| Hello, Ian here. At this time of year, people like me typically go through the agony of deciding what piece of technology they absolutely must have under the thin pretext of a holiday gift. It's the annual license to splurge on stuff for the sake of it. But this year, my wish list is a blank page. My iPhone is passing the paid-off, two year mark, but the latest phones from Apple Inc. don't feel demonstrably better than what I have, and according to smartphone shipment data, most of the world agrees with me. The new Android alternatives to the iPhone are similarly incremental. Perhaps I'd get a new phone if screens folded rather than snapped? The same is true elsewhere. Think of the desktop computer, digital camera, e-book reader, pair of headphones, laptop, smart speaker, smart television, smartwatch, streaming box, tablet or set of wireless earbuds. If you've purchased any of those over the last two years (I bought at least one of each), chances are the electronics world isn't currently offering you a compelling reason to upgrade. The latest and greatest are mostly in the "nice to have" category rather than objects of desire. One of the hottest gadgets of the 2019 holiday season first came out three years ago. The latest AirPods aren't dramatically different from the original, and yet, wireless headphones from Apple fueled big growth in wearable electronics this year. Shipments of wearables nearly doubled in the third quarter, according to market research from IDC published Monday. One caveat is the shift away from wires is, to an extent, being fueled by smartphone makers increasingly excluding headphone jacks from their new models, IDC said. Is that really innovation? It's dark days for early adopters but couldn't be a better time for bargain hunters. Retailers and technology companies are increasingly turning to discounts to push their gadgets this season, and it's working. Shoppers came out in force over the recent Black Friday-Cyber Monday holiday shopping weekend in the U.S., or at least made it as far as their keyboards. Americans spent an additional 16% over the same period in 2018, according to the National Retail Federation. Online shoppers outnumbered in-store visitors by 18 million. Electronics was the third-most popular product category, behind clothes and toys. In the case of this grumpy technology addict, the failure to lure me out of the house or to a shopping website doesn't mean innovation is over. Such lulls happen. As soon as next year, we should see fifth-generation mobile phone networks pop up in some countries, and a compatible 5G iPhone to go along with them. Smart glasses could finally become useful, instead of objects of ridicule. And a new generation of game consoles from Microsoft Corp. and Sony Corp. is on the way in 2020. It's also hard to blame companies for getting perhaps a bit distracted this year. In 2019, Washington took a close interest in the power of the companies behind the gadgets. Congressional hearings took the place of product "keynote" events. Government probes can have a paralyzing effect on companies. Witness what happened to Microsoft in the late 90s and 2000s. It complied with restrictions set by the Justice Department, and competition entered the market. Now practically everyone uses Google Chrome. But regulation is far from a death sentence. Microsoft spent the last decade evolving, moving to the cloud, making Windows stable and reinvigorating PCs with some slick designs. Now it's nearly the most valuable public company on earth again, give or take $31 billion. Right now, I'm testing out one of Microsoft's new Surface Pro X laptops. It's always connected to the internet and can go days between charges. It's really nice. Hmm, perhaps I do need some new technology after all. —Ian King | 
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