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Apple's Indirect Presence Fades from CES (techpinions.com)
Analyst Ben Bajarin writes: We would go to CES and remark at how Apple's dominance loomed over the show. Vendors of all shapes and sizes were rushing to be a part of the Apple ecosystem. Apple's ecosystem was front and center with everything from iOS apps, to accessories galore for iPhone and iPad, and even companies looking to copy Apple in many ways. The last year or so, things have dramatically changed, and that change is further evident at this year's CES. Gone are the days of Apple's presence, or observably "winning" of CES, even though they are not present. It was impossible to walk the show floor and not see a vast array of interesting innovations which touched the Apple ecosystem in some way. Now it is almost impossible to walk the floor and see any products that touch the Apple ecosystem in any way except for an app on the iOS App Store. The Apple ecosystem is no longer the star of CES but instead things like Amazon's Alexa voice platform, and now Google's assistant voice platform is the clear ecosystem winners of CES.
Apple's star is fading as they have not had a paradigm-changing product release in a long, long while. One has to wonder how long the $1000 iPhones will carry the stock price?
CES presence != Market share. Follow the money
for video games outside of the tent pole stuff like GTA/COD/Madden. It's been shown to be ineffective. It's one of the side effects of businesses having much, much better data analytics then they used to. They know what works and what doesn't when it comes to advertising dollars. Sega, for example, massively cut back their ad buys years ago when they found it had little impact on sales.The tent pole franchises only still need it because normal people won't play videogames if you don't remind them to every year. They just forget about it. If you work in the advert business it's got to be all kinds of scary.
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"Alexa, download porn and order more hand lotion"
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The Apple ecosystem is no longer the star of CES but instead things like Amazon's Alexa voice platform, and now Google's assistant voice platform is the clear ecosystem winners of CES.
This tells you something about how long Alexa/Google Home will be "stars" for, doesn't it?
I don't think this comes as a shock to most of us, and I don't think it's entirely due to the innovation of other companies. I do not count myself as an Apple fan (a detractor, actually) but I've been able to respect their dedication to "the Apple vision" or whatever you'd like to call it back in the era of Mr. Jobs. They've done a lot of legitimately "brave" things in the past, and have had some truly incredible (if derivative) designs that broke the market molds everywhere.
Now though? Their actual bravery is gone, replaced with a feigned insight into the future of tech. They're a rudderless ship. Still a MASSIVE, even potentially unstoppable ship, but that ship lacks a specific course. I don't doubt that they'll figure something out from atop their mountain of cash, but I'm entirely unsurprised that they're no longer the tech-world's darling.
I've been to CES a bunch of times (though not this year), so I can totally understand what the article is talking about...
I don't really think it matters, but I think it's a sign of the rapid expansion of all areas of technology. CES has only so much room (even though it has a LOT of room) and especially this year, between voice stuff and cars there's not room for much else. A hot new thing will always crowd out existing stuff to a degree, and Amazon / Google are heating up voice control like there's no tomorrow.
I'm personally pretty dubious about the huge amount of voice integration in so many products, and in general about smart appliances. It all has such marginal benefit for so much cost and complexity... and that's coming from someone with a smart watch.
Cars though, I think that area is very exciting and a lot of amazing developments are close at hand. There the hype is warranted. Related to that, every Slashdot reader should probably check out the NVidea presentation from CES.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
We've been using Google Home daily since the week it came out. First just for things like setting timers while cooking and for things like "when does the closest Lowe's open today". But then for home automation like, "Hey Google play Leverage from Netflix on Living Room TV" or "Hey Google, turn on the Family Room Fan". We started with two of the devices and are now up to seven of them to fully cover the house. Very usable every day.
Wireless technologies have pretty much removed the need for a lot of those products. I mean how many things that relied on a dock are now done with Bluetooth or over WiFi? I'd wager damn near all of them. Apple's influence is still there, it's just not in products made exclusively or mostly exclusively for the Apple ecosystem anymore. For example, most smart home products coming out these days are homekit compatible, along with broader compatibility with other major vendors. There isn't a need to be Apple specific anymore. And that's not necessarily a bad thing for Apple as it gives their users a broader base of gizmos to waste money on.
But if you want to see their influence in action still, just look at wireless charging. Powermat as a standard is done (not that it was exactly winning before, but the final nail has been driven), to the point of having to support Qi in their products deployed to places like Starbucks. And there has been an explosion of Qi compatible accessories since the 8 and X were announced with wireless charging support.
I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
Apple's star is fading as they have not had a paradigm-changing product release in a long, long while.
It's hard to see a paradigm change when it first gets underway...
I would argue the Apple Watch is one, though it will take people a while to understand that.
However what is clearly one is FaceID. Because it acts without action, and is actually secure unlike image based facial recognition tech (and works in the dark), it creates a system that can know 100% of the time it's you using the device which makes many authorization actions way more seamless than with any tech you have to initiate authentication (like TouchID).
It's still very early days as it's just delivered but FaceID will be a real change for security in all sorts of areas, not just phones.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Not fit for such purpose, as Alexa lacks a screen, being just a speaker.
It's not 1989 where I can get off to the sound of someone moaning on the other end of the phone anymore. The Internet has destroyed my powers of imagination.
