The Android Invasion: New Devices, Technology and Opportunities

an⋅droid
  –noun
1. an automaton in the form of a human being.
Origin: 1720–30; (source: dictionary.com)

2. the wireless industry's best chance to compete with the iPhone
Origin: 2007 (source: Google, Open Handset Alliance).

And then their was DROID. (2009)

If you work in the wireless industry, you've probably been aware of Google's initiative to penetrate this space with their open-source operating system for smartphones. After all, the first "Google phone" was introduced by T-Mobile over one year ago. Know anybody who uses one? There hasn't been much consumer awareness.

But suddenly, Android™ smartphones appear to be everywhere. Estimates are that Verizon Wireless is spending $100M on their DROID advertising campaign. As Advertising Age has said, this is a saturation campaign that will make DROID impossible to avoid - on TV, the internet, in magazines, newspapers.. all forms of media.

I've been following this sudden flurry of activity which began shortly before the CTIA Wireless I.T. & Entertainment show in San Diego in October, with Motorola's announcement of the Motorola Cliq™ and MOTOBLUR™. The pace of announcements then took off, starting with Verizon announcing their strategic partnership with Google just before the show opened, followed by Samsung's big splash for the Moment™ on CTIA's opening day joining the HTC Hero™ in San Diego. Suddenly the count of Android™ smartphones available in the U.S. went from 1 to 4, and then quickly to 8 devices with no signs of slowing down.

The rapidly developing Android™ ecosystem presents a great opportunity for application developers, hardware manufacturers and wireless operators. Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile collectively account for more than 170 million U.S. cell phone users, greater than twice the subscriber base of iPhone-dependent AT&T. To grow the market even further, Android™ is expanding to e-book readers and netbooks, and can be expected to show up in other consumer electronics devices as the internet and digital media converge further into the digital living room.

I recently published a comprehensive report that describes the opportunities and resources that are available to take advantage of this "Android Invasion". You can download a free excerpt, and purchase the complete report at http://digdia.com/droid09/droid09_main.htm.

Here is an outline of the report:

•Section 2: Android™ invades CTIA Wireless IT & Entertainment, provides a hands-on review of the Android™ smartphones on display at CTIA wireless from Samsung, HTC, and Motorola. Since Verizon began their DROID campaign shortly after CTIA Wireless, the new Motorola DROID and HTC DROID Eris are also included in the review. A detailed feature list is provided in a 1-page table to facilitate a direct comparison of the new Android™ handsets.

•Section 3: Opportunities and Tools for Android™ Developers, describes opportunities to engage with the major players in the Android™ ecosystem that are sponsoring developer communities to feed the Android™ Applications Market. This guide provides information on how to take advantage of resources provided by the wireless operators, handset manufacturers, and semiconductor vendors who are facilitating apps development by providing tools and assistance to developers at little or no cost.

Though most of the wireless industry technology focus is now on Android™, there were other significant product announcements and new technologies on display at CTIA Wireless I.T. & Entertainment that will impact mobile devices rolling out now and in the near future.

•Section 4: Nokia N900 and Maemo, reviews the newest “tablet” device from Nokia which marks the company’s move away from the Symbian operating system to a new Linux-based application platform. Opportunities are also described here that are available to developers who wish to join Nokia’s Maemo community for marketing of applications in the Ovi store.

•Section 5: Qualcomm and FloTV™, includes a review of the company’s new PT 350 and their strategy to promote adoption of mobile TV through this dedicated handheld device along with in-car entertainment systems.

•Section 6: Qualcomm mirasol® Displays, describes a promising new technology beginning to emerge from Qualcomm’s R&D labs that may allow for color eBook readers to be built with passive reflective displays, similar to the Amazon Kindle.

•Section 7: Summary, starts with a wrap-up of the Android™ smartphones that are currently available in the U.S., including a brief guide for consumers who may be considering purchase of one of the new devices.

In “Opportunities and Challenges for Android™”, some of the issues facing the development of the Android™ ecosystem are described, along with a summary of the opportunities and incentives for participating in this wireless industry campaign to displace Apple and the iPhone.

Finally, a summary analysis of the two key developments from Qualcomm, FLO TV™ and mirasol® displays, is provided.


The Android Robot reproduced from work created and shared by Google and used according to terms described in the Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution License.

part 2 - WCA 10th Annual What’s Hot (and What’s Not) in Mobility 2009

This is part 2 of my report on "What’s Hot (and What’s Not) in Mobility 2009", the Wireless Communications Alliance's (WCA) annual investor panel discussion held on November 18th. Click here for part I.

