The Digital Skeptic: What's Dumb at CES 2013

LAS VEGAS (TheStreet) -- If what's going down up here at this year's International Consumer Electronics Show is any indication, foolishness won't be taking a holiday in 2013.

Maybe it's the dry desert air, the go-nowhere economy or, for the first time I can recall, the fact that Apple (AAPL) is not sucking the oxygen out of this event with a looming product announcement, but confusion definitely reigns here in the high Mojave.

Sure, the Toshibas, HPs (HPQ) and Dells (DELL) of the world are working the room hard making the case for Windows 8 PCs. And 3-D printing is also working the room: Firms such as Sculpteo, MakerBot, Stratasys and 3D Systems are all showing advancements in spraying thin layers of plastic to make stuff.

And there are, in fact, some great products.

Take my 48-hour demo with Sennheiser's $1,000 IE 800 In-ear headphones. Axel Grell, the audio genius behind these headsets, told me he that spent four years creating a brand-new transducer that solves most earbud issues, then insisted the units be built by hand outside of Hanover, Germany, from the ceramics dental surgeons use. These units set the bar for excellence at CES 2013.

But all of this masks some simply ridiculous blunders.

Apple not showing up
I am going to tell you the secret of CES. Brand giant Apple may not show up to the show, but that does not mean they ignore it. Steve Jobs was always very careful to tease a major product announcement over CES to distract from the event.

Not this year.

Not one of the literally dozens of analysts, product managers, other journalists and buyers I have spoken here weren't startled by how much of a non-factor Apple is at this year's CES.

"Apple will continue to amaze, certainly," Carrie Cowan, a product marketing manager for Toshiba, explained to me while doing an in-depth product demo on the 64th floor of THEhotel at Mandalay Bay. " But I am not getting the level of questions I used to get about how my products compete with theirs."

1 2 Next › Last »