A view from the CES floor

By John Cox, NetworkWorld.com, 01/06/06

We asked wireless guru Craig Mathias, principle of the Farpoint Group, to share some impressions and thoughts on this year's CES. Here's his first post…

I mostly came to CES this year to speak in the one conference session dealing with wireless (other than wireless retail and distribution, anyway). And while we focused more on content than technology (Well, at least I talked about technology), it was pretty clear that content was the more important topic at this event.

Everyone on the panel agreed that content is critical, if not king. My key point was that we want content via whatever vehicle (mobile device and network) is available at any moment in time; content cannot be tied to particular devices.

It gets worse - one of the other panelists mentioned, for example, that having to pay multiple times to download a game is truly a reprehensible business practice, and, while I am probably the only person at the show who does not play video games on a cell handset or any other device for that matter, games are going to be critical to future cellular handset sales going forward.

I also mentioned that I think mobile broadband services like 1xEV-DO and HSDPA will begin to replace fixed broadband services like cable and DSL over the next three years. Just as cellular redefined voice from a location to a person, so shall mobile broadband have a similar effect.

It was interesting to see cellular repeaters from two firms, Digital Antenna and Spotwave Wireless. With cellular coverage so notoriously bad in so many places (and subject to great variations nonetheless while mobile), a repeater could be just what the engineer ordered. These devices act like intelligent men-in-the-middle, boosting the signal in both directions. Both firms tell me this is 100% legal and that they have FCC approval; the carriers themselves do not need to be involved.

Of course, the cellular carriers could fix their networks, or augment them with Wi-Fi, and this will happen – but not soon enough. So users in fringe areas (and that’s a lot of us) have an option now. Repeaters, by the way, will also play a big role in metro-scale wireless LAN deployments. Why buy your own WLAN if such service is available nearby – just install a repeater to bring the metro-scale signal indoors. You’ll be seeing such repeaters in 2006.

This being a consumer show, the emphasis was of course on consumer applications. Apart from all of the other home entertainment stuff, TV was even a hot topic in wireless. The most interesting mobile TV device had to be the Slingbox playing through a Windows Mobile-based handset. Video quality was surprisingly good, and, of course, you can watch any channel you like rather than being limited to what the carriers think you want to watch. Very cool.

I’ve only seen about a third of the show, and have exactly one more day to see the rest. The overlap between business and consumer is nonetheless clear, and networks and devices will be doing double duty for the foreseeable future. Maybe the biggest question will remain trying to decide when the workday ends and consumer time begins. Just being here reinforces that question in my rather sleepy mind.

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