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Thoughts on Amazon Fire TV

Posted on April 3, 2014 by Jeremy Toeman

Let me open by saying: clear win for Amazon. Here’s why:

Internet streamers are still a growing market, only present in less than a quarter of US households – not to mention International opportunities. Bringing *any* product to market under the Amazon brand is sufficient to move units. Amazon has an amazing channel to sell through, and numerous reports cite them as the #1 outlet for both Chromecast and Roku products.
It’s at worst a good-enough product, at best it’s the most thoroughly designed Internet STB available on the market today. Unlike the first gen of Kindle Fire, which had to compete against a mature iPad, there’s nothing utterly amazing in the category to compare against.
Supporting non-Amazon content is brilliant. I think they could’ve pulled off a winner just by supporting Amazon Prime and Amazon Instant Video, but now it opens up to anyone who watches any streaming content. Plus, just as Apple TV helps sell iTunes content, I’d be shocked to discover that FireTV households don’t slowly convert into Amazon content customers.
I’ve heard some naysay (already!) about the price point, and how it should be cheaper than Apple TV to compete. Totally disagree, no reason to do this as there’s no other magic point under $99 other than hitting $49, which I don’t see a reason to do.

Other stuff I like:

Voice search seems nicely done, especially in context with the mess of any 10-foot-UI experience.
Gaming! Very smart to make this a core component of the platform – I actually hope this remains in the cheap, simple, and easy category of gaming. Not that I don’t love trying to push 17 buttons on my Xbox controller simultaneously, but I think “Big Gaming” is just too complex these days and there’s a latent opportunity for simpler stuff.
Gary Busey

My two minor (emphasis on minor) missed opportunities:

HDMI passthrough. The single good aspect of the original Logitech Google TV product was HDMI passthrough – it let the end-user connect the device to the fought-after Input One, and work well. While I know adding passthrough isn’t going to sell any more Fire TV’s, it’s one of those little things I’ve been hoping for.
Not Free With Prime. Okay, this isn’t exactly fair to complain about, but I harbored this suspicion that Amazon would offer the Fire TV free with a 2-year Prime subscription. Now they always can just start a program like this, but I think it’d be a major wow-er out of the gate.

Let me close this this: building products is hard. Building really good products is very very hard. To get a 1.0 product out of the gate in such a strong state is impressive work, and while many might call it a “me-too”, I don’t. I think this is the exact right first step for Amazon in the living room, and will keep an eye on where it goes from here.

Prediction: Amazon Fire TV is the #2 Internet STB on the market (behind Apple) within 2 years.

Also, and again, Gary Busey.

Is Amazon Building a Kindle Set-Top Box?

Posted on February 10, 2012 by Jeremy Toeman

I'm awesome at photoshop! I hope it doesn't look like this!

I’m pretty sure the headline here says it all. Let’s review the facts (it might be worth re-reading my bit on why HBO doesn’t go direct to consumers, as many of those issues are addressed here):

Amazon has a large content library. They are actively increasing it.
Amazon has a content distribution platform already capable of streaming to non-PC devices.
Amazon has a recurring billing relationship with consumers.
Amazon has a (phenomenal) marketing and distribution channel for getting devices into consumers houses.
Amazon has a strong brand in the hardware space.
Amazon has the customer service & support infrastructure needed to deal with service issues.
Amazon has the ability to build hardware and deal with supply chain issues.
The TV services industry is huge, and Amazon wants in.

Even if they don’t plan to decouple content from Amazon Prime, making a box is a very viable, and, in my opinion, a likely move. In addition to all of the above, it is a strong move versus Apple (and possibly Google and Microsoft too).

A $99 Amazon Kindle TV box would not surprise me this coming holiday season (how about a September launch, right in time for school?). But then again, I occasionally get Kindle predictions wrong.

Kinda saw this one coming, didn't ya?

Oh, and one more thing. What if they do it by acquiring Roku? Let’s review that scenario:

Roku already has something better than a minimum viable product.
Amazon could skip all the work on developing a new UI/UX (regardless of your feelings on the Roku UX, it is well more than functional).
Roku isn’t a sustainable business yet, enabling Amazon to purchase at a reasonable price.
Roku has a team with a strong background and industry knowledge relevant to the TV/Device space.
Amazon can distribute the same hardware at the same price point (which seems to fall in the not-too-profitably category), yet supplement with reliable recurring revenue.
Amazon wouldn’t have to drop the Netflix service, but could slowly chip away at it from within.
It’s cheaper than trying to buy Xbox from Microsoft (though that’d be quite the coup, plus nobody would even need to relocate)

I don’t really think Amazon *needs* to buy Roku, but it would probably let them fast-track a bunch of steps. And then it could be a $49 Kindle TV, which just sounds so… right.

