CTIA: One Year Later

I went to the Fall CTIA last year. I was really excited about mobile and particularly direct to consumer content. I started this blog due in large part to that interest.

As you have seen, my focus has shifted. I am much more interested in video and immersive environments now. Why the change?

From MocoNews:

"The panel at CTIA at CTIA On & Off Deck, Virtuous Cycle or Zero Sum Game was marked by a severe and obvious lack of carrier participation.

“The carriers that we work with are all to aware of their gatekeeper position,” said Jud Bowman, CTO Motricity, adding that they take about 35% of mobile content revenue. “Paypal came into the market and wanted to offer cheaper transactions and one of the major carriers (that’s Cingular) promptly turned Paypal off, and went futher and said if you’re using credit cards we’re going to turn off your shortcode.” For this reason it’s a myth that off deck bypasses the carriers, because you still have to use their billing system.

John Puterbaugh, CEO Nellymoser, took that a bit further. “Not only are carriers clamping down on non-carrier included billing, the same is also true for rich media such as video, he said . It’s technically possible, but “as soon as it gets any critical scale it’s shut down, so you won’t find rich media content off the carrier deck.”

Moderator Linda Barrabee from the Yankee Group had some interesting stats to share:
The carrier share of online content purchases:
46% cingular
11% Spring
26% T-Mobile
17% Verizon"

Couple that with new definitions for "unlimited," and I think that mobile was gutted by the carriers - just like broadband.

For more great CTIA coverage check in at MocoNews.