Las Vegas - Mecca of Tourism

Its always wonderful to visit Las Vegas, the Disneyland for adults. The city and sites created in a desert, with its own unique economic model, stands testimony to the American Dream that created money at places that were once considered wastelands.

I have been visiting Las Vegas since 1996 and its been amazing to see how the number of hotels getting added to the skyline of The Strip just does'nt seem to stop. Spotted a few more new hotels coming up on a visit a couple of weeks ago, that is after I saw many more new hotels already added since my last visit in 2002. On my first visit in 1996 I was all ready to swear that The Strip had more (equivalent) hotel rooms than the whole of India. In 2002 I saw a few new hotels like the Venetian and the Bellagio, and this time a whole new Las Vegas downtown!

Some (serious) trivia about Las Vegas, that will remind us about this huge magnet that attracts hordes of visitors each year to its glittering neon lights:

• Over 40 M visitors each year
• Has more than 150,000 hotel rooms in an area of a few sq km (adding 2-8K new rooms each year)
• Hosts over 22,000 conventions a year. Mind boggling to even know how many that is each day!

Here's many more astonishing Las Vegas Numbers at the University of Nevada ( http://cber.unlv.edu/tour.html )website.

And whats the recession done to Las Vegas?

Seems not very much on the surface; 3M visitors in March; hotel occupancy down only @ 10-15%; didnt see much effect on the attendance at the CTIA show, many more hotel rooms getting added this year! But hey, 10-15% drop is big in the hotel industry, where 70% occupancy for break-even is the norm! Hotels have already announced layoffs! Cab Drivers are doing @ 25 trips a day as compared to 45 each day - no wonder they are not too happy about the Las Vegas Monorail System. For the sake of a greener earth, hope this system succeeds - do you really need a car in the sights and sounds (of money) of Vegas!

Here's wishing all of you a great night at the heights of the open-air, Voodoo Lounge at the Rio Hotel & Casino where you can soak in the sights of The Strip from close to heaven!

The New World of Wireless Data - @ CTIA 2009

Am back in the wireless data services world and have started travelling internationally again after a gap. It has been interesting to watch the wireless space without being involved in it on a day to day basis for the last couple of years. Am now back to working on it, building out a new set of ideas in the space.
Visited the CTIA show at Las Vegas, 1st - 3rd April. Several changes in the representation and thrust at CTIA since my last visit there in 2003. The Wireless World is one industry that seems to have weathered the storms of the recession in the US, with new innovations and aggressive roll-out of new Wireless Data Services. Many even hope that the wireless industry in the US will be the catalyst to pull the US out of the recession!

Here is some data and impressions from this year's CTIA Wireless Show:

• Focus is on devices and native applications -
• Apple, RIM are giving the US an edge over Europe through their iPhone and Blackberry Devices
• Appstores from each of the device vendors is the hot (new) business concept to help app vendors advertise, help consumers discover their application and distribute and deploy them – Has removed the carrier from the equation
• The CDMA vs GSM and complicated interdependencies in delivering Mobile Data Services and SMS has gone away in the US; GSM (T-Mobile) and 3G availability in the US has simplified the space
• WAP and other Mobile Browsers are not the only way to access the Mobile Internet anymore – their noise was drowned; Only Opera had a presence with their Opera Mini and other browsers
• Its not just Java in the device world anymore; J2ME is not the only force – iPhone Objective-C, Google Android, Blackberry JDE
• Native Device applications are growing rapidly – focused, rich GUI vertical applications rather than a browser to access “content”
• The Three Screens convergence – TV, PC and Mobile screens convergence – Microsoft – Connected Entertainment, Envivio is making a big push for this
• Windows Mobile 6.5 and PCs will be soon be shipped with Embedded 3G
• Nokia is losing ground – no longer prima donna of the industry – is late in launching its AppStore (OVi); No path breaking devices or concepts anymore
• US companies have wrested the lead on MDS from European companies
• Asian Device vendors are taking the lead alongwith iPhone and Blackberry – Samsung and LG are way ahead of the competition in hi-tech phones and new device concepts. Some neat phones with transparent keyboards, image projectors, mobile TV and other features.
• Asian Vendors - Don't talk applications at all though!! Except HTC, the guys from Taiwan who have tied up with Google for Android and made breakthroughs through Android’s Application Marketplace
• Google has made its presence felt in the wireless world through Android – not a force yet, but will be one when they integrate it with Google Maps (already done), Search Anywhere, etc.
• The Middleware guys are gone – Only a token presence thru Oracle, Sybase, etc. HP, IBM and others are not talking much mobility anymore
• MapQuest, Navteq, etc. are making Location Based Services happen – privacy fears for tracking and map assistance type applications seem to have reduced
• All application vendors seem to be “behind” the device guys – RIM, Nokia, Apple (not present at CTIA) as opposed to with the middleware or network equipment vendors like HP, Oracle, TIBCO, etc. earlier
• Microsoft Mobile devices are finally there, many device vendors have it on their devices
• The Finland and DoCoMo Buzz has reduced substantially!! DoCoMo still leads with the best applications deployed by a carrier though
• USSD and SIM Card based application vendors – couple of companies from Europe still had these – mainly for banking and operator based applications (pre-paid topup, balance enquiry) in Europe
• A couple of Unified Messaging Platforms and Companies were around – but look more like the Mobile Middleware guys of Y2000-2002
• Chinese companies have made an entry with their Antennas, Radio Equipment, Huawei and cheap mobile phones without the IMEI numbers!!
• The Ringtone Buzz is dead – but its still an industry (even if on its last legs) - Will slowly get replaced by stereo quality music, virtual radio-stations, etc.
• Greenphones – concept phones with green materials (LG), Solar Cells, Green Towers (that look like trees!)
• Recycled Phones, Retrofitted phones, sold at 30-50% discounts – Reverse Logistics to collect discarded and non-functional phones, fix and sell them along with regular phones at retail locations -