While Apple doesn't participate at CES and has ended its involvement in trade shows in general, the company naturally continues to keep tabs on what its competition is up to and CES is a prime event for new product introductions. paidContent has in fact proven Apple's interest in CES by chance, running into iOS device marketing chief Greg Joswiak on the floor at the expo.
While wandering around the Central Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center Tuesday, I bumped into Greg Joswiak, head of iOS product marketing for Apple, just outside of Sony’s booth. Joz, as he’s known within the Apple community, grinned sheepishly upon being recognized by a reporter and stopped to chat for a few minutes.
Joswiak said he was interested in how other companies present their products at events such as CES, from things like booth layout and aesthetics to which products are highlighted within a company’s booth.
Joswiak declined to enter a more in-depth discussion of his interests at the show, with paidContent noting only that he "seemed less than impressed" with Sony's booth on the expo floor.
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Apple is of course interested in what its competitors are doing, but is likely also interested in following what companies are coming up with in terms of accessories for Apple's own products. Despite Apple's lack of official presence at the show, it remains a popular venue for announcements for products of all types, including those within the Mac- and iOS-related markets.
Joswiak has appeared at several Apple keynote and media events, and has frequently played featured roles in Apple's promotional videos for the company's various iOS devices.
Update: A source has informed Reuters that Apple has over 250 employees registered for CES.
Apple Inc, famous for giving CES the cold shoulder year after year, will field a larger presence at the world's largest trade show than many observers imagine.
More than 250 employees are registered to attend the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, according to a person familiar with Apple's plans.
Top Rated Comments
Then they must not have been very good at copying.. Their phones are still stuck with small, non-HD screens! And the naming conventions too! Instead of dull and boring name like iPhone, they need something like iPhone LTE HD Extreme Ultimate Edition! :eek:
Of course Apple is keeping up with what other producers are doing.:D
Oh, miniaturization was "a thing," all right. It just wasn't these things.
No mp3 player changed the game and made the devices ubiquitous as did the iPod; no large screen format smartphone started a stampede and killed off the existing dominant genre as did the iPhone; no tablet computer got the market moving, despite multiple determined efforts over many years, as did the iPad; and no ultralight and thin notebook started the genre, in the process killing off netbooks (and to some degree even other notebooks), as did the Air.
Of course, that's not enough for anti-Apple zealots. Nothing could ever be enough for the anti-Apple fan club.
That would suggest that, rather than being at CES to figure out which gizmo from Sony or Samsung Apple was planning on copying next, that he instead was more interested in how these companies were presenting their products: Things like booth layouts, and which products they were promoting.
As someone noted earlier, Apple doesn't exist in a vacuum. And it would be foolish, in the extreme, for Apple to totally ignore what other companies are doing. If companies A; B; and C are pushing a certain feature, or using a certain type of event to promote their product to the tech press - then Apple ought to at least be aware of it.
Great writers read books written by other people. Great movie directors see other people's films. Great chefs eat other people's food. And great marketing executives go to trade shows where their employer doesn't have a booth. Its called staying in touch with reality.