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.

Comments

Fading Apple Star

[QuietLagoon]

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?

Re:Fading Apple Star

[Lunix Nutcase]

Why would they lower the price while demand is equal or outstripping supply? It’s funny since people like you say this about Apple with every new model and yet they blow away previously sales records nearly ever year. Does it ever tire to be so wrong?

Re:Fading Apple Star

[QuietLagoon]

...It’s funny since people like you say this about Apple with every new model... Does it ever tire to be so wrong?

"people like me?" All I said was that I wondered how long Apple could do it. How can I be wrong when I asked a question? So I'll ask you the same question --- how long do you think Apple can continue to sell very expensive smartphones? And as a corollary, I'll also ask you a follow-up question --- when do you think that Apple will come out of their long, long innovative, paradigm-changing, new product drought?

Re:Fading Apple Star

[stabiesoft]

And yet when I bought my new phone(moto) from the T-Mo store in late december the manager said he had 20 iphone-x's in the vault. They were not selling, T-Mo had to buy them, apple does not let them discount, and apple does not take them back. I imagine T-Mo is not going to be very happy if they have to eat them. He did say it was quite unusual for an iphone not to sell, so I think the X may have finally hit the "priced too high" mark.

Re:Fading Apple Star

[mikael]

Apple have iPhone stores in every town and city. Same with Android and all the mobile phone shops. Every time I visit, it is like CES with all the accessories and gadgets that can be used.

Re:Fading Apple Star

[TechyImmigrant]

So people who buy from the carrier store because it's "cheaper" are reluctant to pay for the most expensive phone.

Really?

[gti_guy]

CES presence != Market share. Follow the money

Re:Really?

[Lunix Nutcase]

Apple had revenue of $52.5 billion and net profit of $10.7 billion in Q4 2017. Clearly they are on their last legs and destitute from lack of sales. LOL...

Re:Really?

[alvinrod]

I think the biggest reason for any Apple presence being felt at CES at any time was because they held their own conference during the same week but at a different venue. They've since stopped having that yearly conference and instead just hold their product events when they have some product to announce, which doesn't really sync up with CES any more.

Same reason you don't see much advertising

[rsilvergun]

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.

Tells you something...

[coofercat]

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?

Apple continues to lack direction.

[Samurai Nigel]

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.

Re:FaceID is one

[QuietLagoon]

...However what is clearly one is FaceID. ...

FaceID is a product feature, not a feature product. FaceID is something that is added to other products. The iPod is a product. The iPhone is a product. Apple Watch is a product. FaceID is a feature of a product. But the fact that FaceID is the best you can come up with means you see the drought as well.

Re:There's only so much stuff at CES

[LynnwoodRooster]

I've been to the last 23 CES shows - including this year. A goodly portion of the Sands was unoccupied/roped off, as well as most of the top of the Venetian hotel (old high-end audio section). Lots of those spaces would have been where Kickstarter/startups would have been located, but because of flagging demand for space - they can move to more "higher visibility" areas. It wasn't because a lack of space - it was a lack of interest. Android was much more prevalent this year than in past. Both in use and in terms of product support.

Really? Alexa?

[rainer_d]

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.