![]() AirPlay and Lightning speakers were all but completely absent from CES last year, and the big story of the past two years has been the triumph of the universal Bluetooth standard for everything from audio to health accessories. There used to be a thriving, growing market for Apple-specific accessories, but for various reasons, the last few years have seen an almost complete collapse of the Apple-specific electronic accessory business. (If it’s not already obvious, Apple accessory companies have been closing, shedding staff, and/or merging over the past couple of years, leaving fewer players and far fewer products of interest.) Unfortunately, the Apple area has recently declined significantly in both number of exhibitors and size, last year deliberately to weed out vendors who were only marginally Apple-focused, and this year seemingly due to declining interest and tougher finances. On That Note, The 2016 CES Looks To Be A Snoozer For Apple Fans. Years ago, I co-created and helped to curate CES’s Apple accessory exhibition area (originally called the iLounge Pavilion, later the iProducts Marketplace), which grew from under 100 exhibitors to over 500, eventually spanning multiple football field-sized sections of the Las Vegas Convention Center and the adjacent LVH hotel. Should Apple get involved again, or is the very idea of a consumer electronics trade show (despite record CES attendance) a vestige of the past?Ģ. Even if there are hundreds of Apple Stores across the globe, none of them hosts as many important people or product launches as a single trade show. When Apple stopped showing up at Macworld Expo and Apple Expo Paris, this opportunity was lost, and despite third-party efforts to fill the gap, nothing short of Apple’s re-engagement is going to fix it. Trade shows used to be an opportunity for journalists, retailers, and sometimes members of the public to interact with Apple and key third-party developers, all in a single location, to see their “big picture” vision. Yes, there will be HomeKit accessories and CarPlay head units on the floor, but they’ll be mixed in with competing products, and easy to miss. If this year’s CES is anything like past years, however, attendees will be lucky to find more than a stray piece of signage for any of these things. Consequently, think about all of the under-promoted ecosystem initiatives that Apple could be spotlighting at CES this year: HomeKit, CarPlay, the Mac App Store, Made for Apple TV, iPad in the Enterprise, Lightning headphones, or Apple Watch apps. Trade shows used to be the ideal opportunity for Apple and third-party developers to demonstrate new co-developed initiatives, such as iPod car integration or Made for iPhone accessories. While Apple’s decision to pull out of trade shows has had modest impact on its mindshare and stock price, it has created some major consequences for its device ecosystems. Years earlier, Apple had depended on trade shows such as Macworld Expo and Apple Expo Paris to announce and show off new products, but as its “last year at Macworld” press release said - somewhat convincingly - Apple’s own retail stores and marketing efforts were extremely effective, while trade shows had “become a very minor part of how Apple reaches its customers.” Apple employees continued to attend trade shows, including the annual CES in Las Vegas, but often with their badges obscured and never again formally with gigantic, Macworld-sized booths. Although it had another explanation at the time, Apple effectively stopped participating in trade shows when then-CEO Steve Jobs’ declining health made the events inconvenient to stage. I also wanted to share some additional thoughts on Apple’s Remote Loop for the new Apple TV’s Siri Remote, the classic (but ever-evolving) iOS app Akinator the Genie, and the continued scourge of free-to-play games…ġ. My first edition of 2016 looks at two separate topics related to this week’s 2016 CES: first, Apple’s continued absence from the show, and second, the annual event’s seemingly declining interest to Apple fans. Welcome to the latest edition of Jeremy’s 5, my latest quick roundup of 5 interesting little things that aren’t big enough for full articles, but are still worth sharing with you.
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