Verizon dropped a “save the date” into our inbox this afternoon, asking that we reserve some time on May 22 at CTIA for a “special announcement” from COO Marni Walden. We were actually planning on skipping CTIA this year as the wireless tech conference has become a waste of time over the last two years, but this certainly means we’ll be in attendance. The question is, “What kind of announcement are they going to make?”

In somewhat of an expected move, CTIA The Wireless Association, has announced that they will move away from their 2-event yearly mobile series of events in 2014 and instead create one “super” mobile show to kick off the Fall season. In the past, and in 2013 as well, CTIA has always thrown two mobile events – one in the spring and another enterprise-focused event in the Fall. With both shows steadily dying over the last two years, CTIA’s focus will change somewhat for 2014 and onward. 

When I saw that CTIA had booked the 4 CEOs from the top 4 U.S. carriers to get on stage and banter about the industry, I immediately penciled it into my schedule. They ran a similar keynote last year, but with the AT&T and T-Mobile merger still up in the air at the point, it was missing T-Mo’s CEO. With that merger now squashed, this will be the first time that all 4 will gather. It’s moderated, but it should make for some entertaining commentary.

This week, CTIA Wireless 2012 is poppin’ off in New Orleans and we are here to cover anything major that comes out of it. Think of this wireless show as a mini-CES that focuses on mobile only, rather than the TV, computer stuff and overwhelming amounts of spam products. It should be a decent show, with Verizon already announcing the DROID Incredible 4G LTE – a device that we should have our hands on before too long. Samsung, HTC, Qualcomm and most of the other players you have grown accustomed to will also be around in some capacity, showing off their latest products. Galaxy SIII in the building? We’ll see.

Keynotes begin tomorrow morning to open up the event, followed by an afternoon session that should be a blast. We get the CEOs of Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint all on stage together to banter about the industry, LTE and more. Wednesday’s keynote includes Spotify, Visa , EA and Firefox – Thursday’s is former President Bill Clinton.

The press events kick off this afternoon, so don’t be surprised if the press releases start trickling out this evening. Again, if it’s big, we will try to bring it your way. In between the oysters, po boys and local brews, of course.

We sat down with the folks at QuickOffice yesterday at CTIA to preview the newest version of the tablet and smartphone app dubbed version 5.0. It’s a pretty massive upgrade that introduces a variety of features for the business travel in all of us.

Along with some UI tweaks that add to the polish, QuickOffice is including a new sharing feature. That’s right, you will be able to share your work with colleagues on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. They also tossed in some additional cloud services to help round out their portfolio – most notably are Evernote and Catch.

They told us to expect the update in mid-November at the same prices you are seeing right now.  More pictures after the break.  

Even though the Samsung/Google event has been postponed to a later date, we are still here at this year’s fall CTIA show to find out what is in store for the rest of the mobile year. The first keynote starts in about an hour and half, followed by a whole batch of meetings with some of your favorite app companies. Still no word on if Verizon plans to unveil any of their latest and greatest handsets, but if they do, we will be on it.

Keep it here for coverage…

Samsung has announced that the product launch event scheduled for CTIA this Tuesday, October 11 has been canned. Rumor has it the announcement was postponed out of respect for the late Steve Jobs, who passed away Wednesday evening.

Samsung and Google decide to postpone the new product announcement at CTIA Fall. We agree that it is just not the right time to announce a new product. New date and venue will be shortly announced.

Update:  Kim Titus from Samsung just released a slightly longer statement:

Samsung and Google have decided to postpone the Samsung Mobile Unpacked event during the CTIA in San Diego, previously scheduled for Oct. 11. Under the current circumstances, both parties have agreed that this is not the appropriate time for the announcement of a new product. We would ask for the understanding of our clients and media for any inconvenience caused. We will announce a new date and venue in due course.

Update: Google released a second statement:

“We believe this is not the right time to announce a new product as the world expresses tribute to Steve Jobs’s passing.”

While this is definetly sad news, it does not necessarily mean the release date has changed, just the announcement. Samsung and Google were expected to announce Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and the long-awaited Galaxy Nexus, which just saw a massive leak.

In a span of ten minutes, news of the Galaxy Nexus has most likely both made and then ruined your day, lets hope the wait won’t be that long.

Cheers to everyone who sent this in!

Not that any of you are surprised by this, but we now know for sure that Ice Cream Sandwich will be unveiled next week at Samsung’s Unpacked CTIA event.  The Android Developers Youtube channel was just populated with the event you are seeing above which is titled “Android ICS Launch.”  Did you need any further proof than that?  October 11 is the day folks.  And then we’ll also finally know which Nexus we will see first, so that tech sites can stop attempting to call each other out.

Cheers John (comment)!