What to Expect from CTIA Wireless 2009: Apps, New Smart Phones, and More Apps

Will BlackBerry World rock our world? Will we finally get a price for the Palm Pre? What are the next big things in wireless apps and devices? LAPTOP will be answering these questions and more as we hit the show floor for CTIA Wireless 2009. Although we expect to see a lower turnout this year because of the economy–a spokesperson confirmed that it expects 15 percent less than last year’s 40,000 attendees–we also expect plenty of buzz-worthy announcements from March 31 through April 2.

In fact, we expect the first big announcement to come even before the CTIA Wireless 2009 kicks off on Monday, so keep your browser locked here for all the latest news and hands-on impressions througout the show. And be sure to visit us the morning of April 3, when we’ll announce LAPTOP’s Best of CTIA Wireless 2009 winners in 12 categories.

Why so many categories? Because we’ve devoted 6 of them alone to mobile apps, including lifestyle, music/video, location-based, social networking, and games. And many anticipate that BlackBerry World will be the biggest news on day one, RIM’s answer to Apple’s App Store. RIM Co-CEO Mike Lazaridis will be giving the opening keynote, so we expect to hear more details about the number of apps BlackBerry users will be able to download on day one, how the store works, and how it expects to compete with the iPhone.

Speaking of apps, I’ll be moderating a panel on this very subject at CTIA on the afternoon of the first, with heavy hitters from AT&T, T-Mobile, Nokia, EA, and more scheduled to speak. It should be an interesting session. Who knows, maybe the rumored Skype for iPhone app will be out by the time our panel begins.

On the phone front, I hope that Android makes a better showing than it did at Mobile World Congress. And Samsung’s press conference on the evening of the 31st could be just what Google phone fans have been waiting for. Or maybe not. Nevertheless, I anticipate that at least one high-profile smart phone will finally land with a major carrier, and that we’ll see a continued flood of low-cost messaging phones with full QWERTY keyboards. Let’s call them recession-friendly dumb phones.

We hope you enjoy our coverage, and if there’s anything you want us to bring you more (or less) of during the show, feel free to sound off in the comments.