneSearch 2.0 allows BlackBerry users to speak their search term into a Yahoo interface which then displays their results. We likey.
Dashwire improved their phone-to-web syncing application that lets you completely manage your mobile presence via computer and links the two “existences” seamlessly. This could be a big hit down the road when mobiles, by default, do a heckuva lot more.
Wayfinder Active has a neat (and free) GPS application tied into a social community for “active” folks who can take their phones on hikes, runs, bike trails, rock climbing, etc.. and it spits out a load of handy info about their voyage. Check it out.
iVisit video conferencing on your mobile. Cool beans.
A decent show but definitely not the best we’ve scened. We’ll be excited to get the Samsung Instinct and the LG Vu into our hands… that’s for sure.