January 02, 2013, 5:06 AM — U.S. mobile trade group CTIA will combine its two annual trade shows starting in 2014 as it tries to attract a bigger share of the world's interest in smartphones, apps and other hot technologies.
The group's flagship event, CTIA Wireless, takes place every spring and is followed by a fall show, now called MobileCon and focused on enterprises. The current lineup will remain for 2013, but next year the organization will throw all its effort into a single event called simply CTIA 2014. That show will take place in September of that year in Las Vegas, which will host it for the foreseeable future, said Rob Mesirow, CTIA's vice president and show director.
Though it's the biggest mobile show in North America, CTIA Wireless has ended up in the shadow of both CES at the start of the year and Mobile World Congress, which takes place in late winter in Europe.
"As wireless permeates all consumer electronics and wireless becomes more and more global, CES and MWC have taken a lot of the oxygen out of the first quarter," analyst Roger Entner of Recon Analytics said. So much big news comes out at those two shows that there's simply not much left for CTIA, he added.
CTIA tried to ease this effect last year by pushing its main show back from March to late May, Mesirow said. This year, CTIA Wireless will take place in Las Vegas on May 21-23. But for two years, the group has also been exploring bigger changes. It has been talking to show participants and focus groups about the best way and the best time to put on its events, Mesirow said.
The group's conclusion was to build a bigger show in fall, when there aren't any big events focused on the mobile industry, Mesirow said. CTIA also hopes to host product launches that are timed for the end-of-year holiday season, he said.
One wild card in CTIA's move is IFA, the annual consumer electronics show that takes place in Berlin in late August, according to analyst Avi Greengart of Current Analysis. Unlike CTIA, IFA has a European slant and is aimed more at consumers, with a show floor that's open to the public, he said. However, IFA has played host to some notable mobile product announcements, including several Android and Windows devices from Samsung last year.
Another trend, in which mobile vendors are following Apple and hosting their own launch events, is starting to grab headlines from all technology trade shows, Greengart said.
