I am heading to CES in Las Vegas, NV today.  This will be my first time going.  I have always wanted to go, especially since it has been considered the Super Bowl of new technology.  The Bing homepage showed CES as a trending term, so I checked it out.  I came across an article entitled “Why We’re Not At The Biggest Tech Show In The World” and was intrigued by the following quote:

Two overlapping trends have chipped away at CES and events like it: First, software and services have become the soul of consumer technology. Hardware (seriously doesn't the word "electronics" in the conference's dusty title make your eyes instantly droop a bit?) has become increasingly commoditized into blank vessels that do little more than hold Facebook and Twitter and the App Store and Android and iOS. And the best and most interesting vessels, increasingly, are made by the very companies making the software.

So here I am off to my first CES and I find out that it is a slowly diminishing event.  That is the bad news (for me personally, never being there in its days of glory).  The good news is what I noticed in the highlighted quote above (for me personally, because I am a software developer).  Yes, it is a great time to be a software developer!  

In fact, the very reason I am heading to CES is to participate at the CEA MoDev Hackathon sponsored by the Travel Channel.  The hackathon is all about writing apps.  Apps are far more relevant in this technology world than the gadgets that host them.  I know this to be true.  I am aware of so many individuals that refused switching to superior hardware with better features because that gadget did not have a certain app in its store. 

So I am a little discouraged my first CES is not a representation of what it use to be.  But I am not too disappointed.  I mean, I might be finding my next TV there…

AP Photo Julie Jacobson