CTIA gets serious on mobile enterprise

SAN FRANCISCO--The Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association apparently is taking past industry criticism that its annual Wireless IT & Entertainment event is too focused on entertainment and not enough on IT seriously--perhaps too seriously, in fact. While the event’s opening session provided an in-depth look at some mobile enterprise initiatives from selected vendors and carriers, it did so at the expense of the excitement and energy that has emanated from some of the show’s past openings.

The main events at this morning’s opening were executives from Microsoft, Nokia and Intel, discussing how their respective platforms (software, devices and processors, respectively ) support various aspects of enterprise mobility. Each of the speakers used testimonials from one or more of its customers, either onstage or on video, to demonstrate how enterprise mobility was working for them--all in the name of forging enterprise mobility into a more mainstream wireless sector.

“Today, mobility is somewhat of an executive toy,” said Mary McDowell, executive vice president and general manager of enterprise solutions for Nokia. “We think it’s time for that to change.”

The overall result was a far more seminar-like tone than the often flashy and lively openings the CTIA is better known for. Notable, too, was the lack of any competing companies on stage that might invoke some good-natured debate about technology approaches--that is, no other software, device or processor developers to either affirm or refute what the morning’s keynoters were saying.

The Intel speaker, executive vice president and mobility services general manager Sean Maloney, did liven things up a bit with a video about the ways of mobile road warriors that played to the tune, and somewhat awkwardly rewritten lyrics, of the Barenaked Ladies song “One Week.”

Despite its decidedly drier and more somber tone--CTIA CEO Steve Largent kicked off the show by outlining the association’s “Text 2HELP” campaign for Red Cross donations to support hurricane relief, then added updates about wireless Amber Alerts and the grassroots mywireless.org effort to block new wireless policy and taxes--this morning’s session did go into depth about the IT implications of mobility. That’s something past events have glossed over at times in favor of the ringtones, mobile video and other entertainment apps that are more generally exciting and headline-grabbing.