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CES 2004 January 13, 2004 |
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Summary: With the continuing decline of Comdex, CES was hailed this year as a savior for the computer industry, a place to show off computer wares and goods. On the surface, CES sounds great - a public show with 100,000 tech-savvy, gadget-hungry attendees. And yet, even with all the rhetoric about the convergence of the PC and consumer electronics, CES still misses the mark for the PC industry. - Dan digs past all the hype and explains why.
 CES 2004 | Page:: ( 1 / 3 ) |
Question: Why CES, why now, and what does this mean for the future of Comdex?
The last 12 months have seen a strange set of circumstances that have had a profound affect on international computer trade shows. First we had Computex postponed due to the very scary outbreak of SARS. Although Computex went off without a hitch three months later, many computer manufacturers were left feeling unfulfilled by the attendance even though the show was opened to the public earlier than usual (public access is usually reserved for the last day of the show). Just 2 short months later, Comdex launched in Las Vegas and for the third year in a row the attendance was far less than exhilarating. Add to this mix another year of dismal computer sales and you have lots of manufacturers wondering where to promote their new products.
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Computer sales have been in the doldrums for over 3 years. With the exception of a few manufacturers, this has had a huge impact on the bottom line of most companies that sell computer hardware. As the PC industry continues to mature and the competition between rivals becomes more intense, all the players are being forced to look for new and better ways to sell their products. Like many other industries, those in the PC arena use trade shows to showcase their new products in an effort to raise the maximum attention from the press and insiders.
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The US represents one of, if not the largest computer marketplace in the world. With the popularity of Comdex waning, many in the industry started looking to CES as an alternative location to showcase their latest products to the US market. This interest grew when CES announced they had partnered with CyberXGaming to host one of the largest gaming events in US history, not to mention the inevitable and ever hyped convergence of the PC and consumer electronics.
So what really happened this year at CES, and what does the future hold for CES stealing what remains of Comdex’s thunder?
From my perspective, the event was a dud. Sure there were 100,000+ people in attendance. Sure there was a big (and I use this word lightly) computer gaming tournament. The bottom line is that CES only admits those in the consumer electronics trade and consumer electronics are inherently different than PC’s. There are lots of things you can do on a PC that are exactly the same as you can do on a piece of dedicated hardware, but most consumers wouldn’t have the first clue how to do them. Let’s face it; most consumer electronics are designed for Joe consumer and therefore must be idiot proof.
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| PCs and CES | Page:: ( 2 / 3 ) |
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There are some excellent examples of hardware that come close to hitting the mark, like ATI’s AIW cards, but the biggest hurdle has to be the basic operating system. I often wonder if Windows has become easier to use over the last 10 years because it has improved, or because I have spent the better part of the last 10 years slogging through its discrepancies. Windows XP may be a pretty good OS, but it’s at least 5 generations away from nearing the simplicity of my DVD player, my amplifier, or the record feature of my VCR.
CES vs. Comdex
Nowhere at CES was there a central location to see what the PC community of manufacturers had to offer. Most in the PC business were in hotel suites dispersed among the myriad of hotels along the 5-mile stretch of the Vegas Strip. For those that did have booths, their message seemed to get lost in the plethora of flat panel displays and portable mp3 players. What about CyberXGaming? Wasn’t this going to help unite the power hungry PC user with the consumer electronics wiz bang products? Apparently the answer is no. You can blame this on the low attendance, or the fact that the venue was 10 minutes from the Las Vegas convention center by cab, or the fact that the event was poorly organized and wrought with technical errors. But the reality is that hardcore gamers didn’t attend CES this year to see the latest in consumer electronics, and the 100,000+ consumer electonicticians did not come to see hardcore gamers compete in CS. There was almost zero convergence between these two groups, and this most certainly must have caused some level of discomfort for the sponsors who funded the $600,000 in cash and prizes.
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So where do we go from here? I suspect that most PC manufacturers will be still be debating where to promote their products in the US this time next year. Their choices are few, and their need for a good US venue is critical to their business success. Having said this, it’s inevitable that the majority will still attend Comdex in 04, hoping for some miraculous resurrection of its previous success. A select few may also attend CES in 05. But the convergence between the PC and consumer electronics is still a long way away.
SIDEBAR: Come join our community on the official FiringSquad forums!
| Photo Gallery | Page:: ( 3 / 3 ) |