Remember the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X handset, also known as “the brick,” which debuted back in the early 1980s? I still have mine. And mobile phones have come a long way since then, as evidenced by the 25th annual CTIA Wireless show, held March 23-25 in Las Vegas.

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Focusing on the cellular industry and other mobile wireless technologies, this great show brings together carriers, operators, equipment manufacturers, service providers, software companies, and component suppliers. This year, more than 1200 vendors showed their wares. Attendance, which was about 34,000 last year, appeared lower this year as traffic in the exhibits seemed light.

Yet CTIA 2010 was a great show, spotlighting the major trends in the industry. For some of you, it may have been anticlimactic, especially if you went to Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February. There seemed to be fewer new products and services offered at CTIA since most were announced at MWC. Nevertheless, the trends are very clear.

Smart Phones Proliferate

While smart phones only represented about 21% of all mobile phone sales at the end of 2009, their adoption is increasing rapidly, and that’s where all the action and interest lie. Some experts expect smart-phone volumes to overtake the more common feature phones and low-end phones in sales next year. All the major handset manufacturers such as Samsung, Motorola, LG, HTC, Nokia, and Sony Ericsson showed off the latest models.

Most new smart phones are Android models, such as Kyocera’s Zio (Fig. 1). Apple was not at the show, though. The trend continues to be to try to find something that will trump the iPhone, but so far I have not seen anything to beat it. Some models come close, like the Motorola Droid. Larger touchscreens of up to 4.3 in. diagonal, more embedded Wi-Fi, GPS, maps and location technology, and fancier operating systems with Android are all dominating.

J.K. Shin, president of Samsung’s mobile business, said that the future is the smart phone. Samsung announced its Galaxy S Android smart phone for GSM/HSPA, though there’s no word yet on when it would be available. Shin also said Samsung was working to provide more and better video and TV on handsets.

Figure 1. Kyocera introduced its Zio M6000 smart phone. Using the Android OS, it offers a customizable home screen and supports apps and widgets available at Android Market.

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