iMore:
If you were at CES, you could see water bottles with screens, alarm clocks with smell, robots with video projectors, underwear that’s smart, and a tablet/refrigerator. That would have been all on one day. Yesterday.
CES started as a trade show for retail. In the ’80s and ’90s, it was a venue for great technology intros such as the CD (1981), the DVD, (1986) and HDTV (1998). By 2000, CES was the place to launch major products such as Xbox (2001). When I look at this year’s show, I see a lot of things no one needs, and few people will want. It’s a Sharper Image catalog brought to life, the ultimate “Why? Because I can!” So why is it still an important event? It’s the place to try and spot the new, new thing that might get consumers to replace the old, old thing. So far, I don’t see it but here’s what I do see.
CES is a gigantic waste of time, energy, and money – but you won’t hear the Tech Media say that. The vast majority of what they “report” on will never see the light of day as a consumer-purchasable product. But they’ll get excited as puppies over it regardless.
It’s kind of funny when he says, “In the ’80s and ’90s, it was a venue for great technology intros such as the CD (1981), the DVD, (1986) and HDTV (1998).”
Those announcements were 5 and 12 years apart. So there were 3 years with big announcements and 15 years with no big announcements. It reminds me of the tech press that kept complaining when Apple was not announcing their next iPhone/iPad even though it had only been a few years since one of those products had been introduced. Big ideas are not something that can or should be seen every year. The off years are the norm and if they aren’t worthwhile then why does the press cover them?
Personally, I think there is probably value in attending CES simply to learn about the subtle changes that will lead to the next big thing, to reconnect with colleagues in the press, or to find something that others missed and write about that great discovery. However, when I read this article I can’t help but think the author isn’t interested in any of those things, and I wonder why he bothered to attend at all.
Exactly. And a lot of the critiques of the 4K TVs were likely leveled at those technologies back then (there’s no content, too expensive, etc.). The best summary of CES came from Kevin Drum. CES has always been like this. The revolutionary stuff at CES is always clunky, expensive, very rough around the edges and sorta ridiculous. However, by the time they hit the mainstream, tech folks have been talking about them so long that it seems pretty boring when they do make it.
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2016/01/tech-still-big-its-us-have-gotten-small
Well said. I agree with your assessment. And after reading your response it prompted me to go back and look at the years of those three items he listed as big intros. The CD was introduced in 1981 but I don’t remember buying my first CD player until around 1986. And I was a DJ at the time. And the DVD may have been introduced in 1986 but VHS was still my mainstay for buying movies until around a decade later. I was definitely not an early adopter on the HDTV since I didn’t buy my first until almost 10 years after it was introduced!
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