I arrived early to CES to help support our experiences. With that, I got an exhibitors pass which gave me pre-show access.

 

It only took a few hours to update things and make sure everything was setup. So, I had some time to kill. I thought I could get some exercise in by taking a walk through the hall, It was a lot of exercise. The Las Vegas Convention Center is huge and going through all 3 halls was a trek. Not to mention trying to avoid all of the construction cranes and crates.

 

From my walk-about, I gleaned a few key nuggets. Not much detail yet, but I already know some of the big things.

 

OEMs, large and small; expensive and cheap, are producing products running Android. iOS may be cool and chic, but any app developer not hitting Android is really missing out. For me, this means that we have to get our apps out on Android quicker and Microsoft will be in a good position to capture some of this market in the next few years. Microsoft should be in prime position to capture significant market share from those already *not* running iOS and want a cooler interface. Plus, if the promise of Windows 8 comes true, your personal PC and all it’s power goes with you cloud or not. Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0), is cool and all but it’s still Android. If you don’t control the experience from top to bottom, you run the risk of someone putting your cool OS inside an underpowered chassis which creates a very poor brand experience.

 

Is it a tab? Is it a phone? Not really sure, but it’s all over central hall and I want one. I’m currently running a Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus. While it’s cool and fits nicely in that zone between tablet and phone, it’s still not a one-handed device. Galaxy Note, with it’s 5.3″ screen is a one-handed device and I’m gonna jump on that.

 

Microsoft’s booth is all about Windows Phone and Kinect.
They’re still putting a lot of stuff out so I couldn’t get any more details. I’ll check back tommorrow.

 

TVs TVs TVs.
There are TVs all over the place. Smart TVs, 3D TVs, Thin TVs, Super-szied TVs. Of course, some (if not most) of the Smart TVs are running Android from what I could tell. More details I’m sure will emerge during the show. What this means to me is that all of the IPTV experiences we’ve been talking about are looking more and more real. A Smart TV running some kind of ARM processor can do a lot. A lot more than just streaming video.

 

Playoffs.
It seemed like every single TV in the place was showing the Pittsburgh/Denver game and there were always a gaggle of people taking a break to watch. It’s like going to Best Buy in a large warehouse. Kind of amusing really.

 

So that’s Day -1. There’s a lot more stuff still going up. This is just stuff I glanced at from walking around the construction. I can’t wait to walk the floor when it’s all ready.