APPNATION VI @ CES and AT&T Developers Conference See Record Crowds as Developers Look to New Technologies, IoT and Connected Devices for 2015

I arrived in Vegas just in time Sunday afternoon to catch the tail end of the AT&T Developer Hackathon where over $100k in prizes were given away. I caught the AT&T Developer Conference opening keynote at the Palms and then swung over to the Cosmopolitan for APPNATION VI @ CES.

By the time I got to APPNATION the event was already in full swing. By noon it was a packed house as there was standing room only for the various sessions. And the exhibitor booths at the expo hall were busy as well. I have no official numbers, but it had be record attendance for both events.

One of the things that stood out to me at these events is the tremendous impact and long tail that IoT and connected technology are going to have for the app development community. Over half of the press invitations we have received are to attend CES booths that have something to do with connected devices - from smart phones to kitchen appliances (one new connected coffeemaker lets you communicate with the coffee bean grower, go figure) and everything in between.

How, when and where the average app developer is going to be impacted from the IoT push is still an unknown. Probably because there is no such thing as the average app developer. It will be interesting to see how it plays out. Needless to say, I think 2015 is going to be the year of IoT.