There is nothing like the excess of Las Vegas to focus the mind.  And, as the consumer electronics industry gathers in the Nevada desert this week, it is only fitting that a product no one really knows exists is on the minds of  most.

The so far mythical Apple tablet has turned a lot of e-ink and burned even more cycles among those who hope the Cupertino company can again bring some clarity to a market segment in chaos.  As consumers and business users continue to seek a single device that can satisfy the need to text, talk, watch, play, create, edit, find and report, the task is getting harder even as the stakes get higher.

In a report in the Financial Times, the countervailing forces of hope and hype are on display with regard to the introduction of smartbooks — a computing device for people who “don’t necessarily need the full PC functionality of a laptop or netbook all the time, but they do desire a device that can give them a rich web and media experience on the go with a stylish and cool design…”

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The landing of the Android-driven smart phone has fomented a frenzy of  “it will” and “it won’t” kill the iPhone commentary.  This persistent portrayal of the market as a zero-sum game distracts from the real benefit of the competition for share.  Computing devices are going to emulate more of our behavior.

The disconnect between they way computers have worked and the way we live was best captured in a snarky back-and-forth between Microsoft and General Motors about 10 years ago.  Bill Gates suggested that if the car company had kept up with technology, its vehicles would be more efficient and less costly.  The response from GM was along these lines:  yeah, but would you want to crash a couple times a day?

Both companies are a bit different today but GM has come further than Microsoft.  It is hard to imagine cars with more computing power and software applications than have today and as for Microsoft, well, let’s hope 7 really is a lucky number.  But now that devices have come untethered, it is the smart phone, e-book reader, tablet that are setting the pace for human-style computing.

Credit Motorola and its clam-shell cell phone, kudos to Palm and its hand-sized design and add a shout-out to companies like NCR who took touch screens from science fiction and added them to automatic teller machines.  The career achievement award for making computers more like us, though, has to go to Apple.  Which brings us to the iPhone.

Much like the ATM changed an industry and the way we interact with it, the iPhone is making ease-of-use and value — two relatively new concepts in computing — essential to success.  The new black.  Looked at in this way — from our perspective — the competition won’t be based so much on the number of applications, but the way the apps work, not so much on the power of the network, but if the connection is reliable.

There is early evidence of success, but what comes next will be the real test of how competition can shape a market to look more like the customers is says it serves.

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Apple’s plans for bringing iTunes to the Web was big news, but it was a simple, apositive phrase, late in the story in the Wall Street Journal, that carried greater import.   In talking about how Apple will give users access to their accounts via any web browser, the Journal said, “That approach, known in technology circles as cloud computing, could…”

In technology circles? It is easy to think that the ubiquity of technology — smart phones, GPS devices, payment fobs, Fast Passes and the rest — has not only made it a part of our lives, but also a part of our vernacular.  Not so.  Companies promoting products and services to the market need to heard and understood.

The burden is even greater for technologies that don’t make an obvious impression.  The iPhone is a complex and powerful computer, but it is so darn cute and easy to use.  That’s easy to get and accrues to Apple’s benefit.  Nearly 20 years ago, computer chip maker Intel was able to break out of the box with its significant “Intel inside” branding and advertising campaign.

But multi-million-dollar ad campaigns don’t have the same effect today and customer skepticism undercuts “because I said so.”  So what is a technology company to do?

For one, they should use the language of the market they seek to serve and not fall back on the jargon of their own.     A column by a CEO from a deep technology company in Fortune makes the point.

When Neustar’s Jeff Ganek links his company’s deep technology of network hub directory services to edge services like Web browsing, texting and keeping the same phone number when you leave AT&T for Verizon in a fit of pique, he goes a long way in speaking the market’s language.

It is a good model for others.

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