We might be a day away from the official opening of CTIA I.T. & Wireless Entertainment® 2007, but today's full of a variety of special interest seminars ranging from Billboard's Mobile Entertainment Live to AT&T and Accenture's Enterprise Mobility afternoon session. Throw in seminars on mobile marketing, location-based services, smartphones, 4G, and Andy Seybold's outstanding day-long "university", and it's pretty clear there's something for everybody.. and the show hasn't even started yet!
I had an interesting flight out here on a new airline... okay, it was Virgin America, and the in-flight interactive media was outstanding. You could watch live television, pick your own movie, compile a music playlist from more than 50 different artists, play games, and even IM other passengers... all of that right from your seat. It was a totally customized experience and was obviously VA's effort to give passengers what they want. Maybe you don't want to talk to your colleague in 16D, but for families or friends who are split up on the plane, in-flight chat from the seat can be a cool thing. What I think is interesting is the parallel to the wireless experience, with the exception that wireless is well ahead of the airlines in moving quickly to give consumers the choice of what they want. Subscribers get to choose the bells and whistles we like for the pocket-sized computer we carry around, carriers take great steps to make sure everything works, and and here in the US we pay less for and use wireless more than any other country on the planet.
The value proposition for consumers is unequaled, and it's all because of the competition and innovation that is alive and well in the US wireless market. There are a lot of romantic notions about other countries and what you can do with your mobile in them, but check out this podcast on the Global Mobile Marketplace and hear from analysts who can help separate facts from fiction. The bottom line is the US market is the most vibrant in the world, it continues to respond to consumer wants and needs, and the best is more certainly still to come.
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