Analysis: CES Is More About General Trends Than Specific “It” Devices

Authored by Jay Baage on January 7, 2008 - 1:23pm.

CES 2008 - The Consumer Electronics Show, which officially opened today here in Las Vegas, is, as usual, controlled chaos... Here are my initial impressions after the first day of rubbing shoulders with roughly 140,000 attendees and exhibitors (as well as the occasional celebrity like CSI-Miami's David Caruso) in the 1.85 million square feet of exhibition space.

While CES this year is more on showcasing experiences than the electronic devices that make them possible, it is still very much a traditional electronics tradeshow. The irony of it all is that it is likely that the next "hot" gadget will not be announced here.

NYT had an article today in which it noted that the show has lost some of its appeal: "Apple iPhone and Nintendo Wii and other recent must-haves were not unveiled at C.E.S." True, CES is probably not the place to go to find out what particular device will rule the gadget world in 2008. For example, Apple is not even showing off their stuff here, but doing their own event in San Francisco (MacWorld).

However, CES is still a great place to see what broader trends will rule the consumer electronics market in the coming year and what companies have the hottest line-up of electronics bling-bling.

Let's not forget that, in spite of all the media hype, Apple and Nintendo only managed to grab a small fraction of the total spending on consumer electronics last year. The really big money was spent on stuff like high def television sets where there is no clear "it" product. Yet. Bottom line, there is no place I'd rather be right now - CES is a great event for all of us gadget freaks and a fun place to take business meetings.

Here are a few quick observations from a first walk of the floor:

Wow, high def movies really look amazing on big flat-screens. But what marketing muscle is being wasted at CES on the format war between HDDVD and Blu-ray. Think about all the confusion that the industry has caused in the mind of the consumer instead of facilitating a smooth transition to one simple standard for the next generation video players.
Industrial designers must be in short supply these days since it seems that everyone is trying to make their devices as sexy as Apple's with colors and sleek lines, but very few actually succeed.
Computer screens and smart devices are increasingly spreading to everywhere from your pocket to your car. With all these screens, the online/wireless video market is posed to take off. But there are few exhibitors have showed me a compelling video experience on a small screen.
There is just so much mobile stuff it makes my head spin. I'll blog more about the mobile devices and services in an upcoming post.
There is something about robots that people just respond to. This year Sony is displaying the Rolly robot which is a media player that can roll around (hence the name). I want one!

Joakim Baage

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