The Panel:
Moderator: Scott Ellison, VP Mobility Wireless, IDC

Panelists:
Eric Zimits, Managing Director, Granite Ventures
Dev Khare, Vice President, Venrock
Tim Chang, Principal, Norwest Venture Partners
Scott Raney, Partner, Redpoint Ventures

Wireless network capacity issues, and net neutrality

Regarding the topic of a "spectrum crisis", which was highlighted at the recent CTIA Wireless I.T. & Entertainment show and is now a topic of much discussion in the FCC's mobile broadband plan, one of the panelists expressed the opinion that "price segmentation" will solve the problem of bandwidth overload, while complaining that his dropped calls are due to teenagers overloading the network with Facebook and YouTube.

One of the panelists predicted that Verizon Wireless will raise pricing for data plans in 2010, claiming that "it happened for SMS". Another panelist pointed out that this would be difficult to do, since many consumers just got signed up with flat rate data plans. One panelist was especially bullish on femtocells as a solution, though the question was raised on whether consumers would support this solution - especially if the femtocell was providing open access.

(Femtocells increase cellular network coverage by placing low power transceivers off towers, in consumer's premises or other privately-owned buildings. Femtocells are basically BYOB: bring your own backhaul, and would require a consumer to connect to their wireline broadband network. An open femtocell would be using a consumer's equipment and broadband connection to provide service to others.)

Just this week, Fierce Wireless published an article describing how wireless operators are LOWERING data plan pricing, not raising prices. While AT&T (especially) complains that they need more spectrum, they continue to sit on the 700MHz block they acquired in last year's FCC auction, while promising an HSPA upgrade and wait & see on LTE. Rather than complain about YouTube users, one should complain to AT&T.

I addressed the subject of network capacity in great detail back in July, in my report on The Emerging 4G Wireless Landscape in the U.S.My press release at the time had the title Explosive Growth in Mobile Video Shifts Advantage to WiMAX Providers Until 2012.

My opinion is that this "crisis" represents an opportunity for Clearwire and its partners (especially Sprint), IF they can meet their rollout goals to achieve a national footprint for mobile WiMAX, and IF they can get some slick dual-mode 3G/4G handsets on the market. With Google invested in Clearwire, will we see a dual-mode 3G/4G Android smartphone in 2010?

There is a lot of discussion in the wireless industry about trying to avoid being "dumb pipes", i.e. how to monetize delivery of content to mobile broadband users. Tiered-pricing is one of the strategies you will hear consultants discussing but never the operators themselves. One should keep in mind that uptake of 3G services only reached the 10% level recently, still an early adopter stage. Now that consumers (driven largely by the iPhone) are finally increasing their adoption, operators can't price them off their networks to solve capacity issues. It just doesn't work that way. Operators desperately need consumers as subscribers to mobile broadband data plans, because that is the only revenue growth area in the wireless industry, and the content consumers want requires capacity.

The panelists had already said that price discrimination wouldn't work... when they recalled the huge success that operators had increasing SMS pricing while texting-addicted consumers just kept subscribing anyway. What this disruption can cause is a rapid movement of subscribers to a competitive service, what the industry refers to as "churn". This is where the "Android Invasion" (the topic of my latest report at http://www.digdia.com/) will have a major impact, along with the increasing availability of 4G wireless services. The exclusive iPhone/AT&T relationship is extremely vulnerable.

Mobile health

The panelist from Norwest was particularly bullish on mobile technology in the healthcare field, citing the opportunity for low cost sensors connected wirelessly to "the cloud". But connected toilets? The idea described here (not sure if it is real but could be), is that your personal waste products could be monitored to detect and report on your state of health, i.e. sensors for predictive preventative health care.

This is a very hot field in wireless today, and a section of CTIA Wireless was devoted to it in the Wireless Health Pavilion.

RFID for anti-theft applications

This falls into the field of Machine-to-Machine (M2M) applications for wireless technology. Businesses can track equipment and merchandise to prevent theft. It doesn't necessarily require cellular connectivity to implement such a system. I saw a good demonstration of such a solution at CiscoLive! earlier this year.

WiMax and Clearwire

It was no surprise to hear the VCs reflect a prevailing view that "Clearwire has a tough road ahead", and that their real opportunities may be in M2M. One VC made a statement that is often repeated regarding LTE - that the industry has finally settled on one standard. The "industry" in this case refers to the members of 3GPP, i.e. most of the incumbent wireless operators.

