Archive for the ‘Columns’ Category

LAS VEGAS – A few things are clear about this year’s show: It’s crowded and frenetic, and there is a lot of buzz that simply did not exist last year.

Attendance is definitely up. Walking the show floor, which is filled with non-stop activity, there seems to be more purpose among the people here, as if they are ready to get back to work and move onto the future, as opposed to the skepticism and job hunting that seemed to be so prevalent last year.

From a technology standpoint, if there was one significant difference from last year’s show, it’s all about the screens – digital, touch, 3D, clarity, enhanced user interfaces.

Booths are crammed with impressive TVs, mobile screens and large-format displays. Devices such as smartboards, e-book readers, phones and TVs all have touchscreens.

Intel had its huge Infoscape interactive touchscreen display that looks like something out of the latest James Bond film. Kodak has a large touchscreen display, too. 

If you’re in Las Vegas, get to the Samsung and Microsoft booths to see their displays – you won’t be sorry you made the trek.

Engaging users in a “touch and feel” experience with technology seems to be a common theme.

TOUCHING SCENE
What does this mean for mobile? 

Well, it’s good news. Mobile is everywhere, in every booth – NBC Universal, Samsung, Dolby, LG, Sony, Pioneer, Ford. It seems like every vendor has a mobile application. Everyone is talking mobile in an unprecedented way.

There is an e-billboard streaming live TV over Clearwire’s 4G Clear network, which is up and running in Las Vegas.

Tivit launched a mobile TV receiver that enables users to watch TV on a smartphone or laptop computer.

Mobile digital television may finally be here, with a live demo from the Open Mobile Video Coalition and mobile DTV-enabled mobile phones now available from a U.S. carrier.

So it’s really upbeat – all about touch screens for TV, mobile, whiteboards – all about ‘touch’ – Apple influence everywhere.  Also, mobile is everywhere – in the booths of Dolby, NBC Universal, Samsung, Sony and Pioneer.

Seems like TVs, 3D graphics and mobile are the three major focuses. Also a big uptake in mobile use in cars – Microsoft booth is full of cars, Ford is here in a big way, too. It’s very upbeat.

At the risk of indulging in hyperbole, CES 2010 may be the show where those of us who regularly attend look back in a handful of years and say, “This was truly the breakout year for mobile.”

 Val Christopherson is managing director of Global Results Communications, Irvine, CA. Reach her at valeriec@globalresultspr.com.

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LAS VEGAS — It seems like there are a lot of ecosystems in mobile, and the latest one could be a game-changer in mobile marketing. 

Ford unveiled its new MyFord Touch system, based on the company’s SYNC technology. The in-car communications and entertainment system combines top-of-the-line voice recognition from Nuance Communications with touch-screen controls on the steering wheel to give drivers easy control over digital media and mobile phones.

Here’s the cool part: Ford wants to create what it calls a SYNC App Ecosystem and is offering a SYNC SDK (software developers kit) to encourage developers to create applications that will interface with iPhone, Droid, BlackBerry, WinMo, Palm and any other mobile device via a standard Bluetooth connection.

Internet music service Pandora.com is already onboard. Using SYNC’s voice-recognition system with a Pandora app running on a phone, drivers can flip through radio pre-set buttons that correspond to Pandora’s music feeds. Smart radio provider Stitcher.com and Twitter client OpenBeak are also live.

Now, think about how many hours people spend in their cars – a captive audience.  You could deliver location-based services, mobile surveying and market research, mobile learning, targeted advertising, social media, digital media – all enabled through voice recognition to prevent the “distracted driver” syndrome.

App developers and mobile marketers should be falling over themselves trying to figure out how to extend brand building into the type of in-car experience that Ford’s SYNC offers.

******
Google all the way

Hmmm, let’s review the last 24 hours …

Motorola announces its cool, new Backflip Android phone, which is getting rave reviews.

At its annual developers conference yesterday, AT&T Mobility was all over Android, announcing devices from the aforementioned Motorola, HTC Corp., computer maker Dell and two new devices from Palm.

T-Mobile announced a $180 pricing package for new subscribers on the Nexus One.

We’re no shill for Google, but they own the wireless side of CES this year. Guess this means that all those iPhone app developers better bone up on their Droid coding.

 Val Christopherson is managing director of Global Results Communications, Irvine, CA. Reach her at valeriec@globalresultspr.com.

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LAS VEGAS – The AT&T Developer Summit is going on today in Las Vegas in conjunction with the Consumer Electronics Show this week.

One bit of mobile news from that front comes from WaveMarket, which provides mobile location-based applications.The company announced that it will join the Veriplace Location Platform Initiative to enable access to AT&T’s location infrastructure for more than 1,000 third-party developers using the Veriplace cloud location platform.

Through WaveMarket’s applications, developers will be able to create location-aware SMS, Web, WAP and IVR applications that are compatible with all of the major operating systems. What does this mean in the big picture?

As an example, AT&T customers who sign up for a mobile weather application can give that application permission to send alerts about approaching storms or severe conditions based on his or  her location, even when the customer may not have the application actively running on the handset. Sounds pretty cool. It’s yet another example of the big carriers jumping on the app selling bandwagon.

Forget about Google versus Microsoft. This mobile arms race between Apple and Google just keeps getting more interesting, with each punch served by another counter punch.

The latest one-two jab comes from the mobile advertising arena. Google acquired AdMob back in November to bolster its muscle, and now Apple just purchased Quattro Wireless for a reported $275 million. 

All the remaining independent players are left to comment on how the space is undeniably fire brand hot. Heck, even Oracle jumped into the fray with its Oracle Communications Marketing and Advertising offering about three weeks ago.

Check out this punch-counterpunch over the last two days: Apple makes the Quattro announcement, then Google unveils its sleek new Nexus One Android phone (love the Blade Runner reference), then yesterday Steve Jobs touted the Apple App store reaching the 3-billion-download milestone just three months after it reached 2 billion.

Now, what’s Google going to do before Apple’s Jan. 27 rollout of its new iSlate Apple tablet? Can’t wait to findout.

More to follow tomorrow.

 Val Christopherson is managing director of Global Results Communications, Irvine, CA. Reach her at valeriec@globalresultspr.com.

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