Reflections on CES

On the whole, this year’s Consumer Electronics Show produced few "wow" moments, but did show general technology progress on several fronts.

There were interesting products that may one day become useful. One exhibitor had a monitor that produced holograms. Pretty neat, but the quality leaves something to be desired. Not yet Star Trek come to life.

And there was a new version of a robor sweeper and floor washer. But it needs tiny barcodes embedded throughout the flooring to work. Frankly I didn’t quite understand the appeal.

Of course there hits as well as misses. All in one remote controls seem to be improving. TV screens are getting ever larger with higher quality to boot.

Mobile video was hot, as was multimedia streaming of all types. Product size continues to shrink even as capabilities increase.

Of course, as CES wraps up, the buzz in the tech world is about the Apple iPhone and all that it does — and doesn’t — do. And also the Cisco trademark infringement lawsuit over the iPhone name.

In the end, score one for the marketing mavens at Apple. They stole the thunder of a 140,000 attendee strong event. The question is whether it has more to do with Apple’s product and marketing acumen or with the fact that there was little else to wow the tech community and media.