CTIA Wireless IT Expo 2006 – Photos & Details

We’re back from CTIA, and have compiled all the photos and details from the show floor into one report. Read more to see the show. News and details you won’t find elsewhere, and of course, simulcast in HD.



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G’z One Type V – The First American W21

In case you weren’t aware, the G’z One is known in Japan as part of KDDI’s W21CA. This is identical to the Casio counterpart that hailed the launch of EV-DO in Japan… years ago. However, it also marks the start of a new trend; porting Japanese EV-DO phones without any hardware modifications. This is a good thing, as Japanese CDMA phones have always outpaced their American counterparts. The W21CA is over two years old, and still stands out as top-notch.

And now, you get to see it in action. Of course, the device has been plastered with the Verizon UI. However, the device is far from finished, as you may notice, the UTStarcom logos are taped to the device…

PCS1400

The PCS1400 is a new, tiny voice-only phone. While not much was disclosed about it, we were able to confirm the phone is headed for Virgin Mobile.


Motorola

Motorola did not announce any significant new products, however, they also prohibited PCS Intel from taking photographs. Since they have allowed others in the media to photograph their booth, we will not be covering Motorola at this expo.

Motorola also barred PCS Intel from photographing at CTIA Wireless 2006 earlier this year, no justification has been given from the number two phone maker for this.

i-Mate

i-Mate actually did what the competition should have; demonstrated the devices they announced. The SPL and JAQ were prominently displayed across the i-Mate and Microsoft booths.

The SPL

If priced correctly, the SPL could be a winner. The Windows Mobile would has been clamoring for a low-cost Smartphone ever since Motorola cancelled the MPx100, which aimed to fill that void. While based on TechFaith’s knock-off conceived blueprints, it clearly mixes what the MPx100 should have been, with the power of a SLVR-like design.

The JAQ

The JAQ was a bit perplexing. Thin, but massive in size… it looks like a very cheap knock-off of the Motorola Q. And, it is in almost every way, except for the fact that it is a Windows Mobile Phone Edition device. While the display is high-quality, nothing else on the device seems to be. The joystick was painful to use, and the keyboard was certainly not a joy-ride.

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Microsoft & Palm

Neither Microsoft nor Palm showed off a single new thing. No Treo 750v, no AKU3, nada.

Nokia

Nokia’s big show item was the E62. However, they did not have a single Cingular-branded unit to show, only re-badged E61 units mixed in with unbranded E62s that barely made it onto the show floor.

Kyocera

While Kyocera had some basic phones to show off, their primary exhibit was the K323, returning Kyocera to the Verizon Wireless lineup with a mid-range offering.

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Cingular

This may be the last CTIA we see Cingular. By next CTIA, AT&T plans to re-brand Cingular back to AT&T Wireless, returning the AT&T master brand. Cingular only was showing off the new Nokia E62 and Sierra AirCard 875.

MobiTV

Now available on just about every platform, the MobiTV booth was much larger this year, than ever before. However, there was nothing new to show beyond a gallery of pre-existing products.


Sony Ericsson

Sony Ericsson only had one single phone on-show, the upcoming-to-Cingular W810i. We also grabbed a shot of the Japanese CDMA W42S from Qualcomm’s booth.

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RIM

RIM only had the BlackBerry 8100 Pearl available to show. The just-released BlackBerry 8703e was absent from the show.

Qtopia

Qtopia launched their Linux Greenphone (pictured below), but also took the time to set up a Wall of Linux Phones. Lighting was terrible, but it did give us some time with the Sprint Nextel FanView… which is indeed a Linux device.

Samsung

The only thing remotely new Samsung had on-show was the i320 (and not either of its U.S. counterparts). Samsung had no show floor presence at all at this year’s show.

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Telmap & Mapquest Mobile

Mapquest finally began its launch of GPS navigation services at CTIA. While only launching on Sprint Nextel, they also demoed Windows Mobile versions of their solution. BREW, while on display at the last show, was absent here, an indication that Telmap lost to rival VZ Navigator in its GPS bid on Verizon Wireless.

It is important to note that the Sony Ericsson GSM phones shown were running a non-functional demo. The GPS menus appeared to be placeholder debug menus. This indicates that Telmap is working to connect via Bluetooth to a standalone GPS until on these models, while laying the framework to support A-GPS when it launches on Cingular and T-Mobile next year.

Also shown was Mapquest running on the Motodrive platform. In case you haven’t heard of Motodrive, it is Motorola’s vision for an in-car phone revival. Motodrive is an oversized iDEN phone with enhanced GPS reception. Telmap was demoing a production, working unit (despite the display) of Motodrive running Mapquest Navigator.

Next Year, Hopefully Will Be Better



The show floor, taken from a back-corner

As you can tell, CTIA Fall this year was worse than any year previously. The shift to Los Angeles made a shrinking show tiny. Thankfully, the show will be back in San Francisco next year, and we hope that will re-vitalize a show with few announcements, and even fewer things to see.

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