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What's Inside
a Letter From ED
This month 15,000 people attended CTIA Wireless IT & Entertainment Show in San Francisco from Monday, Oct. 22nd to Thursday, Oct. 25th. More than 350 exhibitors were there to show their products and services.
WINBC had a presence at CTIA at a well-organized booth by WIP - Alliance of Regional Clusters together with sister organizations from The Austin Wireless Alliance, Texas and Wireless Communications Alliance, Silicon Valley.
The theme of the show was "One show, two personalities."
Personality #1: Steve Ballmer, CEO Microsoft, suit and tie, keynote speaker Tuesday morning. Personality #2: Dustin Moscovitz, Co-founder of Facebook, jeans and untucked striped shirt, keynote speaker Wednesday morning. In a nutshell, Mr. IT and Mr. Entertainment.
The real theme of the show was announced by Dustin Moscovitz in his speech: "It's going to be big, and my bet is, it’s going to be open."
The big news was Microsoft Corp. expected to take a stake of up to 10% in Facebook in a deal that would value the popular social networking website at $15B. That coupled with the announcement from another Mr. IT, Mike Lazaridis, Co-CEO of RIM, that they are moving their company beyond business travelers to the consumer space is a reflection of what consumers want (Social Networking) and where the wireless industry is going (Entertainment).
AirG, one of WINBC members, with its +20 million community subscribers was mentioned in the press (RCR Wireless News) as one of the fierce competitors Facebook is facing in the mobile social networking space. I keep my fingers crossed for Fred Ghahramani and his team at AirG.
CTIA's mid-year figures as of June 2007 look good: 243 million subscribers generating $67.9B revenues, of which $10.5B in data revenue, respectively 15.5%.
The buzz word at the show was "presence" and there were plenty of conversations around the iPhone, mobile advertising, WiMax, LBS, open source, IMS, "openness", some m-commerce and some about "customer experience".
The WINBC presence at WIP-ARC booth was worthwhile. We were busy everyday with qualified traffic and inquiries. I've met with more than 50 exhibitors on the floor from companies like UI Evolution, AdMob, Enpocket, Alcatel-Lucent, AskMeNow, Cellfire, and Chalk Media, deCarta, JumpTap to organizations like MMA Mobile Marketing Association and Sierra Wireless. I was invited to attend the full NAVTEQ day, the SPIF (Service Provider Investment Forum), a leadership summit for developers and a few special interest educational seminars .
Our Canadian Consulate General in San Francisco put together a great business breakfast Wednesday morning.
Ontario Pavilion caught my attention. Basically our colleagues on the East coast have figured that one-stop big booth is better than twelve little booths spread out on a "WallMart-like" floor. The feedback from the organizers and exhibitors were very positive: economical, qualified traffic, and quality leads.
We're thinking of organizing a BC Wireless Industry Pavilion at the CTIA Wireless & You, Las Vegas April 1-3, 2008. We have talked with some of the member companies who attended the CTIA show in SF and the vote seems to be unanimous: "It's a good idea!" We will send a survey out this month to gather your level of interest.
Overall the show had no real "hero", as in an application or innovation that the industry or media can get excited about. There was a lot of product on the floor with little differentiation. In the end it’s all about..."Show Me The Money!" and that's the only "show" that matters regardless the "personalities", right?
I welcome your feedback or comments. You can reach me at michael@winbc.org
ED
P.S. I bought some books in SF and saved more than $50 because of the exchange and the difference between US and CDN "printed" prices. Great time to buy knowledge. Prime time to attract talent!
WINBC FEATURE EVENTS
Local Rebels, Disruptive Wireless Technologies
MoMoVan - November 5, 2007
Join us November 5 at 6 p.m., at Granville Island Brewing to find out how disruptive wireless technologies – VOIP, IM, SMS, WiFi, WiMax, GPS/LBS, RFID and others – are already changing our world...How did these technologies affect our lives? Which ones can help our communities? What’s next? What’s your contribution?
 For more information and to register
MOBILECAMP VANCOUVER (Developers Wanted!)
NOVEMBER 24, 2007
WINBC and Handimobility have joined forces to create another quality event for the developer community in Greater Vancouver and BC.
The concept of the BarCamp "unconference" originated in Palo Alto in 2005. The first event focused on early-stage web applications and open source technologies in an open environment dedicated to knowledge sharing. The "unconference" format turned into an overnight sensation, spawning dozens of similar BarCamps around the globe including two in Vancouver.
Catching the recent wave of developer community activity in Vancouver, WINBC's MobileCamp will give local mobile developers a stage to share and learn from their peers in the industry.
MobileCamp is a one day event aimed at giving local mobile developers a sense of community. MobileCamp is a place where they can express themselves, network, share opinions and knowledge and most importantly, feel at home in an open, supportive environment.
For more information and to register
Microsoft Face_Time Event - November 28, 2007
Face_Time offers the opportunity to meet one-on-one with the champion in computer and software technology as Microsoft continues to build on its empire and expand their scope to mobile and beyond. Learn how your company might have an opportunity to share the success by exploring their latest news, devices, and future roadmap over breakfast and/or one-on-one partnership sessions.
