Stephen PrenticeWell the twilight period is over and it is the start of 2009 for real, with pretty much everyone back at work. And for me this is a week that is bound to bring some surprises and a lot of useful pointers as to what will be happening later in the year – thanks to two big events which many enterprise IT people still regard as pretty irrelevant to the world of “serious” computing.
The fun kicks off on Tuesday morning (PST) in San Francisco with Macworld. No Steve Jobs keynote this year so it will seem a bit flat, but whatever your attitude towards Apple and the Mac, there is no doubt that what gets announced here will have a significant impact on what the rest of the PC world will be doing in the next year. Ultrathin PCs, iPhones, App store – all have had their impact on the industry and, through their growing adoption by individuals (and a few enterprises) they influence what IT managers and CIOs in enterprises need to accommodate. This could well be the last Macworld (at least with the significance that it currently enjoys) so this will be one to watch for what it tells us about the state of industry in general and consumer attitudes in general.
Then we move on to the big shindig – the Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2009) in Las Vegas. Again, it is all to common for enterprise IT people to ignore this as a consumer fest of no significance – but that too would be a mistake – a big one! Amidst the home theatres, outrageous automobiles and all the other consumer options this show is full of pointers to what is going to happen. Display technologies, new drives, networking, streamed media, video, user generated content, home servers and storage and, for those who search diligently, early versions of some very interesting new technology developments. And these do reach the mainstream market very fast these days. As I reported last year, some gestural computing interfaces demonstrated at CES were available on real machines (available for sale) by July. And down amongst the gamers I expect to see new advances in user interfaces, haptic feedback, 3D displays and input devices – this is going to be the year of 3D. If you want to stay ahead of the curve, then keeping track of what is happening this week is going to be a smart first step.
Definitely an interesting week to start the new year with. Watch this space!
Category: Uncategorized Tags: Add new tag, Apple, Consumer
3 responses so far ↓
1 Cristene Gonzalez-Wertz (aka Hermione1) January 5, 2009 at 11:09 am
Steve, I think you are right. We will see lots of pushing the edge technology at CES, but you might also note that the National Retail Federation – right on the heels of CES is likely to showcase the “how” some of the new tools will be used. More social shopping, more 3-D views of clothing or shoes on my own avatar, in a space I design.
3-D could be so much fun – imagine teaching kids math and science in 3-D…that might allow us to
But for CES – I’ll be there as well, looking at devices and affiliated components that deliver the promise of replacing computers as the primary communications medium, something I refer to in my blog as the rise of the device, and a theme articulated in recent research studies from Pew. We all know its coming. The question is when.
I think it will be also interesting to note that where we have all heard the promise of Interactive TV (yawn, sigh, yawn), rumor has it the latest displays of interactivity are vast improvements and function as central point across all the devices…we shall see. I am looking forward IBM’s own interactive demo, but I have learned there is
2 Cristene Gonzalez-Wertz (aka Hermione1) January 5, 2009 at 11:24 am
drat – entry sent before completed…all this technology, and still there is user error. Here’s what we’re missing.
Steve, I think you are right. We will see lots of pushing the edge technology at CES, but you might also note that the National Retail Federation – right on the heels of CES is likely to showcase the “how” some of the new tools will be used. More social shopping, more 3-D views of clothing or shoes on my own avatar, in a space I design.
3-D could be so much fun – imagine teaching kids math and science in 3-D…that might allow us to engage them in meaningful ways that make more sense than the static dynamic we currently have.
But for CES – I’ll be there as well, looking at devices and affiliated components that deliver the promise of replacing computers as the primary communications medium, something I refer to in my blog as the rise of the device, and a theme articulated in recent research studies from Pew. We all know its coming. The question is when.
Shiny devices will not rule the day, though. It’s what’s we can put inside them to make them more effective for us individually. I am wondering how the show floor will change based on the desire to create new device agnostic content (beyond the iPhone) advance taking more of our personal media experience with us everywhere.
I think it will be also interesting to see the latest promise of Interactive TV (yawn, sigh, yawn). Rumor has it the latest displays of interactivity are vast improvements and function as central point across all the devices…we shall see. I am looking forward IBM’s own interactive demo, but I have learned there is so much more to CES. Will you be blogging from the show telling us what might be worthwhile? -c-
3 Vanessa Alvarez January 5, 2009 at 11:45 am
I agree with your statement around enterprise IT ignoring CES. As an enterprise analyst, I look at CES as a way to foresee what’s coming down for enteprise technologies. With the consumerization of IT happening faster, these two markets are blending quickly. It’s difficult to delineate where consumer ends and enterprise begins. IT execs should not ignore, or worse, fight the revolution of consumerization, and instead, embrace it.
Just my two cents.