It would be great if I were talking about the new stuff I’ve been seeing and hearing about at CES 2010. But I’m not. I’m just taking the latest headline from Apple’s App Store and repurposing it here to make a point. Hardware innovation is nothing compared to software innovation. Yes, there are some very, very interesting and innovative new electronics here at the show. I’m not taking anything away from them. But it continually strikes me the categorical differences between the worlds of software and hardware. I understand that one is much “harder” than the other. Atoms vs. bits, blah blah. But we can learn a lot from watching how software leverages things to make big leaps in productivity. I will be making a point over the next couple weeks of exploring those ideas here. In the close to four years I’ve been observing and working with the CE world, I can honestly say I think we have some big opportunities in 2010 to change some things fundamentally.
Someday we will see headlines like the title of this post. I’m convinced. And the world will be a much better place for it. Technical innovation is a force for good. We just need to find ways to better unleash it.