Companies can learn a lot from watching an Apple press event. One of the things that has helped Apple rise to the heights of success since its first iPod release is its ability to put on a good “show and tell” event.
Apple product launches, are just that —launches! They aren’t demonstrations of a cool looking box that’s just a shell or a hollow mock-up of a future piece of technology. Apple loves to show a product and tell us about its availability (usually for pre-order next week) and that it will be shipping shortly thereafter. For example, the recent iPhone 6 announcementwas accompanied by the news that the phone will be available in two weeks.
Now, I don’t fully expect any of our AV companies to be able to play at that level. Apple is a behemoth in the technology field — a little larger than most of the companies we’ll be dealing with this week — but I’d really appreciate if this year, when the CEDIA EXPO show floor opens this, our lovely manufacturers can find it in their hearts to not show us any blatant vaporware! I want to see amazing products that have a firm ship date. Heck, show me products that will ship before the end of the month! If you guys can manage that, and I don’t need to waste time in booths looking at a products that were shown last year that still aren’t shipping, we’ll have a really successful show.
That’s the major thing I want to see this year at CEDIA EXPO. I want to see some real live cutting edge products. And judging from some of the press releases I’ve seen, it looks like it could happen. So I’m putting the ball in your court, manufacturers, show me the good stuff, but only if it’s shipping!
Matt D. Scott is the President of OMEGA Audio Video. Find him on the show floor or in the Twitterverse @mattdscott.