Stay tuned for more information
FEATURE INNOVATION OF THE MONTH
Lypp is one of our newest members. The company provides mobile conference calling, call scheduling, address book management and a range of other productivity features that leverage the data connection and applications that already exist on BlackBerrys, Windows Mobile Smart Phones and many other mobile devices. Lypp also offers a RESTful API for developers seeking to add scalable, on-demand telephony to third-party applications and services.
Lypp's innovative approach is to enable business users with "agnostic" access to services via their mobile devices (i.e. without relying on local applications and files on the device, but instead accessing web-based resources via the simplest mobile interfaces).
In contrast to many free "voice 2.0" service providers whose focus is on large, unmonetized user bases, Lypp's approach adds value to wireless carriers, offering opportunities to increase ARPU through subscription-based mobile conferencing, presence and related applications and services.
In an article from October 8, 2007 titled "Should Skype Buy Jajah? Lypp? Truphone? Jakuda?" Skype Journal says that the company is "launching conference calls for groups of people on social networks" and that Skype should offer this "stupid stuff" because is "faster, simpler, and more familiar than Voice Over Instant Messaging."
Find out more about Lypp and meet Erik Lagerway (Co-Founder and CTO) and Dan Gibbons (Co-Founder and VP Marketing) at MoMoVan, Nov. 5th.
THIS MONTH'S MEMBER PROFILES
We keep coming across new companies and adding new members to WINBC. This month we highlight several new comapanies.
Brand2hand Media
There is no shortage of fitness expertise available in books, magazines, and online via computers, but these are of no value to the 80 million North American exercisers when they are in the target environment (health clubs) because no one brings them to health clubs. We saw an opportunity to solve this problem by delivering high-quality, made-for-mobile fitness videos to devices people already bring to their health clubs: mobile phones and iPods.
More
Pinter Electronic Consultants
Our team has helped clients develop radios that operate between 300 MHz-10GHz. Pinter Electronic Consultants specializes in microwave radio design which provides the smallest size of antenna and enclosure designs to meet today’s wireless applications. Pinter Electronic Consultants is currently expanding its clients to include international clients in Asia, Europe and the United States. Efforts are being made to diversify the skill base to service the needs of a wider variation of client sizes and needs.
More
UBC Radio Science Lab
UBC's Radio Science Lab focuses on the development of propagation and channel models that capture our knowledge and understanding of airlink impairments in a form useful in design, simulation and test.
More
MEMBER NEWS
THE 2009 IEEE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON UWB IN VANCOUVER!
"Hi, all.
I'm pleased to report that we won the competition over a very strong bid from San Diego. The 2009 IEEE International Conference on Ultra-Wideband will be held in Vancouver." (Prof. Dave Michelson, with The UBC Radio Science Lab had to say to WINBC in his email from October 17, 2007.)
Lutz Lampe (UBC), Norm Beaulieu (University of Alberta) and Prof. Michelson (UBC) have won the bid to host the IEEE International Conference on Ultra-Wideband here in Vancouver in September 2009.
The conference is expected to attract 200-250 attendees with a good mix of academics and industry types, all with a keen interest in UWB wireless technology.
Congratulations to the team!
More details
FOUR MEMBER COMPANIES MAKE IT INTO DELOITTE WIRELESS FAST 50
Congratulations to the WINBC members who have made the 2007 Top 50 list:
The Deloitte Technology Fast 50, Canada’s pre-eminent technology awards program, is a ranking of the country’s 50 fastest-growing technology companies based on percentage revenue growth over five years. Deloitte launched the program a decade ago to celebrate the world-class achievements of the Canadian technology sector.
Vancouver Sun Article
WINBC Partner Events
Wireless Connections 2007 - November 15 - 16, 2007
Banff, Alberta
Wireless Connections, Canada's premier wireless mobile conference, will be hosting its 5th event delivering a compelling mix of the practical and the visionary. This is a unique conference that provides a forum for executives, decision makers and investors to learn about industry trends and to make new contacts.
For more information and to register
WINBC and Pinchevsky & Co. Present: Cash Injections via the SR&ED Program
November 27, 2007 - Vancouver, BC
Breaking Down the SR&ED Program - How to Access Federal & Provincial Tax Refunds for the Wireless Industry
At over $3 Billion annually, this program is the largest source of funding in Canada, particularly for the software and high technology sectors. This SR&ED workshop is relevant to all levels of company size and familiarity with the program. Whether you are a recent wireless start-up seeking advice on how to structure your potential SR&ED expenditures, were unsuccessful in applying for SR&ED credits, or are concerned that your company may be under-claiming – this interactive workshop will increase your knowledge and comfort level with the application process.
For more information and to register
WINBC Partner Announcement
Industry Canada support at Major Trade Shows - Responses due by November 8, 2007
Industry Canada is seeking your input for future participation at the key trade shows and marketing events in the next three (3) years. Canada's presence at international events is an excellent opportunity to showcase your company’s leading edge capabilities and solutions to potential foreign buyers. It is also an ideal occasion to demonstrate Canadian innovation and raise the country’s profile as a business location of ICT excellence.
For more information and to send your feedback
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