If AppleTV is 1/3 of the market, who's selling the other 2/3?

Posted on December 12, 2011 by Jeremy Toeman

A few blogs are reporting about Strategy Analytics’ recent claim:

Strategy Analytics projects that the market will reach almost 12 million units globally this year, with Apple alone predicted to sell nearly four million devices.

Wow. Pretty bold claim. Let’s deconstruct it. Let’s assume it’s a correct prediction:

AppleTV will sell 4 million units, leaving ~8 million for “the rest”.

what do you mean "and the rest"?

Here are “the rest”: Roku, Western Digital, D-Link (Boxee), and… er… I don’t know, how about Logitech? Maybe a few other smaller players, but nothing you and I are buying in a Best Buy, Target, Walmart or Amazon – the only places that matter at all for moving these kinds of numbers. Yes, there are some other odds and ends in the bizarre category known as Internet Set Top Boxes, but they aren’t mustering up sufficient sales to count here.

Roku: I’ve heard all sorts of things, but lets use publicly available information: as of last January, Roku hit 1 million devices sold. I’ll assume they’ve at least doubled that in 2011, possibly as much as tripled, due to new products, more viability, and lower prices. That said, they are now up against an ever-improving AppleTV product. Even so, let’s assume they can hold pace against the world’s largest marketing machine for digital lifestyle products, and sell another 3 million units in 2012.

Western Digital: You probably haven’t heard of it, but that little gadget your buddy has for watching photos on his TV is called the WDTV Live, and they’ve sold somewhere in the 1-3 million unit range (I know that’s a big range, but it seems pretty fair based on some poking around). Not a bad showing for a company known for making hard drives. But in the presence of both Apple and Roku, it’s a pretty fair bet that they aren’t edging out of third place for future market share. I’ll again be kind with 1.5 million units sold in 2012.

From these guys, only for your TV. Perfect.

D-Link (Boxee Box): Disclosure: I was a core part of the launch teams for both Boxee and the Boxee Box by D-Link, and wish to see them extremely successful, though I am no longer professionally engaged with either company in any way. And that said, I don’t think they’re anywhere close in numbers yet, and don’t see them hitting the million unit mark any time soon (specifically in regards to unit sales, this has nothing to do with downloads, active community, or positive thoughts). Optimistic high end prediction in 2012: 750K units.

Logitech: $100 million loss. Let’s move along shall we?

Have the factory spin up about a bajillion of them, nothing will go wrong.

Everyone else: I’ll generously band them all together, and predict they maybe move 500K units.

Unknown entry by traditional consumer electronics brand: Look, anyone can make a media streamer, in fact you can make an adequate one by buying off the shelf parts and licensing open software platforms. But even the formerly mighty Sony and the young stalwart Vizio is going to have a tricky road in getting a product out in this category that doesn’t include a full end-to-end solution. And there just aren’t enough to go around. Maybe Amazon could have some kind of Kindle Fire: Home Media Edition or something, but something tells me they are still getting their feet wet in hardware and aren’t going to jump too rashly into the space (though I’ve been known to be wrong about Amazon and hardware in the past). Top guess: 250K units.

Grand Total Units Sold, Highly Optimistic Prediction Mode: 6 million units. Giving Apple TV, with 4 million sales, a 40% market share. And that’s me being *quite* optimistic, and I’d wager it’s more like a grand total of 4 for the rest. Or less. Giving Apple TV a significantly larger potential – and by the way, it’s not exactly Apple’s strongest product.

But their math was so good!

This whole story just reminds me of the time when I was reviewing an analyst report for the *exact same space* back in 2003 when we had just shipped the HP Digital Media Receiver (the first mainstream Internet Set Top Box, by the way). This was, by the way, before consumers had Flips or other simple video recording devices, digital cameras were mostly a novelty, and there was no YouTube, Netflix streaming, or pretty much anything else to watch on the darned thing. But still, the potential!

