Just got back to the office after spending a few action-packed days in Las Vegas attending CTIA.  The energy and enthusiasm at this year’s event with respect to connected devices could have easily powered all the hotels and casinos in the desert for several years. Here are a few observations:

• Connected Devices are at an Inflection Point: We lost count of the connected devices releases that were issued at CTIA (i.e.:  3G enabled netbooks, tablets, etc.).  So many Internet-enabled devices are being brought to market at an accelerated pace.  According to Cisco Chief Technology Officer Padma Warrior’s keynote address, he predicted there will be 1 trillion devices connected to the Internet by 2013.

• Activation/Provisioning is Top of Mind Across the Industry: We were privileged to participate in several panel discussions along with key industry constituents, such as AT&T’s Glenn Lurie, Sprint’s Danny Bowman, Qualcomm’s Mike Concannon, and Verizon’s Anthony Lewis, among others.  We discussed the key avenues of growth and challenges that lay ahead for connected devices.  With appreciation for the momentum that this space carries, perhaps what caught our attention the most was the unanimous desire by all these constituents to simplify the activation/provisioning process for connected devices, in order to achieve the nirvana of “stack them high and watch them fly.”  Many of these constituents see a large opportunity in improving the 12% activation rate of netbooks, and in addressing the largely unsatisfied desire to make this a seamless and accelerated process.

• An Underdog Setting the Pace: The NCAA basketball tournament aside, it’s always thrilling to see an underdog emerge victorious; but to see them dictate pace for the industry takes that experience to a much higher level.  In many ways we were pleased to see Sprint launch the HTC EVO 4G.  This is the first 4G phone available in the U.S., with features such as a front (1.3-megapixel) and back (8-megapixel) cameras,  and a mobile router allowing up to eight connections (i.e.: a MyFi on steroids).  Kudos to Kevin Packingham and his team for driving these initiatives.

The connected devices industry is white hot right now, and is only going to get hotter. We are looking forward to helping our customers deliver the best activation experience across the many different channels.

What an exciting time to be a consumer!