Visitors down from 40,000 in 2008 to 34,000 this year, but CTIA says the exhibitor number held steady.
The number of booths was around 1000, which roughly equalled the spring 2008 count. CTIA put a positive spin on this in a tough economic climate.
A statement said: “We expected attendance would be down from last year due to the current economic conditions. We heard from several attendees and exhibitors that floor traffic was steady and meetings were extremely effective because key decision makers were in attendance.”
WE have to take CTIA's word for this, although some rumours suggested numbers were down by 40 per cent. There were also whispers that the show will go down to one a year. CTIA's terse response to this was 'this is only a rumour'.
From ME's anecdotal experience, the show did seem very quiet although the exhibition space was extremely dispersed; the media centre was never more than a quarter full. There were few announcements, with the event coming barely six weeks after Mobile World Congress.
Advertisement