Just as Apple's indirect presence at CES was never relevant, so is anyone else's. For example, I still have yet to encounter someone who uses voice control as the dominant control for *any* activity. I know many people who own Echos, Echo Dots, Ecobee with Alexa, Sonos One, etc yet none of them have admitted using Alexa other than for amusement purposes, and then only if they're situationally forced to (e.g. calling someone in a car).
Similarly, the vast majority of Apple users I know don't use any accessories on a mandatory basis except for cases and apps. Neither of those are very interesting anymore, although they remain dominant members of the Apple ecosystem.
That ghostly sound you might hear is just the volume of the crowd trying to hawk their wares. Pay them as much or as little mind as you like — just like you might have in the past.
because there's been a big push into digital/online adverts and they have to be obnoxious to have any impact. It looks like the push is coming from old media dying off. Radio is going away and TV's taking a hit from Netflix/Hulu/etc. e.g. services that are subscription based instead of ad supported. It'll be tough for them to go the cable route and introduce ads on top of the subscription fees since that risks driving folks back to cable. The high cost of internet service combined with the death of Net Neutrality and bandwidth cap regulation means cutting the cord isn't much cheaper anymore. A coworker just did it and he's saving about $25/mo (and only that much because he doesn't think he'll go over the newly instituted caps and trigger those fees).
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That's what I'll call it next time I'm not on a job I'm supposed to be.
Alexa runs great on its Echo Show product. Decent screen as well, it's 1024 x 600 - so better than your 1989 CGA monitor!
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
CES isn't about how successful a company is today, it's about the future. Yes, Apple is still financially successful, but they are 'eating their seed corn' in that they are living on past technological leaps and have become rudderless as far as future tech is concerned (or they are way out ahead and Apple's legendary secrecy is keeping it all under wraps). My own feeling is that leadership is focused on fashion, or internal fighting over the company's direction/future, and there is no real work/plan for future products beyond getting rid of the tab at the top of the iPhone X display.
...FaceID is a product feature ...
Yes, it is a product feature. And it changes a product just like other product features change other products. You're really stretching, and that just proves my point, Again.
No mention of the Watch I see.
From my message you replied to: "Apple Watch is a product."
One of the reasons I stopped going to CES is that a pretty large company I did some occasional work for used to have a large booth there. But every year it was more and more expensive, and every year the placement they got (for a booth that was thousands of square feet mind you) got shunted off to worse locations, and other booths got so big you couldn't see them unless you walked right past... so rather than spending millions on CES each year, they stopped going and just rented out some space to meet with clients who attended. I think it was the right call as there was no way they were getting as much in sales out as they were spending.
It's sad to hear about the lack of Kickstarter type companies, I enjoyed visiting a section of them the last time I was there for a few things I had backed.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Who really cares about CES other than investors and people hawking their latest ideas and prototypes?
Apple never cared about CES. Why should they start now? That CES was obsessed about Apple a few years ago doesn't portend doom for Apple now that that obsession has faded (reverted to mean).
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that just proves my point, Again.
Nope! Still doesn't do anything for your argument, which lacks understanding of how things are going to change. You are arguing it's just a feature of products, ignoring that sometimes a feature makes a product a different product that what it seems to be.
Would you argue smartphones were jot a paradigm shift over flip phones? Because you are.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
One thing that's going to be interesting is that using influencers like AGDQ won't really work to make you pick Tide over Arm & Hammer for your laundry soap or even Coke over RC (which, as anyone from the south knows, is a superior beverage :) ). You need a way to associate the brand with positive thoughts/feelings. That's how you get a brand recognition response. You can do that a bit with product placement but I don't think anything beats a 30 second spot on a popular TV show or sporting event.
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I heard different. I've got a contact on one of the large chip markers stands who told me this week that "Apple’s facial recognition in iPhoneX has left other phone companies scrambling for alternatives."
I can't imagine how people want a device in their homes that listens to everything they say and sends it to a server, somewhere. It's probably archived, too.
Windows 2000 - from the guys who brought us edlin
There must have been dongles. Hundreds and hundreds of dongles.
While I'm in no means an Apple fan-boi, I have switched first from Android then to Windows Mobile and now to Iphone. I did buy the X, which replaced a perfectly good 950xl and now have a X for personal use and a 7+ for work. Teh Apple peeps are not going to switch anytime soon to Android and probably don't need to be wowed at CES anymore. Most of my sons' friends are Iphone users as are many of my co-workers. My older son is the only one his age I know who has an Android device.
Great discussion though - wonder if the Cult of Mac is finally fading. My younger son's school adopted an all Chromebook policy. Every student has one for testing and homework. Back when I was in high school the Apple IIe and Mac SE were all the rage. Not anymore.
The Kai's Semi-Updated Website Thingy
Can I design hardware for their top of the line pro towers? No. Why? They don't exist.
Can I design anything that plugs into their hardware? Not unless it uses USB C. Their new machines even require RAM to be installed by special magical technicians who wear the special Apple T-Shirts that make installing memory possible.
Apple has spent the last few years telling everyone around them to go jump in a lake because they need no-one other than consumers who buy machines that are disposable. That's their choice but what business do you expect anyone to even try to do with them unless it plugs in a USB C port and is constrained by the power supplies of laptops?
---- The above post was generated by the Turing Institute. Maybe.
Get used to USB C.
The Pro Towers (or lack of) are a bit of a problem. But the fact that HPE's workstations are great is not going to save the company. Nor is the lack of a Pro Tower going to kill Apple.
Windows 2000 - from the guys who brought us edlin