I won't dwell on this in great detail here, (see The Emerging 4G Wireless Landscape in the U.S.), but there really needs to be an understanding of just how far behind WiMax LTE is. Already, we see that Verizon Wireless is running behind in their announced plan to have “pre-commercial” deployments of LTE by the end of 2009. As I said in my analysis report, WiMax and LTE will co-exist for at least the next 5 years, if not longer. The opportunity for Clearwire is to be there first when these capacity issues really start to hit hard, which has already happened to 3G networks in other parts of the world.Clearwire's investors; primarily Intel Capital, Time Warner and Comcast, recently added $2B to complete the company's 2010 plan of reaching 120M pops in 80 markets.

Regarding Comcast's involvement as a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), and investor in Clearwire, one of the panelists remarked that the cable industry "follows a five year cycle where they get interested in mobile". I contend that it is very different now, regardless of what may have happened in the past. People want access to video content on-demand, and the three-screen strategy (TV, PC, cell phone) is critical to Comcast's business. It makes sense that they have invested in the highest capacity wireless network that is currently available, rather than relying on 3G (or waiting for LTE) to deliver their content.

Android and apps stores

For the new wave of Android smartphones to compete with the iPhone, there must also be a convenient means to discover and purchase apps, akin to iTunes. (See Techcrunch for Android Market Badly Needs A Desktop Presence To Compete With The App Store). Google currently has the Android Market but that lacks consumer awareness. One of the attendee's proposals during the Q&A, which has also been suggested earlier (see FierceWireless), was for an Amazon app store. That would certainly solve the issue of consumer awareness.

Mobile payments

A suggestion (or perhaps it was a prediction) from one of the VC panelists was that the Bump app for iPhones and Android could be used as a mechanism for peer-to-peer payments. Bump is currently used to enable contact information to be shared by bumping two phones together.

Mobile ads

The consensus amongst the panel was that business plans for mobile advertising are non-starters. One of the VCs said he just hits delete when he sees one. The VCs agreed that traditional ads don't work on mobile, but the idea of hyper-local ads would be viable (i.e. linked to location-based services) I think that foursquare will develop this as their business model

"Intel is toast"!

To my friends at Intel.. I didn't say this, it came from the VCs!

The issue here concerned Intel's Atom processor vs. ARM in mobile devices. I was very surprised at how strongly negative the panelists were on this, with comments like "Atom is a loser". My interpretation is that the panelists must think that ARM will displace Atom in the rapidly growing netbook market, which Intel currently dominates.

I have heard discussions, most recently at the ARM Techcon3, aggressively positioning ARM cores against Intel, so that idea is nothing new. In smartphones, ARM does dominate. It appears to me that the VCs have swallowed ARMs argument that their cores result in a smaller, lower power die than Atom. But surely the VCs are aware that ARM cores do not run Windows 7, or Windows XT for that matter! This then is a 2-sided bet on ARM and Google Chrome. Highly unlikely in my opinion.

Stock picks:

Apparently it is a tradition of the WCA "Hot or Not" meetings to have panelists give their stock predictions. I'm sure I didn't capture them all, as it was pretty rapid fire, but here are a few:

Buy: nVidia, Google, Foreign mobile operators. Africa, China, India. Motorola for smartphones, Picocells, Chinese game developers
Sell: Nokia

WCA 10th Annual What’s Hot (and What’s Not) in Mobility 2009 - part I

On November 18, I attended the The Wireless Communications Alliance's (WCA) annual investor panel discussion on "What’s Hot (and What’s Not) in Mobility 2009". WCA is a non-profit organization bringing together companies and organizations in Silicon Valley that have an interest in wireless technologies.

The Panel:
Moderator: Scott Ellison, VP Mobility Wireless, IDC

Panelists:
Eric Zimits, Managing Director, Granite Ventures
Dev Khare, Vice President, Venrock
Tim Chang, Principal, Norwest Venture Partners
Scott Raney, Partner, Redpoint Ventures

I began live-tweeting the event, but TweetDeck on my iPhone informed me that I had no network connection, asking if I wanted to work in the background. (I did have several bars showing, implying a good signal, but no 3G, Edge or WiFi). Pretty ironic not having cell phone connectivity at a WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS event, which was held at Silicon Valley Bank (in a meeting room in the front of the building by the way). Hey AT&T... got a map for that?

Bottom line: I lost all my early comments thinking they were being cached, before I realized I was tweeting into a black hole. What follows are my recollections from the remaining notes that I took in the iPhone notepad app.

A wide-ranging number of topics were covered, and the panel of VCs were certainly not shy about their opinions. Here they are, along with my own comments.

