You don’t have to be a gamer to be a geek!
11 January 2010
Last week I kicked off the new year with a ‘confessional’, admitting that the world of games was passing me by.
However, there are plenty of non-game gadgets out there to fire the geeky-side of our imagination and there is no better place to explore these than at the CES.
The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is held annually in Las Vegas and provides an indication of trends prevalent in industry. By virtue of the immense coverage it gets it also provides an interesting reaction to how journalists and the public respond to these trends. Last year’s overall winner was the Palm Pre, although its late arrival in the UK probably lost it the impetus to make the most of its star billing in this country.
This year’s winner, like the iPhone a few year’s previously, will probably be a product that is not even at the show. Google’s new Nexus One smartphone is creating all the headlines that it would have hoped for and it certainly has the ‘buzz-factor’ to eclipse anything that is launched at CES. Nexus One will be available in the UK in the spring on all networks and whether it turns out to be better than the iPhone, or whether it will just turn out to be more or less the same as the iPhone with more revenue generation channels, remains to be seen.
Back to the show itself and there will be no surprise to see that more of the gadgets do more things and communicate with a wider array of other gadgets. And you can probably play games on them. As in previous years the focus still seems to be on the headline grabbing functionality of new devices, rather than the practicalities – particularly in terms of power management for mobile devices. While look through CES’ own annual list of ‘Innovation Honourees’ (its selection of what is most innovative in each of the 36 ‘hottest’ product areas) has plenty to admire, but not quite so much to excite. You can see the full list at http://www.cesweb.org/awards/innovations/2010honorees.asp and maybe you would agree that there are few standout products in the range, although there are a few digital audio products that looked desirable (if not revolutionary), a Nikon camera with built in projector which could be the start of a new trend and a bike which offers a whole new riding experience. I don’t know how it manages this but I am intrigued to find out.
I am surprised that no 3D products have made their list, nor are there any signs of progress in the digital e-books or electronic magazine readers. Instead it will be the software developments that will be the real champions, providing that extra degree of functionality that gives each innovation its status as such.
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