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Observations from CES

CES 2007It's that time of year again to get totally exhausted trying to see everything at CES. This year, there wasn't much in the way of true innovations being shown or announced at CES (or for that matter, at MacWorld). The hype of the term still continues. When I pushed back on the people staffing different booths, their descriptions of their so-called innovation was shocking. These included:

  • It's smaller (or bigger - like the +100" LCD display battles)
  • It's cheaper
  • We have more color options (honest!!)
  • It's a better version of ABC

You almost have to laugh - except each person I talked to was quite serious about their unique innovation. Given this, I can almost predict where each of these companies stock price will be in 2 years. Maybe I should start a "non-innovation" list and see if I'm right ....

The picture above is from the Voodoo room at the party ... click here to read more

Comments

Phil, my perception is that we're in an innovation trough - so much has happened in consumer electronics in the past two years that there's a sense of exhaustion taking it all in. Look at HD DVD/Blueray and Vista - both incremental innovations that have failed to make a case for their existence to their target audiences.

'EXAUSTION' Word says something. I believe when there is a market like consumer electronics which looks like 'EXHAUSTED' That is when one need to look at the larger picture, trends and predict the future. 'EXHAUSTION' can also be seen as a oppotunity to create something radically different. This is when you can make a shift from the 'Red ocean' to a 'blue ocean' and make the compeation irrelevant. Do not forget the example of Cirque de Soleil which created a market for itself by just changing the target audience.