Multiple OS standards are a good thing. "CDMA made wireless less boring"

I believe that this comment referred to the emergence of Android as a smartphone operating system. The same can be said regarding the discussion of LTE and WiMAX that followed. Obviously, there is a big difference between user-interfaces and radio network standards, but if competition is good... it's good everywhere.

IP strategies are critical

This discussion referred to the value of patents and intellectual property for wireless startup companies. A comment was made that the value of IP is more for use in bargaining during business negotiations, such as a potential M&A, than in outright value.

What's changed in venture capital?

"The semiconductor segment (for startups) is about as dead as you can get.The Chinese squeezed out all the value."

This is a reference to the large number of fabless IC design startups in China. I believe that a bigger issue is that leading edge digital design in advanced process nodes is just too expensive for a startup. So it was interesting to hear this follow-up comment from another panelist:

"RF and analog are much better startup opportunities than digital. They only require small teams. "Innovation in silicon is in RF and analog. These are critical technologies needed for femto-cells."

Ahhh.. yes. How great to hear a VC recognize the value of understanding that The World is Analog.

Panelist, referring to what happened to semiconductors: "Hauwei is doing to systems now. This is a problem for Cisco."

One of the VCs described how Chinese banks will backup Hauwei if there is any risk of losing a deal, flying bank execs to a customer site to promise full financing at 0% if necessary.

Venture Capital has become "Vulture capital" - late round.

VC panelists agreed there are no up rounds now. Seed investments are better, based (as always) on having "the right team". "Vulture capital" refers to waiting for later rounds to jump in at the lower price in a down round (since there are no up rounds occurring).

"Never been a better time to start mobile company"

This may seem totally contradictory to the "vulture capital" statement. In general the VCs were still bullish on the mobile space, saying that "now is the best time" (to start), advising entrepreneurs to "follow what happened on the internet". Entrepreneurs were advised to look for opportunities where there is "a hole in mobile". Not that entrepreneurs should get any irrational exuberance; the VCs agreed that the price Google paid for Admob ($750 million) is "obscene". (It should be noted the VCs on AdMobs board, Sequia Capital and Accel Partners, were not represented)

Opportunity areas: Software for mobile, but not consumer facing.

Although there was a comment that "maybe android changes" things, the panel's opinion on iPhone app businesses was that they are more suitable for "lifestyle" companies than for VC-funded startups. Something about needing to be in the top 5 apps for 3 months running to make "just $10M" in revenue.

Mobile-TV

Referring to Qualcomm's FLO TV initiatives, opinion was that "broadcast (mobile) TV never took off, and "personalized mobile video is what works in the U.S." In the U.S. smartphone users can take their content with them to do place/time shifting (as with iTunes), and consumers will use the "cheapest means available to access content". In the panelist's opinions live mobile TV is only for regions where there are a large number of mass-transit commuters (i.e. Japan). Panelists also stated that "in-car makes more sense".

I generally agree with this assessment, and Qualcomm's FLO TV strategy is one of the topics I cover in an upcoming report. Look for it at www.digdia.com

Two small semiconductor companies that are doing well in this space were highlighted: Maxlinear - which provides a tuner used for mobile TV in Japan, and Telegent - which has focused on chips for markets where free over-the-air analog TV is still available.

The impact of wireless in emerging markets

A lot has been written about the role of wireless technology in countries where many people will have a cellular handset as their first telephone. To gain a more accurate perspective on this topic, one of the panelists recommended the blog "future perfect" by Jan Chipchase, a Nokia researcher who has field experience observing firsthand the impact of wireless technology in emerging markets.

(check back for part II)

#EDA and iPhone envy

The International Conference on Computer-Aided Design (ICCAD) is being held in San Jose this week. The program is predominantly geared toward presentations of academic research with relatively little industry representation, especially when compared to the (much larger) Design Automation Conference (DAC).

With the EDA sector still struggling to pull out of a six-quarter long decline in revenue, the ICCAD organizers broke from the academic theme in a session titled "What EDA Needs to Change for 2020 Success" - presented by industry veterans Jim Hogan and Paul McLellan, where industry analysts, bloggers and journalists were invited to participate.

Some of the topics put forth for discussion were:

• What will be the silicon platform for complex chip design in the next decade?
• Software signoff why do we need it?.....or do we?
• Where is the highest value area for EDA vendors given the requirements of the electronic systems designer and platform provider?

