This year’s CES felt very different from years past in the Motorola booth. There were no celebrities, no video phones, no candy-colored modems; there was significantly less bling. For all that, the mood was upbeat, and my impression was actually one of greater sophistication. This is a Motorola blog, so take my opinions with that in mind, but the change was noticeable.
The mobile side of the house was dominated by demonstrations of the Blur interface, not just handsets. And the Home and Networks Mobility demos were housed as much or more in private back rooms as out on the show floor. Publicly Motorola showed off more 3D TV updates (including fantastically layered 3D graphics), and Blur-based social applications on the set-top. Behind the scenes, Motorola ran meeting, after meeting, after meeting with customers, association representatives, and analysts. I got my own back-room walk-through too, but of course I’m sworn to secrecy. All I can say is that if what I saw is a sign of things to come, there are a lot of changes in store.
Across CES, the trend seemed to be a move toward more private meetings than public demonstrations. That’s not to say there wasn’t still a lot of flash on the show floor, but from what I saw, a lot was getting done behind closed doors. Take PowerMat as an example. Right next to the Motorola booth, the PowerMat display front was mobbed, but most of the time there were no actual products to be seen. Company representatives led select press and individuals with appointments back to a private suite for discussion and demos. It was a very productive approach.
As you can see from the photo above, Dan Moloney, president of the Home and Networks Mobility business, was present in the Motorola booth and seemed to be enjoying himself. Good meetings, I was told. That would make me smile at CES too.
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