CTIA 2010 Roundup

New products may have been thin on the ground at CTIA, but here's what happened at this week's telecom industry conference .
Author:
Publish date:

Updated with links to new CTIA phone demos.

LAS VEGAS (

TheStreet

) -- Major new product announcements were few and far between at

CTIA

this week, but the show was marked by a slew of alliances between big-name carriers and tech firms eager to tap the mobile Internet tsunami.

For

Sprint

(S) - Get Report

,

HTC

and

Qualcomm

(QCOM) - Get Report

, this meant launching the

world's first 4G smartphone

.

Samsung

and

Motorola

(MOT)

, however,

both unveiled shiny new

Google (GOOG) - Get Report Android phones

.

TheStreet

got demos of

Sprint's new EVO 4G phone

and

Samsung's Galaxy S

device.

Cisco

(CSCO) - Get Report

and

AT&T

(T) - Get Report

focused their efforts on boosting network coverage. The telecom giant announced that it has been working with Cisco to build its new

3G MicroCell

device for routing wireless phone calls or data connections over a broadband connection.

Inevitably,

Apple's

(AAPL) - Get Report

imminent iPad launch

was

a big talking point at CTIA

, although

Panasonic

(PC)

took the opportunity to

trash talk its tablet rival

.

Dell

(DELL) - Get Report

was also beating the tablet drum in Sin City,

previewing its Mini 5 Android device

while

Marvell

(MRVL) - Get Report

discussed its low-cost tablet strategy

.

Despite all the tablet buzz, netbooks, or mini computers, were still prominent at CTIA.

Deutsche Telekom

(DT) - Get Report

subsidiary

T-Mobile

, for example,

unveiled its first netbook

, a

Dell

(DELL) - Get Report

Inspiron Mini 10. T-Mobile also announced plans to upgrade its 3G service with

High Speed Packet Access Plus (HSPA+)

technology.

Other hot topics at the telecom industry's annual get-together included mobile TV, as

championed by Qualcomm's FLO TV subsidiary

, and

healthcare IT

.

A succession of high-profile telecom industry execs, such as AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, also

praised government plans to auction off part of the wireless spectrum

, explaining that extra capacity is needed to cope with ever-prowing data volumes.

The AT&T supremo, however, also urged Washington

not to over-regulate the telecom sector

.

Telecom infrastructure companies such as base station specialist

Crown Castle

(NYSE)

also were out in force at CTIA, outlining their strategies for

harnessing the mobile Internet explosion.

Elsewhere, amongst the myriad demos taking place at the Las Vegas Convention Center,

Yahoo!

(YHOO)

showed off its new restaurant search application for iPhones

and

Microsoft

(MSFT) - Get Report

gave

TheStreet

a look at its

Windows Phone 7 operating system

.

Prior to CTIA, there had been

talk

that

Verizon

(VZ) - Get Report

would make a major

4G

announcement, possibly with

Skype

. On Tuesday, however, Verizon and Skype announced that Skype Mobile will be available on Verizon Wireless, starting with nine 3G smartphones.

-- Reported by James Rogers in Las Vegas

RELATED STORIES

>>CTIA: Cisco CTO Talks Internet TV

>>Sprint CEO: 4G to Transform Healthcare

>>CTIA Editors' Picks

>>Sprint Swipes at Apple With 4G Phone

>>Panasonic vs. iPad in Hospitals

>>Marvell's $100 Android Tablet

Follow James Rogers on

Twitter

and become a fan of

TheStreet.com

on

Facebook.