The annual International CES show held in January in Las Vegas is still relevant, but its importance to the industry might be slipping.
CES is still dominating the technology news but, according to Ovum’s senior device analyst Nick Dillon, “the show’s continuing focus on hardware is making it look increasingly dated, as the majority of innovation is now happening in software and services rather than in hardware design”.
“The rise of smart devices has caused a fundamental shift in the consumer technology industry,” he says.
“The focus of innovation has now shifted to the software and services running on these devices, rather than the physical hardware. Smartphone hardware is now generally ‘good enough’ for the majority of users, and as a result it has become commoditised and homogenised.
“The market for software and services continues to grow at a phenomenal rate. Apple recently announced that 40-billion applications have now been downloaded from its App Store, illustrating users’ insatiable hunger for new applications and services.
“For those looking to keep track of the latest innovations in the consumer technology market, the software-focused events such as Google I/O, Apple WWDC, Microsoft Build and Facebook f8 are now a better place to look than CES,” Dillon concludes.
“The rise of smart devices has caused a fundamental shift in the consumer technology industry,” he says.
“The focus of innovation has now shifted to the software and services running on these devices, rather than the physical hardware. Smartphone hardware is now generally ‘good enough’ for the majority of users, and as a result it has become commoditised and homogenised.
“The market for software and services continues to grow at a phenomenal rate. Apple recently announced that 40-billion applications have now been downloaded from its App Store, illustrating users’ insatiable hunger for new applications and services.
“For those looking to keep track of the latest innovations in the consumer technology market, the software-focused events such as Google I/O, Apple WWDC, Microsoft Build and Facebook f8 are now a better place to look than CES,” Dillon concludes.