The analyst predicted hundreds of thousands of “streaming video boxes” sold in 2003. The only snag was, we were literally the only game in town, and we had predicted tens of thousands at best. When I spoke with the analysts, they said they predicted several years forward, based on consumer interest, to arrive at several million units a year. Then, they backtracked it into 2003 and, boom, hundreds of thousands. What could possibly go wrong with this kind of logic?

They sold literally dozens of them

Roku vs AppleTV smackdown

Posted on March 22, 2011 by Ron Piovesan

I don’t have cable. But I watch a lot of TV.

For my birthday I got a Roku and after tooling around with it for a couple of weeks, I cut the cable cord, much to the wife’s chagrin. Then, last Christmas, I found under the tree an AppleTV (although it is small enough it could have gone in the stocking.)

AppleTV and Roku essentially inhabit the same space. Both are around (or under) $100, both are solely media streaming devices and, unlike the mythical GoogleTV or the enigmatic Boxee, neither offer web access.

So with no methodology and no experience in product reviews, here is my official, unauthorized, David-vs-Goliath head-to-head streaming media device smackdown. In one corner, Apple, the single greatest human accomplishment in the history of the universe; the company that proves Intelligent Design is real. And in the other corner, Roku, which means “six” in Japanese.

Design

OK, this isn’t really fair because this is where Apple has always excelled. When I first got my Roku, I thought it was a pretty slick device. Black plastic, pleasing angles and the size of a turkey club sandwich (hold the mayo). Then I unwrapped the AppleTV and…. My God you’re beautiful! So small, so sleek…

I looked at my Roku, what is that hideous oversized slab of a streaming device currently attached to my TV?

Point: Apple

I won’t even go there. Apple’s is amazing… Roku’s has always sucked.

Point: Apple

Content

So this is where it gets interesting. The gateway drug for both of these is Netflix and Pandora, which are both awesome services and the reasons why the sun still shines in my world. But what’s there beyond that?

With Roku, yes there is MLB if you like baseball (I don’t) and HuluPlus if you’re able to figure out why you would want it (I can’t). Where Roku really shines is access to all the weirdo webTV shows on Koldcast, Blip.TV, Revision3 and so on. You have to really like web-only TV and fortunately, I do. The wife doesn’t so I end up watching a lot of it by myself. You can also watch Al Jazeera streaming live on Roku in the event you need more proof as to how f-ed up the world is.

With Apple TV, your channel flipping will lead you to YouTube or to all the various audio and video podcasts on iTunes. That may sound lame, but it really isn’t. There is a ton of great stuff there and most of it is pretty bite-sized. So in 3-5 minute increments you can flip from news to comedy to movie trailers… unless you land on the “This American Life” podcast, in which case you’re stuck on the couch listening to your TV for an hour.

Winner of this round? I’m going to give it to Roku. I love all the cheese that webTV has to offer. My big complaint is again the UX… it is hard to find content and then to remember which channel it is on if you want to go back to it.

Reliability
So here’s the knock-out blow… this goes to Roku. Yes, it is close, but Roku wins it. I found a better picture and fewer artifacts when streaming from Roku. Also, surprisingly, AppleTV hung up and crashed more than the Roku did. Not by a long shot, mind you, but enough to notice.

Final Verdict

If you like design, UX and more mainstream content, you’ll love AppleTV.

But this is my smackdown and I’m giving the prize to Roku. They’ve got the edge in reliability and I love the goofy webTV access… but that is just me.

My cord-cut TV set-up

Posted on December 8, 2010 by Ron Piovesan

Following my last post, I thought I would explain my personal cord-cut situation and highlight what is working for me (and what isn’t) as I try to enjoy TV without cable.

First off, the main source of video entertainment (both TV and movies) is Netflix accessed via a Roku box. Yes, we don’t get the latest content and yes, the selection is somewhat restricted, but there is enough there that keeps our interest.

I’m also a huge fan of webTV, which I access on Roku or online from my computer (my wife thinks I’m nuts, for a bunch of reasons of course, but my webTV hobby is one of them.)

The big gap here is sports. I get around this because I’m simply not a sports fan, so even if I had cable I wouldn’t watch a lot (or any) sports. (Full disclosure: I saw, and loved, the Vancouver Olympics on cable before I cut it)

I did get an MLB.com account (and jump on the bandwagon) to watch the SF Giants in the World Series. I loved the experimentation of it all and found the experience to be good.

The one sport I do enjoy (and miss dearly) is Formula 1 racing. Right now, I have no good way to follow my favorite fast cars. I read some of the updates online but that is a very sad alternative to watching a thrilling race live.

