At CES, TVs Steal the Buzz From Mobile

This year’s International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas featured portable gaming devices, smartphones sized for André the Giant, and electronic forks that let you know when you’re eating too fast. But let’s not kid ourselves: Everyone was really there to talk about televisions. There were TVs featuring higher-than-high definition, TVs in sizes that would dwarf most living rooms, even TVs that took a flat screen and curved it, Cinerama-style.

In recent years, tablets and smartphones have been the main event at CES, where technology companies introduce their products to an audience of thousands. The shift in focus to televisions is a little strange, given that the technology has been around since the Roosevelt administration. But much of the action in smartphones and tablets is about software—or the stuff Apple is up to.