Google’s Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt had something to share at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) on Tuesday. He said, “The future of technology will be getting all the electronics in our lives to friend each other.” Speaking before a standing-room-only crowd at the show in Las Vegas, Schmidt emphasized on a point that devices aren’t living up to their full potential unless they’re connected. He added that devices, operating systems, applications and content make an ecosystem.
He tried to brief the crowd with a systematic example to denote that “Computing devices without a network are lonely.” He said, “You really want to be able to walk into your house and, through your Android device, have all the devices in your house adjust because you’ve walked in. The TV should know that you’ve come in and turn on to your favorite show.” He added, “Think of these as peer-to-peer devices that talk to each other… It should become seamless.”
Google’s Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt
Schmidt’s stress as future was because he was speaking at the “What’s Next in Consumer Electronics” event at the show. But there was more in store, but from a major Google partner. Tim Baxter, president of sales and operations for Samsung of America, in the smartphone and Google TV markets followed making a statement that the ecosystem is the glue that makes the different parts — devices, software, content – relevant.
He said, “The average consumer has about 30 consumer electronics devices in their home, but very few of them are connected to each other.” He further continued noting, “The expectation is to bring that together in seamless and relevant ways.”
Schmidt threw his surprise at noting a device, which was on display in the CES. The reason he noted was that Wi-Fi was being used to control the lighting in some homes, as he said, “There’s a new generation of devices being shown here at CES that hook up with your other Wi-Fi devices and away you go.” He added, “The standalone device is less helpful without its ecosystem.”
However, the Executive Chairman of Google did not forget to promote Google TV in his conversation, saying that according to him, ‘people will be spending more time in their living rooms thanks to Google TV.’
From there onwards, his focus was shifted to the Google TV, which was widely being talked on in the CES. He said, “Google TV is doing really well… We have a whole bunch of additional partners coming. It’s the only offering I know of that fully integrates the television experience and the browsing experience. We’ve argued quite strongly that people will watch more television because of Google TV. They won’t have to go anywhere else. They won’t go to another screen.”
His next point was related to the current CEO of Google, Larry Page. Schmidt said, “Larry as CEO has been much, much more focused on solving this [integration] problem than I was.” He further added to the praise, saying, “Historically, Google has been a set of, not fiefdoms, but there was a slightly different feeling to everything. The sum of Google a year ago to today — there’s a very big difference. You’ll see things much more integrated.