Made it to CES, the Consumer Electronics Show. Lots of discussion and products centered around “connectivity.” Headphones that connect you to your music, Ultrabooks that have the productivity of a laptop and the portability of a tablet connected to your phone, your car, your television, Ultrathin and Ultra high definition TV’s that connect you to content that is so life like it’s hard to believe it’s not real, computers in cars that connect you to every digital asset you can imagine.
I was able to sit in on a couple of sessions that were extremely interesting to me. The first one was with the president of Best Buy. Here are a few of the highlights (in my opinion):
- Best Buy has a ridiculous amount of data, but they aren’t doing enough with it. They are underutilizing technology that could help them parse through the data and give them good information that they can act on.
- Best Buy is betting on health care moving into the home with digital equipment that can help monitor critical vitals and be electronically shared with a nurse/doctor in real time.
- They are concerned about the environment. Recycling electronics is a big initative for them as well as energy efficient products.
- They plan to do a better job listening to employees for feedback.
- Digital marketing is a playing a bigger and bigger part of what they do.
- They plan to have more, but smaller stores (e.g. Best Buy Mobile)
- They are working with manufacturers to make packaging easier to open.
- They feel that their “accessory” sales are largely unplanned, impulse purchases.
More to come from CES…