Android and 4 Other Hot Wireless Business Offerings at CTIA

by Eric Lundquist

At the CTIA show, Android phones were everywhere. These smartphones offer powerful processors, high-speed networks and really sharp 4-inch displays. Sorry, Apple, Microsoft and RIM, but there’s some serious catching up to do in device look, feel and capability. This family of smartphones offers devices that let you mix business and personal use and stay ahead of your business competition.

You don’t really see infrastructure improvements, you experience them. But the big-switch horsepower companies such as Juniper Networks and Cisco Systems have the boxes, and big telecom carriers Sprint, Verizon and AT&T are making the investment. We are talking billions of dollars in infrastructure upgrades so that your streaming video over your smartphone will be as good as what you get at home over the cable or FiOS.

AT&T talked up its Antenna Software-based WorkBench product for the iPhone. This is less about the iPhone than the growing availability of business app development platforms for smartphones. In this vein, AT&T also introduced its Nice Office synchronization application.

Remember femtocells? Plug one into your broadband connection and you have five-bar connectivity. There were lots of femtos at CTIA. These are a way for both consumers and businesses to become happy users without waiting for the carriers to upgrade their entire infrastructure.

OK, buzz is neither a product nor a service. But putting on a show with the buzz as being the place to be, where business-to-business products are being introduced and seminars are packed and interesting, is the goal of all show organizers. Right now, CTIA—even at 25 years old and with a history as a telecom carrier event—has the buzz. The mobile enterprise is now the hot topic of 2010 and beyond, and CTIA was a great place to see it unfolding.