When CES 2013 < BCS Championship < The Bachelor
Image via @LanceUlanoff
I don’t know much about college football. But last night’s game was a bummer for all who tuned in expecting a competitive game and found themselves witnessing a slaughter instead.
But like I said, I don’t know much about college football. For me, the Heisman-worthy (OK, I know one thing about college football) disappointment of the night was tech-related. Qualcomm’s keynote speech at CES 2013 went the way of out-of-context PR stunts and failed to seize the opportunity of giving this year’s show, and those that may (or may not) follow, a nudge in a more relevant direction.
Mat Honan and Matt Buchanan recently wrote articles that argued CES is becoming obsolete due to the shift from hardware to software. I hear and learn more about this shift working with high-tech clients, but I do believe there was an opportunity to educate an audience of very jaded tech consumers, bloggers and journalists on what semiconductors do at the embedded level to enable both the hardware and software sides of the tech equation:
- Advanced computing capabilities such as improved battery life, high-quality graphics, faster performance and features we have come to take for granted in our hardware. Sure, tech specs may be unintelligible at times, but they make our gadgets go. They can explain why they cost as much or as little as they do, and also why they reach market sooner vs. later.
- Capabilities to run software and applications that connect our devices with each other and their context in order to achieve simplicity at the device level and to “strip away layers of complexity in our lives.”
I’m of the [biased] opinion that in order to tell the future of tech, you have to look more closely at the little parts that make tech work. If CES is not the right venue for that version of a keynote, then we should do as Matt says -- declare the show dead and dance on its grave.
I was let down by the decision to use PR stunts that involved Steve Ballmer for nostalgia’s sake, Guillermo del Toro, Big Bird and Maroon 5 (send a tweet to @andinarvaez using the hashtag #maroon5joke if you want to hear a terrible Maroon 5 joke).
In PR, we talk about building thought leadership, fostering relationships and telling compelling stories. Perhaps Qualcomm lost a really good opportunity here, what do you think?This is a keynote for a company that makes SMARTPHONE PROCESSORS. Just to put things in context. #Maroon5 #CES #Qualcomm
— Andrew Cunningham (@IT_AndrewC) January 8, 2013
