AS I WRITE this, 2012 International CES—the Las Vegas–based tech mega-showcase—is winding down. For journalists and civilians alike, CES offers a great way to monitor the state of technology. Piles of product introductions, interesting ideas, and out-of-left-field innovations indicate a healthy tech ecosystem, with plenty for consumers to be jazzed about. A lackluster CES foretells a dreary upcoming year in tech.
Fortunately, CES 2012—which put roughly 20,000 new products out on display—was chockablock with great stuff. The big themes were smart HDTVs, Ultrabooks (supermodel-thin laptops built around Intel’s latest chips), and, perhaps inevitably, Android tablets.
And that means 2012 will be the year of brainy televisions, MacBook Air look-alikes, and tablets that don’t start with a lowercase i, right?
Not so fast, pardner.
CES may be a terrific barometer for…
