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The HBR message was blunt and powerful: Retail executives must get past their technophobia quickly or they will die. If they don’t understand the power that new digital communications wield over their physical stores, those stores will rapidly become a gigantic albatross, a burdensome liability they can’t overcome.

You can find evidence of the validity of that message, and the need to move quickly, everywhere today. I read this morning that nearly one of every three Americans now owns some sort of tablet computer … just two years after the iPad was introduced to the market!

At the same time, holiday sales of digital cameras, GPS devices and MP3 players fell 5.9%. Why? You guessed it, because our smartphones now handle all those functions for us. Just like that, three amazing technological advancements have become outdated in little more than a decade.

And yet, as the HBR article so frankly states, some retail executives still have their assistants print their emails. And some admit they have never bought anything online! Whether you are a retailer or someone who provides products and services for retail environments, you can’t afford to be behind this rapidly moving curve.

Fade to this month’s NRF Show, where you would be hard-pressed to find an exhibitor that was not showing some type of technology. That’s not necessarily a major change for the show, and we’ve been seeing plenty of futuristic retail technology at EuroShop for at least the past decade.

What was different this year, at least from my perspective, were the number of exhibitors showing cutting-edge technology that was already being tested by retail partners. That means much of the technology was not somewhere out in the future—it’s real and ready to use now.

Some examples:

• There were numerous new mobile checkout options, most of which are already in use at retailers such as Brighton, C. Wonder, Guess, Eastern Mountain Sports, American Eagle Outfitters, Bloomingdales, Champs, Foot Locker, Guess, Macy’s, RadioShack, Sephora, The Container Store, Toys ‘R’ Us and others.

• Microsoft is adapting its Kinect (X-Box) motion capture system to tailor live ads directed to shoppers as they walk past window displays and items for sale. The system will be able to determine shoppers’ gender, height, weight, ethnicity, and age -- and instantly produce ads tailored and targeted directly to them.

• Intel unveiled its vision for the future of retail in partnership with adidas, Best Buy, Kraft Foods, Macy’s, Lego and Procter & Gamble, as well as research from the MIT Media Lab. Combining 3D images and touch-screen displays, Intel showed how retailers can promote brand interaction through technology to deliver an engaging and visually stunning shopping experience for consumers.