Also, HBO… That is another huge gap in my viewing pleasure that I miss. We get a lot of the shows on DVD via Netflix but it would be beyond fantastic to have a streaming solution.

As far as news and current events, I get that online, in magazines (I love magazines) and increasingly via electronic magazine purchases on my iPad.

My next moves? Well, I’ll be getting an HD antenna soon to watch over-the-air TV. This will let us watch some interesting shows and hopefully some big events, like the Oscars. I was considering Hulu Plus on Roku but it sounds like that offering isn’t as complete as it could be, so I may wait it out.

Two other disclosures:

1) I’m actually skeptical that this whole cord-cutter thing is a really huge trend. I think people will come back to cable once the economy improves and once cable companies up their PPV game. Cord-cutting will increasingly be a viable option, but it won’t have huge adoption in the mainstream.

2) For the record, I’m not a cord-cutter out of some religous hatred for cable companies. They aren’t my favorite companies in the world but they’re better than oil companies. I’m a cord-cutter for fun. I think it is fun to fiddle with gadgets and find ways to watch TV on my own terms.

Plus I’m super-cheap and I love saving the $60 a month. (If you cancel Comcast Xfinity triple play and get Internet and a landline separate, the savings is about $70… not a lot but I’ll take it.) Factor in the $10/month for Netflix and you walk away with $60 in your pocket and a chance to play with all the inputs on the back of your HDTV.

Rooting for Roku pt.II

Posted on September 28, 2010 by Ron Piovesan

OK, so the other day I made the comment that in order to compete with all the other media streaming boxes out there, Roku should look at really doubling down on more content.

Shortly thereafter, Netflix (another one of my absolute favorite companies) announces a partnership with NBC, thereby giving Roku a helping hand (and yes, other Netflix boxes as well.)

And now this, Roku skillfully lines up Hulu Plus as a content partner. Actually, from my perspective, this is a bigger win for Hulu. As of now, I had held off of getting a Hulu Plus subscription but now, seeing that it will be on my Roku, I may just sign up!

Now with Roku you get Netflix, Hulu Plus, Pandora, Amazon and a bunch of other content providers, plus 1080p output, plus USB playback all at a sub $100 price.

Sure, none of these content partnerships will be exclusive, but Roku provides them all in such a neat, easy-to-use box that is available now.

So remind me, why would you be interested in any other offering out there?

(If they come up with a new UI, I’ll be in TV heaven)

Rooting for Roku

Posted on September 23, 2010 by Ron Piovesan

Hello,

I’m a longtime fan of LiveDigitally but a first time contributor. Jeremy has been kind enough to invite me to write for the blog whenever the mood strikes and today seemed like the perfect day for my inaugural post.

Picking up on previous posts on what makes a great Google TV or Boxee app, I thought I’d jump in with some thoughts of my own on one of my favorite devices, the Roku box.

I got my Roku about four months ago and I love it, I really do. It gives me about 75% of the content I would want on my TV, which was enough to get me to “cut the cord” and cancel my cable subscription. So for the past few months, Roku has been my rocket ship to the TV universe.

I haven’t seen Roku’s latest offerings, but here are some thoughts on what I have seen and heard about their current boxes:

Roku wins universal praise for its ease and setup, but not so much fanfare for its UI; I can’t disagree. The box is dead-simple to set-up and use, which is great. But the UI is uninspired and doesn’t really encourage you to really delve in to what is on offer
Another piece of high praise is reliability, my box hardly ever flakes and we put it through the ringer. It is hard-wired into my router so I can’t vouch for the wifi capability, which appears to be improved in the new boxes launched today
Content: At the outset, Roku was essentially a Netflix box. That was great a year-or-so ago but now, everyone and their brother is a Netflix box. Roku has some nifty content like MLB, Pandora, Amazon and a few others, but they need to continue to expand with more mainstream stuff. Apple has Netflix and just scored ABC and FOX. It isn’t a huge leap forward, but it may be enough to peel off Roku users.
Developer community: Related to the content problem, I know from some developer friends that Roku isn’t the easiest platform to develop on. Obviously this is a problem as competitors, both large and small have strong developer communities. Difficult development platform=difficult to get the choice apps/content.

