WRT (With Respect To) Technology

The CTIA (aka the Cellular Telephone Industry Association, “The Wireless Association”) hold their annual Wireless I.T. & Entertainment meeting in San Francisco later this month (Oct. 23-25). The CTIA meetings are always an interesting mix of opinions, old and new ideas, and a good venue to test the wind in the mobile world, or at least sample the US centric viewpoint. As part of the upcoming meeting, CTIA have scheduled an interesting educational session entitled, “Razing the Garden Wall.” The program description of the session states:

“The reality is that carriers are slowly moving away from direct deck sales models and embracing off deck opportunities. A number of factors are slowing the carrier migration to off portal services, however, including the fear of cannibalization. Challenges faced by content providers include revenue leakage, lack of standards and common practices, and very little seamless technical integration. This group of industry veterans will examine these and other issues.”

I can’t say that I have seen much razing or even modest remodeling going on, but clearly the winds of change are afoot. Let me know if you see change on the way or a view of the changes that will occur. Change is good but how to change and still build the wireless industry is the challenge ahead.