Steven Sinofsky offers a “trip report” about CES 2013

Former Windows Head Steven Sinofsky updated his blog with a disturbingly detailed recounting of CES 2013.

Ironically, if you didn’t attend CES this year, this blog post actually does a great job in giving you the highlights of the event.

Titled “Learning by Sharing: Snark-free CES observations“, the blog post has a lot of interesting observations about the future and direction of technology as seen through his eyes.

Some examples:

Phablet. The made up word that was used more than it seems like it should was Phablet—a device that is bigger than a phone and smaller than a tablet. Given the size of phones this might mean 5-6.9” or so. It seems that there are two views. There’s the view that a phone is a phone and should be “less than” some size, and a tablet is a tablet which is 7-8” unless it is a big tablet (9.7”) or a PC/tablet. The other view is that consumers will be selecting from a wide variety of sizes and the industry will meet many needs. I like this second view. While I might choose a more routine phone size, too many people like larger sizes. Whether a larger screen is the one device someone uses or no is a tricky question. More than size, the pixel density is something to consider because apps won’t scale arbitrarily and how to scale at certain combinations of diagonal size and ppi have real impact on the quality of interaction with apps. I would not discount the consumer demand for a sustainable market of a variety of sizes of portable devices.

and some Sinofsky humor:

Tablet cases. There were a lot of cases for tablets. Seriously there were a lot of cases for tablets from companies big and small, new and old! It is clear that tablets have a need for more protection, keyboards, and stands. I tried to capture photos of some of the variety of cases/add-ons that add style, keyboards, and protection, but also add significant size and weight to what are otherwise sleek and light tablets. Many seem to hinder the ergonomics of the device, unfortunately. I really don’t understand why someone hasn’t built a tablet yet that has a really strong case, built in stand, and a cover that also allows typing. I said free of snark, not free of sarcasm 🙂

In typical Sinofsky fashion, the post is very detailed and there is one major difference from the Windows 8 Development Blogs.

The voice.

It’s written in a very precise, clinical and academic style. While there are colloquialisms here and there, it’s mostly technical and impersonal.

The last part of the blog that was of interest to me was part of the disclaimer:

Editorial.  The views expressed are entirely those of the author.  This is not a blog about Microsoft in the past, present, or future.  Occasional references to Microsoft reflect the author’s experiences there, but are not material or a disclosure in any way.  The scenarios and situations expressed are specifically not about Microsoft but represent general product development experiences.  As they say in movies, the people and events depicted in this blog are fictitious and any similarity to any real person or event is merely coincidental.  Please do not infer a connection to Microsoft events.  If there is a similarity intended, the author will disclose that.

Translation – this is all Steven. Don’t read more into the statements than you should.

It’s an interesting read, check it out here.