SAN FRANCISCO — Bobbing his head to a hip-hop song by Method Man, Mike Michels tried to reel in people walking past the CyFi booth on a crowded convention center floor Wednesday.
"It's the world's first wireless speaker for cellphones," he shouted to a man in a suit and glasses who slowed as he passed.
"OK," the man said, and kept walking.
"It weighs less than 4 ounces," Michels said to another. The man shook his head, laughed and wandered to the next booth, which was giving away juice in exchange for a business card.
Mobile products and services make up one of the hottest sectors in the tech world. But, as Michels knows, it's tough getting noticed.
CyFi, a Los Angeles start-up, is one of the many companies showing off new gear at this year's CTIA convention, one of the wireless industry's biggest trade shows, as they try to turn their products into must-haves for cellphone owners.
Wireless innovators try to stand out in a crowd
If it's a new or better use for a cellphone, it's here. But even if you have the next can't-miss breakthrough, getting noticed isn't easy.
TELECOM
People want to use their phones for more than just talking. CTIA-the Wireless Assn., the trade group that puts on the convention, said this week that revenue from wireless data services rose 40% in the first half of 2008, to $14.8 billion.
Grabbing a piece of that pie is a different story, especially with so many products doing very similar things.
This week at the Moscone Center, CTIA exhibitors include 10 companies that deal in billing and accounting systems for phones, 22 that work in location-based services and tracking technology and 33 that deal in mobile entertainment such as ring tones and games.
There are companies that help you use your phone to avoid traffic and companies that track trucks stuck in traffic, services that turn voice mail into text messages and other services that turn text into voice. They all are jockeying for the attention of consumers, carriers or handset manufacturers, angling for a piece of the growing market.
"Mobile is an unexploited territory," said Nic Covey, director of insights at research firm Nielsen Mobile. "The Internet is a mature space, so mobile is ramping up."
As CTIA got underway Wednesday, Research in Motion unveiled a new BlackBerry flip phone, Yahoo Inc. announced an application that lets you sync your social networks with your iPhone and Purina debuted two mobile websites dedicated to pets.
A lot of the services at CTIA and the companies launching them won't stick -- conference organizers say about 40% of the companies that participated last year didn't return.
