CTIA 2010: Wireless Show Highlights in Pictures

Samsung trotted out its new Galaxy S Android smartphone at a flashy (think dancers and special effects) and crowded (think standing room only) press event here Tuesday. Powered by Android 2.1, the Galaxy S sports a 4-inch Super AMOLED display, a 1GHz processor, and a 5-megapixel camera with HD video capture. The Galaxy S will be available worldwide this summer, but pricing has not been announced.

Sprint’s new EVO 4G smartphone (made by HTC and running the Android OS) was a hot topic of conversation on Day One of this year’s CTIA show. This close-up, taken at the Sprint press event announcing the new phone, shows a weather app running on the Android operating system. The EVO 4G will become available this summer, Sprint says.

Motorola held a small “round table” discussion inside its booth here Tuesday, in which it and its partners proclaimed their allegiance to the WiMAX flavor of 4G networks. Motorola says it’s getting behind WiMAX in part because the technology is here today, and there’s money to be made selling devices and network gear that support the standard. From right to left: Kevin Jones, Global 4G Evangelist, Intel; Dave Maquera, Chief Strategy Officer, Clearwire; Roberto Martinez, Director of Network Planning, Axtel (Mexico); Bruce Brda, SVP, Motorola; and Tom Gruba, Senior Director, Motorola Product Marketing.

Kyocera’s booth featured an end-to-end LTE (long-term evolution) wireless network, including the photovoltaic cell that powers the system on one end, and a high-definition TV that plays the high-bandwidth video content at the other.

The “Chinese Contingent” occupies a whole section of the exhibit hall here. Some of the companies exhibiting sell very specialized products like couplings and tubes, as seen here in the booth of Yangzhou Jingcheng Electronics, LTD. Business at the booth was so brisk Tuesday that the Yangzhou Jingcheng exec (left) found a moment for a nap.

Microsoft is busy demonstrating its new and improved mobile OS, Windows Phone 7 Series. Giant smartphones running the OS lined the outside of the booth. The large touchscreen allowed passersby (like me) to take a quick spin through the new Microsoft mobile environment. The look and feel of the OS is a cross between that of the Microsoft Zune media player and the Xbox 360 gaming system. Impressive.

HTC--perhaps the hottest handset maker in the world right now--is riding a wave of cool new Android phone releases, including the Nexus One and the new EVO 4G announced today with Sprint. Large panels at the Korean company’s booth showed off various elements of the company’s Sense middleware that rides on top of the Android OS in many HTC phones, creating a large part of the user experience.

CTIA attracts companies from all parts of the wireless ecosystem. This company, Tucson, AZ-based Cell Trees, Inc., makes those tree-like cell towers that are showing up next to freeways across the country.

Nokia held a contest challenging consumers to come up with their own innovative uses for the Nokia N900 phone. The winning entry used an N900 as a car-like dashboard on this 10-speed bike. The screen of the Nokia N900 showed a speedometer, odometer, mapped routes with GPS, controlled the bike’s light and even provided a car horn.

At an event here Tuesday, T-Mobile announced its first netbook--the Dell Inspiron Mini 10 goes on sale online and at shops in Los Angeles, Dallas, Miami and Chicago Wednesday.

Research In Motion was showing off various cool mobile apps for BlackBerry phones at its booth here Tuesday.

Sprint was at the Mobile Focus media event here Tuesday night, serving drinks (I didn’t have one) over an ice sculpture bar bearing the Sprint and Android logos. Earlier in the day, Sprint announced its first 4G-capable smartphone, the HTC EVO 4G running the Android operating system.