The graphic above illustrates a prevalent view within EDA that growth will come from addressing the semiconductor design process at higher levels of abstraction; primarily system-level software models. One of the statistics put forth at the session was a claim that software now represents >50% of system-on-chip (SoC) design cost, leading to the (somewhat vague) notion of software signoff.

In my opinion, repeating the same EDA paradigm at yet another level is no solution for industry growth. At best, it can only help recover some of the lost revenue that will continue to result from pervasive commoditization of older generation tools. Where's the innovation?

EDA has for far too long reflected upon the success of logic synthesis, perhaps the last true innovation in design methodology, and searched in vain for a repeat performance - i.e. ESL or electronic system-level design. The real problem with this idea revealed itself only towards the closing part of the Q&A, in a perhaps rhetorical question: "how many EDA companies can handle total SoC integration?" The answer is none.

This is not to be taken entirely as a criticism of EDA. Only a company that actually does SoC design, such as Intel or Texas Instruments, is capable of developing comprehensive knowledge of the entire process. I have written before of the need for greater collaboration between EDA and semiconductor companies. However, EDA has made the problem worse by developing fragmented views developed within point tool silos, exacerbated by artificial barriers. There have been no shortage of abstraction levels developed for use in IC design flows. What is lacking is the 3rd axis for the chart above - the links across abstraction levels to connect the hierarchical SoC design process.

Here's one example. When the introduction of hardware-description languages (HDLs) enabled replacement of transistor-level simulation for logic, it took years to build links between the two levels of abstraction such as the IEEE 1364 Verilog PLI. Yet to this day, some vendors refuse to support VPI, offering only proprietary interfaces in an attempt to lock users into a single company's products.

There are numerous other examples where abstraction levels are, at best, poorly linked:

• separate (and proprietary) physical databases for analog and digital flows
• no closed loop between SPICE and analog behavioral abstraction, such as Verilog-A or MATLAB
  
• lack of connection between design verification and ATE

The iPhone envy comes from the success of Apple's application store. For the first time in the cell phone market, software drove hardware sales. EDA is not alone in this envy, all of the wireless operators and cell phone manufacturers are jealous as well. But let's not be confused here. EDA does not serve the consumer market. EDA can serve the application software component of SoC design, but that is but one more link to be made with the rest of the flow. In and of itself, it is not the answer to turning around EDA.

We can see the problems in 2020 if we just look closer at the problems at hand today. Without breaking down barriers in the flow, in ten years they only get worse.

-Mike

#CTIA FundFest

On the final day of the CTIA Wireless I.T. and Entertainment show (10/09/09), the morning keynote session was replaced by the 1st CTIA "Fundfest". This event provided an opportunity for founders of five startups in the wireless space to give a short presentation of their business plan to a panel of 3 judges:

1. Rory Moore, CommNexus San Diego CEO
2. Andy Seybold, Andrew Seybold, Inc. CEO and Principal Consultant
3. Quinn Li, Qualcomm Ventures Managing Director

I live-tweeted the event; offering my opinions and reactions real-time during each presentation. Since returning from CTIA I have received several questions about the FundFest presenters (via Twitter). To put my answers into the proper context along with my thoughts at the time, I thought it would be good to recompile my tweets here along with the follow-up questions.

• #ctia small crowd for Fri keynotes on new companies
• #ctia 5 startups presenting their biz plans
• #ctia 1st up: Mjedi (em Jedi) social net for commerce
• #ctia Mjedi: idea to create 'pull' of consumers. Target teens & women, because they like to talk about shopping. LOL. Facebook for the mall.
• #ctia Mjedi wants to use shoppers to create ads for their social networks. Good way to lose friend in my opinion, but I'm not target demo

As the tweets above show, Mjedi's business plan is based on the idea of making shopping a (virtual) social experience. The motto on their website says: "Take ALL your friends shopping with you!".

As founder Chander Chawla said during his presentation, this really is not a guy thing. Teenage girls? Maybe. Users send UPC bar code ID numbers via to Facebook via SMS so that their friends can comment, compare prices, etc.

I just didn't see this as a very attractive business model. Sure, I can see advertisers and merchants buying into the idea of turning shoppers into an ad hoc advertising network. But isn't shopping one activity that the target demographic actually still likes to do socially in real life? Not that I go to malls very often, but when I have there were always groups of teenage girls together. The idea of those girls entering bar codes seems to very unlikely to me, but as I said at the time.. I am far from the target demo.

So, as to one of the tweet questions I received: "Who was most likely to gain actual customers?"... my answer for Mjedi is I don't think so.

