Before they let in the other attendee’s, CES likes to give the media a day or two of peeking behind the curtain and introducing us to some of the newest toys and technology’s we will see out on the main exhibit floors.  And for the third out of the past four years, the eight hundred pound guerrilla NOT at CES, dominates the event.

Apple Rules the Show

Although Apple does its own thing and does not exhibit at the Consumer Electronics Show, everyone was talking about them.  It seemed like they are here by the way everyone else is trying to be like them.  Almost every major exhibitor has a new product or line of gadgets to compete with or compliment whatever Apple and Steve jobs has just recently launched.

First it was the iPod.  That year it seemed every exhibitor had something that worked with, enhanced or was complimenting the iPod.  Companies were sticking MP3 players and iPod connectors anywhere they could on whatever product they were launching.  Including toilet paper dispensers!

At that point, you just throw up your hands and wonder “what they were thinking??”!!  It was amazing as much as it was overkill.  Thankfully many of those products never really made it to the store shelves.

Than came the iPhone.  The CES following that launch, Microsoft’s Bill Gates was retiring and making his last keynote address at the CES show.  This was big by it’s own right.  The king of the home computer, the man who had ruled over CES for over 11 years was riding off into the sunset. That should have been the big news and the focus of the event.  But it wasn’t.

For years, it was Bill Gates who had the leaders of consumer technology sitting at the edge of their seats.  Waiting and wondering what he was going to reveal at the show that was going to change their world.  He and his fiefdom Microsoft were the game changers and the one everyone else was trying to copy.  Not any more.

Even having legendary guitarist Slash make an on stage appearance to promote the latest version of Guitar Hero could not push out the big elephant NOT in the room.  Bill Gates himself had to acknowledge, with a lump in his throat,  that Apple’s iPhone had the most  impact on communications and technology that year, not Microsoft.

It was also hard for him to ignore the popularity of the iPhone since most members of the media gathered in the front rows were using their iPhone to send emails and photos back to their editors.  Totally ignoring their windows powered netbooks they left back in the hotel room !

This year, it’s the iPad.  So now everyone and their brother has decided to come out with a touch pad, tablet, flatbook or whatever fancy name you want to give to the newest flat screen portable computer.  Over 800 different models are expected to be displayed here this week.  Most of them are really bad R&D projects that should have never seen the light of day.  But they had to be built and shipped to Vegas in order to show their investors and buyers that they too are cutting edge, on top of the market and ready to handle the next wave of gadget users.

In reality, the only one that everyone was looking for and the one that has Steve Jobs losing sleep over is Android 3.0, also known as Honeycomb.  The Google powered pad that was not on display for the media event, but was to be announced on Thursday by T-Mobile (That other thorn in Apple’s backside).

Although Apple wasn’t officially at the 2011 CES, it really was there in spirit!