How Apple's iPhone Trumped CES and Microsoft

Just when everybody was getting used to the Consumer Electronics Show being the dominant show in the technology industry, Mr. Jobs strikes again. But it's no accident that Steve Jobs and Apple's iPhone trumped the industry's most anticipated confab.

LARRY HOOPER Can be reached at (415) 947-6229 or via e-mail at lrhooper@cmp.com.

While many more people attended CES in Las Vegas this week than Apple's own Macworld confab, all eyes were on San Francisco Tuesday as Apple's Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone. In Apple's media dominance, there's a lesson for digital integrators who read between the lines.

How did Apple's little phone draw all the attention away from what has been the hottest of hot shows? What got reporters from the big TV networks to leave Las Vegas early and fly to San Francisco?

Easy answer. Apple gets "it." Jobs and his marketing crew understand that technology doesn't sell, so they've created "it" products that aren't about technology. They're about self-image, coolness, lifestyle.

In contrast, the news coming out of CES was about bigger and bigger televisions and Bill Gates' unveiling of the long-awaited Microsoft home server. Now, I know all the numbers. Yes, consumers are going to need storage for their millions of songs, digital photos and home videos, as well as the movies they will download from the Net once all of the digital rights management issues have been worked out. But they don't care how it works. They don't want to know.

So is it really any surprise that the big excitement this week is about a beautifully designed little product you can put in your pocket rather than software that runs a box in your closet?

It isn't to me, and it shouldn't be to digital integrators. Even if that box is pretty, it isn't what's top of mind for digital home shoppers.

For integrators serving the digital home market, last week's events serve as a somewhat less than gentle reminder of what we have always known.

Sure, there are the early adopters out there who want everything that makes a home digital. But the majority of consumers aren't looking for a server. They're looking for an experience. They want easier access to all of those digital photos that have piled up. They want music in every room of their house. And yes, bless them, they want ever larger televisions.

What's on your radar?
Give me call at (415) 947-6229 or send me a not at lrhooper@cmp.com.