• #ctia next up ParkVu: take all your media with you. I was hoping it would help me find a parking spot!
• #ctia ParkVu: huh? How much storage in smartphones vs desktop?
• #ctia ParkVu Bold, Storm, Curve app to xfer iTunes media to Blackberry
• #ctia ParkVu: "all" media apparently means music. Who wants a replacement for iTunes?
• #ctia ParkVu storage is on SD cards and in the cloud.

The 2nd FundFest presenter was ParkVu. I don't know where the name of the company comes from, but it doesn't connect (in my mind) at all to the product they are developing.

ParkVu's 1st mistake was to have co-presenters. This is always unwieldy, and that was even more true in the short time allowed for each pitch at FundFest. The 2nd mistake was starting off with too much hype, with the problem statement "wouldn't you like to take ALL your media with you"? My answer? Umm.. no... why would I want to do that? I have enough of a problem sorting through all the gigabytes of photos, music, video, etc. at home.

In any case, regardless of the hype, the product that has actually been developed is limited to transferring contents of a user's iTunes library to a Blackberry's flash memory card. Perhaps I'm missing something here, but Blackberry already has such a function: BlackBerry Media Sync. The judges also raised all the appropriate issues; such as DRM compliance, and storage capacity requirements. My conclusion on ParkVu was nothing new here, and too much competition from the major stakeholders already.

• #ctia 3rd up Billing Revolution. Enables credit card transactions from handsets. Order a pizza on the go.
• #ctia Billing Revolution. Clearly most viable biz. Overlay on merchants mobile site
• #ctia Billing Revolution: using SMS to send purchase codes. Charge merchants 50 cents per + monthly cost
• #ctia Billing Revolution: has 100+ merchants. Challenge is getting merchants to understand mobile. Seybold sees banks competing.
  

Billing Revolution has an offering in the mobile payments space. Unlike the preceding presentation, I felt they had a viable business model - which was backed up by the fact they already have customers. The idea that was presented used codes provided by merchants to enable credit cards purchases via text messages. That sounds useful and, if security issues are properly addressed, I'd have to say that Billing Revolution could attract (more) real customers.

Issues were raised regarding the add-on charge to merchants, who already pay a percent of each credit card transaction to issuing banks. Andy Seybold pointed out that some banks are adding free mobile payment to their merchant clients. Nevertheless, the technology that Billing Revolution developed could form the basis of such a service, providing a possible exit strategy.

• #ctia Chyngle: mobile apps for use in sports venues. LBS based on stadium or arena. Mobile scalping app?
• #ctia Chyngle: For team owners- sell products & services to fans through handset.
• #ctia Chyngle: goal to enhance customer experience at a venue. Add to revenue? Will spectators buy more on handset?
• #ctia Chyngle: can add public safety & security features. Good idea. Maybe I would risk going into Raider nation ;)
• #ctia Chyngle is my pick of best business potential. A league/venue contract would be big. Targeting NFL

The 4th presenter was Chyngle (also an odd name to me). Chyngle's proposition was very easy to understand; providing a very specific location-based application for accessing products and services tied to a particular venue. The example given was a sports stadium; where one might want to purchase team merchandise, buy tickets (though if one is already at the venue, it would probably be for a future event), navigate the facility, order from food concessions, get real time stats, etc.

To me, this type of application could have significant upside potential, considering (for example) the latest hi-tech features being incorporated in stadiums - such as the new billlion dollar Dallas Cowboy's stadium that Jerry Jones has built. The key is to convince venue owners and concessionaires that it is worth paying for. As a pure advertising channel, the value would be marginal. (There's already plenty of that in all over most arenas). But, with an integrated payment mechanism, it woul be more valuable. Maybe Chyngle should get together with Billing Revolution!

To answer @statfame on Twitter, yes... I can definitely see people using it, but no I don't think they have any real customers yet. I know I would use it! If you're a sports fan, you know what a pain it can be to walk the stadium corridor to find the concession stand that has the food item you are looking for. Providing real time information feeds from the game would be interesting to many sports fans.

Would fans buy more with the app? Maybe. Imagine getting a special on beer delivered to your seat because you responded to an offer on your iPhone. Save the trip for you, save time for the guy hawking the beer... Lots of other ideas come to mind. That's why Chyngle was my choice. But they need to win a major deal with a pro sports franchise, or preferably a league.

