The Betanews ground crew sum up CES 2009
During the latter part of CES last week, the talk was about the possibility that Apple -- which, after all, decided to pull out of its participation in IDG's Macworld conference next year, perhaps dooming it -- would be a featured guest at next year's Vegas extravaganza. That could mean Steve Jobs in the keynote, and Apple technology going chrome-to-chrome against Sony, RIM, and presumably now, Palm. We did hear word last week that Consumer Electronics Association officials were planning to develop a Mac-oriented section of the show, as it was described, though whether that section would include Apple or whether Apple has been invited, has not been revealed.
ANGELA GUNN, BetaNews: If there's a CES next year and we've got Apple at it, I think it's going to be wonderful to see the "It Just Works" philosophy, instead of being thrown against the...
SCOTT FULTON, BetaNews (Indianapolis): No, no, I honestly don't think it would happen. Apple would have to have a huge change of heart to suddenly take part in everybody else's party. I mean, for heaven's sake, if they're going to CES, they're going to lay the law down. They're going to say Steve Jobs has to deliver the main keynote, and then Day 2 has to feature "Apple: Why We're Best."
Think of the people who go to Moscone Center every year. The Apple Faithful are not the people who go to CES. They're the people who go to the Mac shows. They will not go to a PC show or an "Intel show" -- never mind that Intel's inside their computers now -- they see it as sleeping with the enemy.
AG: I think it would be wonderful for CES if they did, because I think it would be wonderful tonic to the "More is More" sensibility. I think one of the great trends I noticed is that everybody had a [Pure Digital Camera.] Everybody had it down, ultra chic, ultra simple.
TIM CONNEALLY, BetaNews: [And companies such as Sony had their versions of it.]
AG: It's like, they've been telling us for years that people wanted more and more sophisticated cameras. Oh, wait a minute, this one just works, and you've never heard of Pure Digital a few years ago. And now, they're calling the tune. I would've liked to have seen more of that, people with video cameras. I have one, it works, I'm not going to make Apocalypse Now with it. I thought I would see more of that. If Apple were coming, I'd bet I'd see more of that, because it would help tilt things that way. That was a great trend we didn't get, because I think these are times where inexpensive and "just-works" will go far. And I don't think we saw enough of it.
TC: SlotMusic [from SanDisk] is your thing. I played with it, and thought I'd hate it, and I didn't want it to work and I didn't want it to go anywhere...and it's simple, and it did just work. And I'm sorry.
This year, as expected, more attention was being paid than ever to "green technology" -- both in terms of saving the environment and saving money. But that attention, our Tim Conneally believed, was mostly on the part of the show's organizers.
JACQUELINE EMIGH, BetaNews: I think there was much more pressure on the corporations for financial reasons...because right, you might save four dollars [per year], you might save $40, but for corporations, saving $40 per head is a lot of money. [Consumers may have a variety of reasons, perhaps they want to save a little money, perhaps it's the right thing to do.]
AG: I think there were good reasons, but I'm not sure the way they were presented, how the companies went about it -- it felt very checklist-y. At one point, I was thinking, "Okay, Green is the 'disaster recovery' of 2009." I would like Security to have been the "disaster recovery" of 2009, [but I was] very disappointed in the kind of blithe lack of representation. I'm not surprised, this is not the show for that...
TC: I saw more questions from people than actual solutions.
JE: Cisco. I think about a year ago, [John Chambers] was talking about what they want to do with that, and they wanted to apply the whole network management thing to consumers. And as part of media distribution; I'm not sure that's going to work. [But Cisco can develop network management and security, and outsource them as services], Cisco-as-a-service. Cisco has been selling anti-virus and other security tools anyway through acquisitions for many years, but to do it as a service, I think it's something they can pull off.
Chambers was really a rock star. He was posing for the camera, milking the flash.
Finally, I asked our ground crew, if they each had exactly $400 of discretionary income to spend all at once, in one day, on something they saw at the show, what would it be? (Tim's answer was more like a down payment than a wholesale purchase.
AG: We know that as soon as the phone I am speaking through in can be replaced, I may even stand in line to get the Palm [Pre]. I'm that excited about it. It feels like the right product for me, personally.
I could have dropped off my phone with [RIM] and let them show that; it's the Pearl. I made it the brunt of more jokes than Henny Youngman.
If you'd told me last week that I was going to be blubbering last week about Palm!
I might actually split the cost, because I can't afford the beautiful telescope I saw...A lot of the things I saw were technologies I'm either excited about or that aren't ready yet, but I think I would probably split it, go buy me an Eee PC from Asus, and spend whatever I had left on the Fuji EnviroMAX compostable, recyclable, disposable batteries. I think that's exciting, I think that may be the one thing that we are actually just using and not even thinking about it 12 months from now. Looking at the price point, it looks like it'll be just like disposable battery price points are, and that's one of the few things that's like there's a lot of really good research in here, and I'm going to be able to own a tiny chunk of it for six bucks in the very near future. That, to me, looks like progress...in a show with precious little of it.
TC: In examining the things that I saw, I think the newest Samsung displays, the very thin ones for Panasonic. Their displays, in terms of my own self-indulgence, are really good. Whatever size Panasonic flat-screen, the ones that are one-third of an inch thick. The ones that are L-something-D. That's what I'd look at, in terms of my own self-indulgence.
AG: We brought Tim to the Land of Self-Indulgence, and by gosh, he's running with it.
TC: If I may make one final comment: If all else fails, use Rock Band.