CES 2010: The hype has only just begun
dan tynan on Jan 08 2010 at 2:27 pm | Filed under: Cringley, Infoworld
The 2010 Vegas Gadgetfest is winding down today, and I’m sure all the cabbies, blackjack dealers, and strippers are breathing a sigh of relief. (CES attendees — and geeks in general — don’t do much gambling and are notoriously lousy tippers, or so I’ve been told.)
As always, CES is one enormous hype factory. Its primary purpose these days seems to be getting consumers all hot and bothered about some whizzy new technology. This year CES is agog with talk of Web tablets and Android-based phones like the Google Nexus One and the Motorola Backflip. (I also hear TechCrunch will be introducing Arrington 2.0, but I’m not sure I believe that.)
Of course, easily a third of the stuff that gets the most attention never materializes, or if it does show up it isn’t nearly as impressive in the wild. So I thought I’d step back and take a look at what CES was supposed to bring us last year, and how well it fared. (The Retrevo shopping engine, surprisingly enough, also has a pretty good look at CES ‘09 too.)
Here are some of the things people were gushing about after last year’s CES, and what happened to them:
The Palm Pre: Arguably the biggest story to come out of last year’s confab, the Pre arrived to mostly glowing reviews last June, followed by her cute little sister, the Pixi, in December. But like a Hollywood child star she’s already looking ridden hard and put away wet, surpassed by sexier Droid and Nexus handsets. The deal with Verizon and newly announced "Plus" versions of each don’t do much to change that. With everyone and their dog now coming out with smart phones and app stores, the prospects for Palm’s resurrection look even dimmer than they did a year ago.
Windows 7: Last year Ballmers’ keynote was all about Windows 7, and this year his keynote was, well, mostly about Windows 7. But heck — for the first time in recent memory a new Windows release a) actually arrived when it was supposed to, and b) got a pretty favorable response from reviewers and users alike. So is one CES
LED TVs: Super-thin flat panels using LEDs instead of fluorescent lights for backlighting were all over the place in 2009 — Samsung, LG, Sony, heck even Vizio came out with one. They use roughly 40 percent less electricity too, making them one of the few "green technologies" to actually have an impact.
Green Technology: Speaking of which, 2009 was supposed to be the year High Tech went all Al Gore on us. Aside from a handful of eco-conscious products like Samsung’s Reclaim cell phone (made from corn and recycled materials) and those LED TVs, it really didn’t happen.
OLED TVs: The next generation of ooh-I-want-that displays were supposed to start hitting retail shelves some time last year. Didn’t really happen, though they have started popping up on smaller screens, like the Zune HD and the Google Nexus One.
Cool DVRs: Smart settop boxes like EchoStar’s Sling-loaded DVR were supposed to give TiVo a run for its money (though mostly pocket change, these days), combining a Dish Networks HD video recorder with Sling’s place-shifting tech. Well guess what Dish Network is showing off at this year’s CES? Yes, the very same box, which is now slated to appear in Q2 2010.
Smartphone projectors. These mini-projectors were supposed to connect to your cell and put an entire Powerpoint presentation in your pocket. Quick show of hands: Anybody ever see one of these presentations? Anyone at all?
The Zune Phone: Uh, yeah. According to Wired (circa December 2008) the Zunephone was "the real deal" and going to be announced by The Mad Ballmer at his CES 09 keynote. I think we all know how that’s turned out.
What do you think will be the most overhyped tech to come out of CES this year? Post your thoughts below or email me: dan@dantynan.com.
This post appeared on InfoWorld. I write for other publications too, I’m just too lazy to repost them all here.
