It was only a few months ago now that I was enjoying tapas, cerveza and the sunshine of beautiful Barcelona at Mobile World Congress 2012.  The mobile world, and I, are now looking forward to sampling some good Cajun food and southern hospitality at the CTIA Wireless 2012 conference in New Orleans from May 8^th to 10^th.  But, this is about much more than a global culinary tour.  Once again all of the players in the mobile industry ecosystem are convening in one spot, offering us excellent insights into the challenges, opportunities and the potential future of the mobile industry.  And, this time it takes place on U.S. soil.

Between tapas and cervezas in Barcelona I blogged  about my personal observations from MWC 2012.   It’s hard to believe how much has happened in the industry in those two short months.  Facebook paid a cool $1 Billion (with a “B”) for Instagram.  Or, $31.25 per user for a company with $0 of revenue.  Nokia was initially successful in launching its “bet the company” Lumina device with AT&T in the U.S., but has since been fighting a customer relations fiasco over troubles with data connectivity.  And, true confessions from RIM’s new CEO, Thorsten Heins, revealed just how challenging it will be for Blackberry to regain some of its previous mobile supremacy. 

I think that my top 10 observations from MWC are still very relevant and I will definitely be tracking them as I meet with customers, talk to industry friends and colleagues, and wander the show floor.  However, I will also have other nagging industry questions on my mind when I am in New Orleans next week, such as:

• LTE Lessons – the U.S. has led the world in the deployment of LTE and its customers have been the hungriest for mobile data.  What can we learn from the U.S LTE story and the management of mobile data growth.
• Over-the-Tops (OTTs) – We will be on the home turf of many of the biggest applications and services running over mobile networks.  What will these companies have to say about their relationships with mobile operators?  And, what will the mobile operators have to say about how they feel about the OTTs?
• Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) – The phenomenal growth and penetration of smartphones and tablets in the U.S. makes it somewhat of a bellwether for the global industry.  One of the biggest trends is enterprises allowing employees to attach whatever mobile device they like to the corporate network.  What can we learn from enterprises on where this trend is going and what it means for mobile operators and device manufactures?
• Signaling or Data Traffic? -  While everyone has been talking about the data deluge, many operators have also been complaining about the huge strains on their networks by “chatting” applications and devices.  Will this become more of a recognized issue?  What can be done to put the genie back in the bottle?
• Subsidy Model – The American mobile industry is still addicted to the device subsidy drug – tempting subscribers with a cheap device for their service loyalty.  However, how much longer can this business model continue in a world where customers operators are challenged with profiting from the data deluge and customers literally fight over the hottest new mobile device?
• Big Data – The growing conventional wisdom is that mobile operators will need to learn how to carefully mine and analyze, and act upon, their terabytes of meaningful customer and network data to make their business more profitable.  I will be looking for interesting start-ups in this space and case studies of operators who are really executing on this.



One thing that I am certain of is that the explosive growth of mobile data and the technical and profitability challenges that it raises will be on everyone’s lips.  Another thing that I am also certain of is the growing importance of Mobile Cloud.  I will be speaking on a fascinating panel on Mobile Cloud on Tuesday, May 8^th.  I hope that you will be able to join me?  I also hope that you will be able to join my Cisco colleagues speaking at CTIA and see some of our interesting demos (see here for more detail on Cisco’s presence at CTIA).

Please look forward to my next blog post where I will be reporting back on my observations from CTIA 2012 in New Orleans.

About the Author

Stuart Taylor's further industry research, insights and perspectives can be found at his blog The Connected Life

Follow Stuart Taylor on Twitter: @STaylorCisco