Some of the pet peeves that are missing from my current box have been addressed by the new ones, the biggest being previously a lack of USB. With my current XR, I don’t have USB to view my own content, which is frustrating. Happily, that has been solved with the XDS

But even as it evolves, Roku is firmly staking ground in the low-end market, which I think is a good move.

The big battle around media-streaming boxes will be around price/performance; Google TV seems to be on the highest end, with estimates that their box will be in the $200-$300 range, Boxee is next at under $200, with Apple TV and Roku coming in at the sub $100 range.

GoogleTV and Boxee promise a more active experience, with more features, web surfing etc., but also with a more complicated remote/UI. AppleTV and Roku look to be more of lean-back experience of just watching content via a simple remote/UI.

My money is on the lean-back experience, which I think is more viable for the short term. A simple box that lets people access most of the content they want will be the gateway drug to media-streaming boxes. Boxee and Google TV look/sound great on paper, but I wonder if they may be too complex too early in the lifecycle of this product segment.

Why the Mac Mini is not, at all, an Apple TV

Posted on June 16, 2010 by Jeremy Toeman

Lots of musing yesterday that the new Mac Mini is a “Apple TV in disguise.” It’s not. Here’s why:

Price
There’s a world of difference between seven hundred and one or two or even three hundred dollars. This is even more the case in the icing room as opposed to the ipad or mobile devices, where theres no precedent or parallel for the product. Further people evaluate living room stuff extremely differently, and seven hundo is like buying two xbox 360s. Too much. In fact, you can truly skip the entire rest of this piece, since this price is an utter non-starter for this discussion.
But what about HDMI?
Just because the product has hdmi doesn’t mke it a living room product. Sure front row or Boxee will have that effect, but there’s a radical difference between a purposeful and incidental use case for a device like this. Hdmi is there because it’s replaced dvi as the digital video standard, and because a huge screen does make a beautiful monitor. An interconnect does not alone a product make, otherwise I’d be comparing the Mac Mini to a router because it has an Ethernet port.
Software
Per the above comment, today it’s front row or nothing, from apple direct. Yes, users can download Boxee or plex, but to think consumers en masse will throw down seven hundred dollars for this solution is way off the mark. For that purpose, they’d just buy an apple tv, or a roku or a wdtv, etc.
But what about New Software?
Okay, it’s fairly naive of me to say the future of this scenario is the existing version of front row. Obviously they’ll rev it, and lets assume the rev is solid. Per all the above points, it doesn’t matter how much better it is. It’s not about a “better experience” when we are talking the price point.
The Apple Way
Apple makes products with high margins, mass appeal, and excellent software. A seven hundred dollar apple tv is only one of those things, and at best can get to two. Why would they make such a bizarre strategy shift here? It’s not, at all, the apple way. Far from it.
Consumers and boxes
Most consumers don’t buy extra boxes for their living rooms. They buy TVs, game consoles, and media playback devices (the cheapest of the bunch). When they do buy add ons, they tend to be under $300, such as the slingbox, roku, or wdtv. In these cases, the value add for the price point is clear. So looking at the new Mac mini from the lens of ‘what new content or services does this bring to the living room?’ the answer is practically nil.
Consumers and content
Cable tv (and by that i include satellite and other existing offerings) is, on average, pretty good. The average American has access to tons of content, both on broadcast and on demand systems, not to mention whatever they are dvring. Throw in a dvd player and a game console, and the content universe is quite outstanding. The quantity of people who truly want to throw away their existing stuff is really really small. Its not to say there isn’t room to add in more, but its not seven hundred dollars worth more in any consumers’ eyes. For a box that expensive to earn a spot in the living room, it must supplant existing content offerings in such a way that consumers clearly perceive the value. So not only is a brand new software package a requirement, but a massive increase in content, especially free content, is as well.

But What If?

If apple discontinued the apple tv line, this would have a shift, but only a minor one. In that scenario, I’d imagine the opportunity truly shines for google tv products and the Boxee box by dlink (full disclosure: I consult with dlink), as they will offer similar value propositions but at steeply discounted prices. And unlike the comparisons between the iPad and the janky tablet rivals, these other products are far more likely to show promise and value. Still doesn’t add up.

And now for something completely different.

