Over the past few weeks, I’ve been receiving early briefings for CES 2026, which will be held in Las Vegas in early January.
The good news is that there will be a bigger presence of PCs (Windows laptops, desktops, etc.) this year, with some truly exciting innovations from all the major companies. I can’t wait to share some of that information once the embargoes lift — despite the criticism Windows gets these days, Microsoft’s partners are working hard and creating some outstanding creations.
The bad news is, I can’t help but notice how different the tech space is in 2025 compared to 2015. More specifically, the era of “fans” seems to be over, replaced with disappointment, cynicism, and just fatigue over the non-stop onslaught of services, not to mention the dreaded AI buzzword.
Don’t get me wrong, tech fans had a negative side to it, too, but the reason fans existed is that they were passionate about the product, resulting in them acting more like ambassadors for the product than consumers.
Of course, Windows Phone was the pinnacle of this for Microsoft. This very site was founded nearly 20 years ago (2007), covering Windows Mobile, where a very dedicated audience arose. But when that ended, we still at least had Panos Panay and that devilishly crazy Surface team, which was continuously surprising us. Yeah, some of those ended in failures, e.g., Surface Book, Surface Duo, and Surface Neo, but if anything, it was because the device concept was too ahead of its time.
(Seriously, imagine a Samsung Z Trifold, but running a variant of Windows with Continuum in 2026? That was the dream, baby!)
But all that is gone, now, too, even though Surface Pro 11 and Surface Laptop 7 are without question the best they have ever been.
And while Dona Sarkar sometimes received the harshest criticism from fans, the Windows Insider program was, dare I say, genuinely fun during the development of Windows 10 and Windows 10 Mobile (2016 to 2019)! That’s all gone, too.
These days, the unthinkable has happened: Xbox is now getting wobbly legs. Between Game Pass price increases and the lackluster sales of Xbox consoles, I’ve never seen Xbox fans seem so despondent. And if that is getting you down, the constant drumbeat of studio closures and game cancellations will.
This isn’t just a Microsoft problem, either. No one thinks Google or Android is “cool” anymore (wait, did they ever?). The only thing interesting about Google today is what Samsung is doing with its foldable phones and Galaxy series. But the AI stuff? Besides doing the same nonsense as Microsoft, it’s also destroying the entire online publishing business through its constant changes in search and Google Discover, often giving favor to YouTube, a brand that it owns. Crazy that!
Now that tech is used to track us, distract us, divide us, and drain our wallets.
Even Apple lost its flair with its big whiff on Vision Pro, costing millions. Sure, it still makes great hardware, but everyone is bored with them. Maybe they’ll recapture some of that magic when it inevitably copies Samsung with its first foldable expected in 2026. But I’m not seeing a lot of Apple fans these days, either.
I’d write a few paragraphs about Amazon, but did that company ever have fans? Everyone uses it out of reflex, but its consumer line of hardware is just sad. I was even tempted to look at the new Kindle Scribe Colorsoft, and these goofs could not only not ship it for Black Friday, but it’s still not shipping until after Christmas despite its original December 10th release date.
A lot of this stems from my own history on this site, and I remember how tech, while competitive, was fun. These sites were written by geeks for geeks, who just loved the potential of technology. Now that tech is used to track us, distract us, divide us, and drain our wallets. And everything in publishing is about big business (don't get me started on social media).
And yet, ironically, there is some amazing stuff happening. Qualcomm is one of the most interesting things to happen to the Windows world since NVIDIA’s RTX cards became the go-to tool for gamers. Dell, HP, and Lenovo are also all doing some exciting work (though HP needs to return its Spectre series and designs ASAP). And handheld gaming PCs are on the cusp of being amazing.
I believe this all boils down to a sad fact for 2026: We’re no longer customers, just consumers, and most tech companies only aim to extract as much profit from us as possible.
At some point, the problem stops being “innovation cycles” and starts being the simple truth: people are tired. Tired of recycled ideas, tired of corporate spin, tired of being told the future is exciting when it feels increasingly hollow.
Big Tech isn’t losing momentum by accident — it’s losing momentum because it stopped earning enthusiasm.
But maybe I’m just bitter and stuck in nostalgia, so let me know in comments and our poll what you think. Was tech more fun 10 years ago? Is the era of tech fans really over (and is that even a bad thing)?