• #ctia last up Telcare: medical monitoring. M2M glucose metering. Target diabetes- fastest growing disease in U.S.?
• #ctia Telcare M2M phone & carrier independent. Mirror data to caregiver cell phone.
• #ctia Telcare not a 'sexy' app, but very practical & useful. Also looking at other conditions: asthma, heart disease...
• #ctia Telcare vs competition: advantage in M2M device instead of a phone app. Patient replaces glucose strips, privacy must be addressed.
• #ctia Telcare requires FDA approval as Class-2 device. Founder very experienced in process. Differentiation in state-of-art mpu, accuracy
• #ctia Telcare will require 1 year to U.S. Approval
  

The final presenter was Telcare. Though this is not a "sexy" web 2.0 app, I was impressed with the experience and track record of the founder who gave the presentation. In general, the mobile healthcare market is seen to be a large and grwoing market, two attributes one should look for in any startup. However, that also means there is a lot of competition, as the judges pointed out. Qualcomm is one serious competitor, having invested in the establishment of the Wireless Life-Sciences Alliance as well as the West Wireless Health Institute.

Besides competition, the other negative (as with all healthcare-related products), is the time-to-market delay for obtaining FDA approval. On Twitter, @nbk1 asked about Telcare's proposed differentiation over iPhone medical apps:

"Why is there an advantage in extra m2m device re: privacy when at same time data is mirrored to caregiver cell?"

This may appear to be somewhat of a contradiction, but I think the point was the ease-of-use for the patient - especially in health care for the elderly. I would agree that a dedicated device would be much easier to use for many patients, who would also would be much less likely to be users of smartphones. Security and confidentiality of medical data needs to be addressed in either case.

• #ctia Judges also chose Chyngle. I agree. People's choice - Telcare. Definitely best 2. Faster TTR for Chyngle

The three judges onstage at the FundFest apparently had a difficult time reaching consensus. This part of the program, which was being done for the 1st time, needs some work. The voting criteria being used by the judges was never described, and having them on stage with live microphones made it impossible for them to discuss amongst themselves. In the end, the winner was Chyngle. A "people's choice" award, tabulated from SMS message votes from the audience, went to Telcare. I also picked Chyngle and Telcare as #1 ans #2, though Billing Revolution was also a contender.

-Mike
follow me on Twitter

Live from #CTIA! Is a Tweet stream sort of like "Lifecasting"?

Perhaps you've heard of the notion of "lifecasting"... basically recording one's life digitally, possibly for broadcasting on the internet. (Or.. perhaps just as an extreme example of self-indulgent obsessive behavior?)

In any case, that's not what I have in mind here. But I was wondering what it would look like to connect my stream of messages from a particularly busy day of tweeting activity. That is exactly what one would see if they were following my Twitter RSS feed. It's not a way I have ever looked at my tweets before, but perhaps the way some of my followers do.

Would a collection of micro-blogs from one event make up a coherent blog? Now that I compiled the list, I have to say emphatically NO. But, if nothing else, maybe this would be a good way for me to aggregate my notes to expand on later. Otherwise, there is way to much to remember.

Worst case, it's a completely random and incoherent stream of consciousness. I'll leave that up to you.

• at the San Diego Convention Center for keynotes to start #CTIA Wireless. Should be interesting to hear what the @FCC chairman has to say
• #ctia FCC chairman commends ATT for VOIP announcement
• #ctia FCC chair mobile central to their mission. Wants to release more spectrum. Recognize diff fixed & mobile
• #ctia FCC chairman uses iPhone star finder app
• #ctia FCC chairman. #4G will make the difference. Notes Clearwire, Verizon
• #ctia FCC mobile broadband agenda. 1st - release spectrum. It is a looming crisis
• #ctia FCC chairman we will need "a lot" more spectrum
• #ctia FCC chairman. Incentivize deployment of next gen technology
• #ctia FCC chairman - must redeploy spectrum. "no easy pickings"
• #ctia FCC to remove obstacles for #4G re: tower siting
• #ctia FCC chairman - develop fair rules of the road for open mobile Internet. Remove uncertainty by codifying framework. Must be "sensible"
• #ctia FCC chairman on differences fixed/mobile. Difficult questions to be discussed in "dynamic marketplace if ideas"
• #ctia FCC chairman - on competition & innovation. Power of consumers comes from transparency that makes market work
• #ctia FCC chairman: decisions will be fact-based on handset exclusivity and net neutrality

• #ctia ATT CEO de la Vega now on stage.
• #ctia Yahoo mobile does not believe mobile will take over desktop
• #ctia Yahoo sees mobile as a fixed complement. Sees ecosystem coming together. Hmmm... Have they seen the fragmentation occurring in OS space?
• #ctia Yahoo - simplistic view of what consumers want. "Stay connected, stay informed, to be able to discover"
• #ctia Yahoo doing demo of mobile home page. Is this considered a major innovation?

