CTIA 2011 Preview: CEO Showdown, No Nexus Prime

We’re live from the CTIA Enterprise and Apps show in sunny San Diego and this was poised to be one of the best fall show yet before a major handset announcement was postponed. Fear not, loyal reader, as the mobile conference will still be jam-packed with interesting news and apps, so let’s take a look at what to expect.

Carrier showdown

During the last CTIA keynote, the CEOs of AT&T, Verizon and Sprint were on stage discussing the mobile industry. It also happened that the AT&T, T-Mobile merger news broke the day before, so sh*t got wild. Sprint’s CEO Dan Hesse was ragging on AT&T and made the case for the mega-merger to not go through and there were a bunch of uncomfortable yet awesome moments.

Well, at CTIA 2011 San Diego, the CEOs of AT&T, Sprint and Verizon will be back on stage and you can be sure that things will get heated. All three carriers now carry the iPhone but the market will continue to be heated. You can expect Hesse to take more shots at AT&T CEO Ralph de la Vega, AT&T making the case for the merger and Verizon CEO Dan Mead will probably play it cool on the sidelines with that excellent mustache of his.

Whatever fireworks happen, you can be sure we’ll be there with a live blog to keep you up to date.

Apps and more fun

The CTIA fall show is focused on the enterprise and apps, so we’re sure to see some cool stuff on the mobile software front. The great thing about events like this is that you never know who you’ll run into at the event, as the next Instagram or Angry Birds developer could be lurking. We’re also booked for a tour of the Nokia testing center, so look for a photo and video tour of what is commonly called the cell phone torture chamber.

San Diego is also the backyard of Qualcomm, so you know the dominant mobile chip maker will want to make an impression. We’re expecting to learn more about the Krait lineup, so that should be very exciting.

No Nexus Prime

The IntoMobile team was genuinely excited about the introduction of the Nexus Prime, which probably was going to be shown off by Samsung and Google Oct. 11 because we felt like this was the next great phone of the year now that the iPhone 4S has been outed. Unfortunately, Google and Samsung decided to postpone the event.

The rumored specs suggest the Nexus Prime will be made by Samsung, should pack a 1.5 GHz dual-core processor, will come with a massive screen that has 720p resolution and it will likely have a lot of RAM and a really nice camera. To be honest, if it was just a repackaged Galaxy SII LTE, I’d be pretty happy because that looks like a killer device. Other reports suggest this may be an exclusive to Verizon, which should mean that it will sport 4G LTE support.

The Nexus Prime isn’t only going to be some amazing hardware, it should be the showcase device for the next generation of Google’s Android software, Ice Cream Sandwich. We’ve heard a bit about this at the Google I/O conference earlier this year but there still remains many questions about what this software update will bring.

First of all, Ice Cream Sandwich is supposed to unify Android between phones and tablets by making it easier for developers to create apps for both. To the end user, the benefit is obvious: making app development easier should lead to better apps. We could also see a full-fledged version of the Chrome browser too, which will lead to a better mobile browsing experience.

Other than that, we really don’t know that much about the next version of Android or the Nexus device and it looks like we will have to wait a bit longer to find out.

The CTIA fun will continue all week, as we’ll be providing you great news, photos and videos of the mobile show. Follow along tomorrow morning around 9 a.m. PST for the CEO showdown and keep an eye on our Twitter and Facebook pages for a behind-the-scenes look at the show.

About The Author

Marin Perez

Marin Perez has torture tested cell phones and smartphones for industry leaders like CNET and InformationWeek. He remembers when 4G was just a screen on PowerPoint presentations and is fascinated with the amount of innovation out there. Marin has spent a lot of time with BlackBerry and Android but he finally broke down a bought an iPhone to see what all the hype's about. He also has too many tablets.

http://antoniomalcolm.com Antonio Malcolm

I don’t understand how the Nexus Prime will unify Android for anyone, if it is indeed tied to Verizon. Developers are a divers bunch, too, and we’re not all on Verizon. They’ve pretty much locked down what should be an unlocked device, especially if it’s targeted at developers, and especially if the sole carrier is running a CDMA network and offers only limited data plans.
- http://twitter.com/serg_verg Serg Vergun
  
  >>and we’re not all on Verizon
  
  Looks like you born only today. Of Course it would be available for other carrier or even carrier-free. But may be later, after verizon.
  
  Also I know that it would be available for WCDMA 850/1900 and NO LTE.
  - http://antoniomalcolm.com Antonio Malcolm
    
    >>>Looks like you born only today.
    Get over yourself a little.
    That said, some time generally passes before rolling out to other carriers. Such was the case with the Nexus S, but at least it first arrived as a GSM phone. And, the Nexus IS supposed to be a unifying device- the phone is supposed to represent the ideal hardware platform for the OS and the stock Android apps. I guess what I’d like to see, personally, is a Nexus phone which isn’t tied to a single carrier on launch, but admittedly, that’s being a tad idealistic, considering they’d have to release several variants at once, to support not only CDMA and GSM, but carrier frequencies, meaning different antenna hardware and firmware also. Much easier to release for a single carrier, then roll them out later for the others, meaning a quicker release cycle for debuting the new version of the phone itself. I suppose contracts, carrier customer base, and other business-related variables come into play, also, maybe more so.
- Escobear
  
  The phone isn’t meant to unify Android, Ice Cream Sandwich is.
Carl

I am an iPhone 4 user.

Nexus Prime should be available on At &t the moment it launches OR I am going for an iPhone 4s.

I am not ready for the hassle of multiple carriers having the same phone but with different weird names launching on different dates !!!
- Anonymous
  
  “I am not ready for the hassle of multiple carriers having the same phone but with different weird names launching on different dates !!!”
  
  Of course the iphone launched on only 1 carrier for years, then eventually moved midyear to another carrier and only now after 4 years is offered on 3 of the 4 main carrier. Other than name consistency (which google has thus far kept with the Nexus Series), I don’t think Apple has any more carrier consistency.