A man talking about the same topic, in video form:

Watch live video from Jeremy Toeman on Justin.tv

What I Saw at CES 2010

Posted on January 11, 2010 by Jeremy Toeman

To be clear up front, this is neither a “Best of” nor a “What’s Hot” type of list. It’s literally the stuff I saw. Further, I purposefully avoided the most popular stuff, which you can read more about here, here and here (though they somehow missed the whole 3DTV meme, which was fairly unmissable). I unfortunately only have a few of the videos I made, as the quality was so poor, but I did get a handful of only semi-grainy Droid-cam pix. So here are some of the things I saw, in chronological order:

Skullcandy
Saw new headphones designed by DJs for DJs. New models at CES have the “Aviator” influence. I could so see Tom Cruise sporting these (pre-jumping the couch crazy Cruise that is):

Shure
My long-time favorite in-ear headphones have new updates shown at CES, coming later this year. Quick interview with them:

Optoma
I think a lot of the pico projector as concept. Optoma now has 4 different models for you to consider:

Chat with Roku’s Brian Jaquet
Met up with my old Sling Media officemate, had a fun chat about convergence, new media vs TV, 3Dtv, etc.

3DTV & 3D Gaming
If you managed to get through any CES coverage without hearing about 3DTV, well… I just don’t think it was possible. Virtually every company I saw displaying any kind of TV was also showing some type of 3D demo. Personally, I’m highly skeptical of 3D for TV, but also very bullish for 3D gaming. More to come on the topic in the next few days.

Funky Cases
The era of the black laptop briefcase is definitely at an end. I saw some very cool laptop cases, sleeves, backpacks, and more from a variety of companies. Here’s a shot of a laptop sleeve from Built that I really liked:

Additionally, there were just as many (maybe even more) cool iPhone accessories and cases (virtually none for Droid – more later). Here is Griffin’s custom iPhone case designed by Threadless (three great things that go together).

I wasn’t able to find ANY Droid or Droid Eris accessories! I will blog about this shortly, but in a nutshell, there’s simply no “made for Droid” program. Not good. But I did find a nice screen protector from BodyGuardZ:

Really, really, really, really thin TVs
There was a 7mm thick TV set from LG at CES this year (pictured below). It was just a prototype, but clearly an indicator of what we’ll see next year. A slightly under-hyped bit of CES 2010 was the prevalence of LED TVs, and while purists will complain on their picture quality, they were unquestionably sexy-thin.

And if you didn’t believe me on my word alone, Peerless (one of the major players in flat panel mounts, and the brand I personally purchased) launched wall mounts for thin TVs:

Cinq laptop monitor
I’ll blog more about these guys later this week (and I have a video interview to boot), but a company I’m on the advisory board of launched this week (disclosure: I’m on their advisory board). The product is called Cinq, it’s a portable lightweight laptop monitor. If you recall my blog posts on a dual-display laptop, this is probably the closest thing to it that’s actually coming to market.

Cool booths
While they are ostentatious in virtually every way, there were some very cool booths at CES. And since the show is held in Vegas, which is ostentatious in virtually every way, I guess it’s hard to argue against it. Ideally it would be less brightly lit and more eco-friendly (considering there is a “sustainability” pavilion at the show – more below), but I don’t think that’s coming anytime soon. My favorite booth, in terms of design/presentation, was Samsung’s “kaleidoriffic” display:

E-readers/E-books
Another category I’m really not bullish about is e-readers. I think there’s a market for the Kindle, the possibility of an Apple device, and that’s about it – and I’m being generous. This is still a niche segment for those with a lot of disposable income, and I don’t see the mainstream (aka paperback) book-buying market investing heavily in a gadget that brings them more expensive (though cheaper than hardcover) anytime soon (especially not pre-rebound economy). However, should someone figure it by devising a new model for e-book purchasing, like say, subscription-based, I think there’s a shot. One of the readers that got people pretty excited this year comes from Plastic Logic:

Green(ish) Stuff
This is a tricky one. I’ve personally woven more sustainability into my day-to-day life, and still look for ways to improve. It’s clearly “buzzy” to be green, despite the tremendous amount of greenwashing going on. So when you’re in Vegas (a city in the middle of a desert) at CES (with huge displays on all the time) and there’s a sustainability movement, is it ironic or noble? Hard to tell. But I do applaud the numerous LED technologies, batteries, recycling, and other effort to help improve the overall consumer electronics industry. My highlight was probably a chat with the folks from Greenpeace, who also issued this year’s “Guide to Greener Electronics“:

More to come…
I have a lot more to say about CES 2010, the hot (and not), the trends, my predictions, etc. Will try to get one post up per day all week with the thoughts and more.

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