In reading all the articles and great new products at the Consumer Electronics Show this week in Las Vegas, something struck me as interesting. These companies have very extensive organizations and huge resources in R&D, yet nothing seems to be truly innovative. Why is that?

I used to work in a technology company for the gaming industry, technology was even in their name. Seems a majority of these companies are engineering and sales focused, this particular company sure was. Now I am not saying that as a slight to engineers, it is just that engineers tend to be, well, engineers.

Engineers build cool stuff. They believe most people think like them, but the truth is most people don't think like an engineer. Consumers want technology that is intuitive and they want to be guided through user interfaces and hardware. Engineers want complex and open.

The products that I saw at CES were all in response to competition. It seems like a "we need that too" mentality that puts these companies in a catch-up position. Why is everyone after Apple? Why is Apple so successful?

Apple is so successful because they put themselves into the shoes of the consumer. Steve Jobs is obsessed with UI and customer interactivity. How ill a consumer use this device, what buttons will they hit, how would a normal everyday Joe think when presented with a particular screen. Engineers don't do that. Engineers are obsessed with creating something technologically amazing. The problem is most of the time it makes it very hard for the consumer to use it. Apple takes that great thought and says, how can we make this easy for 98% of the people and use cases. Sure, the 2% think it is terrible, but the 2% doesn't pay the bills.