• #ctia waiting to be let on the floor for Samsung announcement. Held up due to keynote running late
• #ctia Samsung-Sprint announcement for Android. Samsung 'moment'
• http://twitpic.com/km8uy #ctia Samsung Moment 3.2" OLED display
• #ctia Samsung Moment. Slideout kybd, optical mouse, touchscreen, up to 32g expandable memory, Android
• #ctia Samsung Moment. Available Nov-1 for $179.
• RT #ctia Android shaking up wireless. Verizon, T-Mobile, now Samsung & Sprint. How about an Android Google WiMax phone? Sprint? Samsung?

• #ctia now to ShowStoppers lunch to see "what's hot for the holidays"
• #ctia Good 2 know RT @MobiMarketing: @MikeDemler #ctia Verizon, T-Mobile, Samsung & Sprint...Android Google WiMax phone? Sprint's already on it.

• #ctia at Mobile Application Trends panel: ATT, MTV, Best Buy, PayPal
• #ctia thinking about CTIA & ATT asking FCC for more spectrum b4 700MHz is redeployed. A diversion to cover VZW & ATT deficit vs Clearwire?
• #ctia listening to panel on Social Networking - Entertainment or Essential?
• #ctia Social Net panel: notion of consolidating address book doesn't work for me. Different contexts. Tweeps I follow not all friends.
  

That the end of the day at the show, but now there's the after show.

#CTIA Wireless & the fall trade show season

It started just before Labor Day, and hasn't let up since; nearly one (or more) trade shows/conferences per week.

There are three industries that I follow, and there have been major events in each:

EDA

• EDA Tech Forum (Sept-3)
• EE Times Virtual Conference (Sept-16)

Semiconductors & Technology

• Custom Integrated Circuits Conference (Sept-14 through Sept 16)
• Intel Developer Forum (Sept 22 through Sept 24)
• GSA Emerging Opportunities Expo & Conference (Oct-1)

Wireless & Digital Media

• Silicon Valley Wireless Economic Summit (Aug-21)
• SD Forum, Mobile SIG (Sept 3)
• Intel Developer Forum (Sept 22 through Sept 24)
• CTIA Wireless IT and Entertainment (Oct 7 through Oct-9)

Of course, this does not count numerous webinars and other events that account for less than a whole day. (Yes, I'm an information junkie!) It's been an extremely busy month or so, but I promise to take a pause soon to process and report on the huge amount of information I have acquired.

I have found that I never have enough time to do full blogs from the events I cover, so until I get to debrief it's best to follow my microblogs on Twitter. I generally try to sort the different topics/events by applying the appropriate hashtags (e.g. #CTIA). In the meantime, feel free to drop me an email if there is anything on the list you'd like to know (a little) more about.

This week it is the CTIA Wireless IT and Entertainment show in San Diego. I'm expecting several announcements of new smartphones and other cool mobile devices; from Motorola, Samsung, HTC, and others. Here's a glimpse at my personal agenda:
Wednesday, Oct-7

• Keynote addresses:
• Julius Genachowski, FCC Chairman;
• Ralph de la Vega, president and CEO of AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets
• David Ko, senior vice president of Yahoo! Mobile
• Samsung Mobile device announcement
• ShowStoppers for the Mobile Holidays
• Social Networking - Entertainment or Essential?
• API's - Enabling the Future of Mobile Development
• Mobile Focus: Preview dozens of technology companies showing off their latest in wireless

Thursday, Oct-8

• Keynotes:
• John Donovan, Chief Technology Officer, AT&T
• Dr. Irwin Mark Jacobs, Co-Founder Qualcomm Incorporated
• Dr. Paul E. Jacobs, Chairman of the Board & Chief Executive Officer Qualcomm Incorporated
• Mobile Application Stores: Strategy and Deployment
• Mobile TV - DTV: Untapped Value
• Smartphone - The Impact of a Fully Functional Device
• CTIA 2009 Hot for the Holidays
• Internet - Reaching Critical Mass with Next Generation Consumer Electronics

Friday, Oct-9

• Keynote:
• CTIA Fund Fest will spotlight the brightest, most innovative and promising companies in wireless

• Maybe then I get to see the show floor?

You can see, there is a lot to cover. Some of the sessions conflict, so I can't get to them all but I may be jumping around from room to room. I've learned to wear very comfortable shoes. At least it's not Las Vegas this time.

I'm looking forward to it.

-Mike
follow me on Twitter: MikeDemler