According to former Microsoft Windows President Steven Sinofsky, this year’s CES was about “refinement across many product lines.” This includes mobile, service integration, build quality, social integration, connected life and more. Mobile took top prize for being “front and center for every product” at CES, which goes hand-in-hand with social integration and connected life — all of which is happening via mobile devices.

Sinofsky details these topics and more in his comprehensive CES observations on the Learning By Shipping blog.

“For sure, the connection of our lives to the Internet continues as a trend,” he writes. “It is really amazing how many analog things are being digitized — door locks, luggage tags, mouth guards, and more.”

He also compares this year’s show to last year’s CES. While 3D had a significant presence in 2012, it wasn’t nearly as present this time around. The same goes for gesture-based TV. Instead of those themes, this year saw a spike in TVs controlled by apps on tablets and phones.

This year also saw a significant collection of 4K screens. “What’s not to like about 4K!” writes Sinofsky. “The biggest crowds are always around the biggest screens and this year was no exception. Seeing the 100-inch and greater 4K screens is breathtaking. It is incredible to think that it was just two years ago we were ogling at 60-inch LED 1080P screens.”

On display tech, he adds: “This year saw a significant amount of credible innovation in the area of screen technology. Flexible displays seem more realistic than past years because they were in more than one booth. OLED made a strong reappearance with an amazing 4K OLED screen. Curved screens that match what we see in movie theaters showed up. I loved the wide aspect ratio screen from LG. Touch is being integrated into large panels for use for broadcast, meeting rooms and signage.”

He touches on the evolving consumer desire for multi-screen viewing: to have the same content available on the TV screen, smartphone, tablet, etc.

“To really solve this well (respecting digital rights, getting everything on the screen) should be a low level connection like ‘wireless HDMI’ but the power, bit rate, and complexity of that has not lent itself to a solution,” he writes.

Sinofsky goes on to discuss cameras, the “phablet,” health gadgets, new PCs, wireless communications and more.