CES 2012: The End of Planned Obsolescence ~ Pare News

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This year's Consumer Electronics Show was just as large and incomprehensible as ever; thousands of vendors, more than 100,000 attendees (140K by one estimate), acres of show floor to walk and dozens upon dozens of behind-closed door meetings. That was CES. Yet, that was not the story of CES 2012. It was, as I see it, was a collection of evolutionary product changes and, perhaps, the beginning of the end of planned obsolescence.

Webster's defines Planned Obsolescence as “a method of stimulating consumer demand by designing products that wear out or become outmoded after limited use.” It is a strategy that has worked across many industries for decades, but in a persistently down economy, the prospect of paying to replace a just-past warranty but now dead product is an anathema. That reality has forced some companies to think different, and the proof was at CES.

Few Surprises

Most of what I predicted prior to CES 2012 came true. Super thin OLED HDTVs were at more than one booth (LG and Samsung). I saw spectacular LG passive 3D technology but no one really cared much about it. Gesture-based control for smart TVs was probably the biggest innovation. Samsung introduced it for its line of smart sets, but I found the Samsung's new "Evolution Kit" far more intriguing. During the Samsung keynote, executives described it as a way to make your TV smarter every year.

This is more than just a slogan; Samsung smart TVs will actually feature an upgrade slot, making them, in Samsung's words "future proof".

It's the closest thing to heresy I've ever heard at a CES press conference: Buy these new products and then keep them in definitely, upgrading only the software with, essentially, bios updates. What happened to the idea that consumers would upgrade their CE products ever few years whether they wanted to or not? Clearly Samsung has discovered that consumers (who once kept the same TVs for two decades or more) are not so keen on dealing with HDTVs that expire or seem wildly outmoded after just a few years of use.

I heard this same sentiment from a very different corner of the show: the automotive space. Cars have long been an important part of CES, but they were never really considered consumer electronics devices. Instead, they've always served as containers for CE add-ons like awesome speakers and satellite radio. This started to change a few years ago when cars became a platform for connectivity, data access and began to offer their own level of intelligence.

Now, however, at least one manufacturer is thinking about making its vehicles "upgradeable." During a dinner with Ford CEO Alan Mulally and his company lieutenants, executives explained that Ford has traditionally managed auto-enhancements through model year updates and built those changes into the vehicle production line. Now Ford wants to make some updates backwards compatible an even allow customers to access the software updates via the Ford website and install it themselves. Ford execs said that this "is a very different way of managing customer relationships."

Throughout the show, I saw examples of companies that were far more interested in creating ecosystems than pushing new gadgets into the home. As Tech Analyst Pete Pachal noted, Panasonic’s press conference barely showed TVs and focused, instead, on the Olympics in 3D and social media integration.

Microsoft's final CES keynote followed a busy press day where virtually every announcement CEO Steve Ballmer made was delivered earlier by another partner. Still, Microsoft's updates were just as incremental as everyone else's. They are squeezing, for instance, as much value as they can out of the popular Kinect motion- and voice-control interface (there were lots of companies at CES that also found ways to leverage this and related technologies).

More for Less

Power and finding ways to extend it was a trend in evidence at nearly every turn. I saw solar panels on everything from speakers to backpacks and Kindle covers. Most people acknowledge that with all of our battery-powered, rechargeable gadgets and electric cars (including a new one from Ford), extending battery life is going to be job Number One. Water-based fuel-cell technology made an appearance at the show, though many remain skeptical that it can ever make it to the retail market. However, sometimes you get more battery life simply by making more battery.

I found, for example, the new Motorola Droid Razr Max fascinating. This 4G smartphone is virtually identical to the one Motorola unveiled last fall, but with one very important difference: it offers you up to 18 hours of continuous talk time or 15 hours continuous movie viewing on a single charge. How did Motorola do it? They simply added a slab of battery to the back of the phone. Yes, that makes it a tad thicker than the original Razr, but Motorola clearly realized that consumers are willing to make certain tradeoffs.

There were other cool innovations, like Lenovo's Yoga laptop that folds all the way back into a tablet, but this is largely a hinge breakthrough (yes, it's patented). I saw lots of thinner and lighter tablets–some even running Ice Cream Sandwich—but none of them mark a true pivot it the tablet space.

CES 2012 simply did not have that single signature product. There were many memorable gadgets (Android Watch, an auto-folding Stroller, AR.Drone 2.0, WowWee Augmented Reality Planes, water-proof gadgets), but no one awesome buzz-worthy product that we'll be talking about until Apple unveils the iPad 3.

That's disappointing, but CES does have the ability to set the tone for the year head. We now know we'll see many more tablets, a barrage of ultrabooks, know-it-all…er..smart TVs, the ability to control everything via gestures and, maybe, looks, and a pitched battle for control of connected lives, one that spans your primary living room interface, your car, your phone and your appliances. We also know that consumer electronics manufacturers are shifting their approach to consumers. Focusing more on deeply integrated offerings, long-term relationships and, perhaps, un-planning obsolescence.

Tell us about some of your favorite products and moments from CES 2012 in the comments area below.

Bonus: Top 10 in Tech CES Edition

1. Samsung 55-inch OLED HDTV

There were a couple of examples of the latest in OLED HDTV technology at CES 2012, and this one was from Samsung. It's a 55-inch display that looks simply spectacular, with rich, deep blacks, supersaturated color, extra sharp picture and it's thinner than my little finger.

Look for this one to be available before the end of the year, at an as-yet-undisclosed price, probably around $8,000. Because these screens are relatively easy to manufacture, expect those prices to drop precipitously within the next year or two.