LAS VEGAS—In the final CES keynote Friday, Gary Forsee, chairman and CEO of Sprint Corp., said the company will focus on delivering integrated voice and data services on its wired and wireless networks and introduce 3D games and virtual meeting rooms for gamers.
“An integrated experience means using useful innovation to connect people wherever they are by delivering voice and data across multiple platforms and multiple devices,” said Forsee. “People can read e-mail, open attachments, and view spreadsheets–at home, in the office, and everywhere in between.”
Sprint sees multiple opportunities over the horizon, including location-based services that tell you where you are and how to get where you want to go, as well as voice-activated text messaging and menu navigation.
An example of what Forsee calls the “integrated experience” is the video mail phone service Sprint announced last month. The service allows customers to send 15 seconds of video directly from their phone and share to any e-mail address or PCS Video Phone.
“We helped create the camera-phone market in the United States,” said Forsee. “Now we are doing the same with video mail phones with our partners Sanyo, Samsung and Toshiba.”
Sprint customers sent more then 66 million pictures in 2003, and worldwide sales of camera phones nearly reached 60 million, he said.
“Until now, DVD players have been the fastest-growing consumer tech device,” Forsee said. “The camera-phone went from a new to a nearly mature market in a fraction of the time that most products follow the same evolution.”
Also on tap from Sprint is Game Lobby, an online area where the mobile gaming community can meet and compete. According to Forsee, Sprint will introduce 3D games in the second quarter of 2004, with the launch of the next evolution of Java for wireless.
For more from CES 2004, check out CES.PCMag.Com.