CES: The industry's new wireless show?

This year's Consumer Electronics Show had more good news for the industry than just a 6% increase in attendance. It also featured a marked increase in focus on wireless technologies. Wireless connectivity is beginning to permeate all aspects of the gadget industry and — at the same time — applications, smartphones' domain, are also venturing outside their mobile roots onto an array of new devices.

If 2009 was the year of netbooks, than 2010 will likely be the year that e-readers steal the scene. There were a slew of new devices on display at CES, including a Skiff-built e-reader that will run over Sprint's network. According to Danny Bowman, president of Sprint's integrated solutions group, the Skiff won't just be another e-reader; it's a new publishing platform that will also be available on the BlackBerry, Palm Pre and eventually more screens. Sprint, like other carriers, believes emerging devices represent a huge growth opportunity, with most forecasts putting around 150 million new devices coming to carrier networks by the end of 2013.

Bowman said that he expects the explosion of smartphones and netbooks to continue into 2010 as well as, on the business side, an influx of wireless point-of-sale devices, digital signage and digital billboards. He also cited an interesting example of a car insurance company using a connected driving camera to determine insurance rates, so that actual driving behavior determines rates instead of self-reported answers.

Verizon Wireless and a number of partners also hosted long-term evolution demos, which gave the most comprehensive view of the power of wireless in the energy-efficient home, automobiles, health care applications, remote mobile conferencing, entertainment and even how connected digital cameras can transform the paparazzi, a business where the successful get their pictures in first. Wireless essentially became an integral part of nearly every vendor in attendance's plans, either present or future.

As wireless made its move, so too did the applications the networks could enable. AT&T used its developer conference in part to announce how it is taking mobile applications beyond the smartphone and into its popular line of Quick Messaging Devices, but other companies took that message even further. Chipmaker Intel, for one, introduced the AppUp Center, its own netbook app store designed for services appropriate for a netbook's screen size and mobility. The storefront, including an initial set of entertainment, business, games, education, health and social media apps, is available today on Windows devices and will support Moblin-based operating systems, as well as other runtime environments later this year. Acer, Asus, Dell and Samsung also announced plans to collaborate with Intel on their own app stores.

"Our vision is to extend [AppUp Center] to any Intel architecture device in the computing spectrum, up to the PC space, netbooks and down into handheld and even the smart TV space over time,"said Paul Otellini, president and CEO of Intel, in his keynote address. "It gives the developer community a very broad template to recoup their investment and gives the same user experience over a range of devices.”

Carriers have been looking to cash in on applications and the emerging device opportunity for as long as their voice revenues have been shrinking, but it is encouraging to see the enthusiasm from the consumer electronics industry as well. There is still a lot that needs to be worked out — including the business model for new apps and devices — as these two industries forge relationships, but CES should be a good indication of what lies ahead. You can bet the conversations will only get more interesting at next month's Mobile World Congress.

E-mail me at sarah.reedy@penton.com.