Does CES Matter to the Enterprise?Does CES Matter to the Enterprise?

The big event this week has been the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, and to be honest, I haven't seen much out of the coverage of CES (TechWeb, among others, has the blowout coverage) that seemed very compelling for the enterprise.

The big event this week has been the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, and to be honest, I haven't seen much out of the coverage of CES (TechWeb, among others, has the blowout coverage) that seemed very compelling for the enterprise.We've all heard a lot about the "consumerization of IT," and this is obviously a real trend, but I think now more than ever, it's a trend that's driven less by gadgets than by networks and services. With the possible exception of the iPhone, an end user device isn't going to drive increased levels of enterprise mobility, teleworking, etc. It's the ability to do work on those end devices in places and ways you couldn't before, and that depends more on the network, the services it provides, and the applications that can run on the devices.

It also depends on consumer behaviors. Last year we ran a terrific article in the March issue of BCR from Robert Harris, a telecom consultant who'd attended CES. Robert's greatest insight in that piece was that Bluetooth headset use could drive softphone adoption. But that had less to do with how cool Bluetooth headsets were becoming, than the fact that more states were requiring hands-free cellular use while driving, with the logical conclusion that people would become more comfortable with Bluetooth headsets and find they were just as happy not to have to deal with tangly phone cords when working at their desks, especially if the Bluetooth headset were connected to a more functional IP softphone.

So if you were at CES, or even heard about something that you think is a major factor for the enterprise, I'd be interested to hear about it.