As usual, the annual Consumer Electronics Show (C.E.S.) in Las Vegas has generated tons of media coverage. And with good reason: It's not only the largest trade show in America (with only CONEXPO coming close to matching it), but it also provides a kick-off each year to what has become one of the backbones of the American economy: Consumer electronics.
Ending today, this year's C.E.S. has overshadowed pretty much all other consumer technology news this week. Ironically, though, this year's show may well be remembered more for the announcement of the retirement of Bill Gates (always one of the biggest C.E.S. draws) than for any new products or technology that were actually introduced.
According to today's New York Times, "C.E.S. 2008 offered few big announcements that got everybody buzzing. Part of the reason may be that some of the most interesting players — the cellphone makers, the camera makers and Apple — have their own trade shows in the next month or two."
In any case, this week’s show looked and felt pretty much the same as always: hundreds of big flat-screen TVs, glass display cases gleaming with shiny cellphones and a whole building filled with car tech.
In fact, it would probably take you at least half an hour to realize that you were not attending C.E.S. 2007. (One giveaway: last year, Panasonic claimed that its 103-inch plasma set was the world’s largest TV. This year, Panasonic took that honor with its 150-inch model.)
Aside from the big announcement from Mr. Gates — an announced-in-advance announcement, as it were — 2008's C.E.S. may also be best known as the year that the show started to downscale, or made its a significant effort to "go green".
From the Washington Post's "Post I.T." blog:
Last night I had a quick chat with Albert Lin, an analyst with American Technology Research and a CES veteran. This being my first time at the show, I was blown away by the number of little-known companies doing impressive things and the extravagance of the displays put on by the household names. But he said the show actually seemed a bit smaller than previous years. (Surprising: It seemed pretty darn huge to me.)
Why? Lin said the poor economy kept some companies from spending the money to get here. Some wireless firms like Verizon Wireless that have increased their presence here over the past few years have scaled back. Instead, they'll be more likely to go all out at the wireless industry's own trade show later this year.
The Post also agrees with much of the New York Times' final analysis:
Also unlike past shows, this year's didn't reveal a new must-have product. There's usually an idea that steals the show and gets a lot of media attention. This year, the biggest trend I noticed was finding ways to hook your TV up to the Internet. Sharp's pushing its Aquos Net, Panasonic has its Viera system, Comcast will let customers use their TV as a remote control for Web-based entertainment and Sling Media lets you do the same.
Even the 150-inch plasma TV from Panasonic didn't get the same level of "ooohs and aaahs" from attendees. Last year Sharp's 108-inch TV was all the rage.
Lin said he thinks there's a saturation point for products like that. "I think there comes a point where it's just too much," he said.
Of course, that might be overdoing it — or at least, taking a bit too much of the perspective of the everyday consumer. From an insider's perspective, there were still more than enough goodies to go around. Eric Benderoff, tech blogger for the Chicago Tribune, recapped his favorites last night:
Polk Audio’s I-Sonic 2 is a $499 HD radio for the home that includes a new iPod feature that will soon be in some HD radio car audio units. It’s called iTunes tagging. If you’re listening to an HD Radio broadcast, say from WXRT in Chicago, and you hear a song you like, just press the “tag” button on the radio. It will mark the song so the next time you sync your iPod and go to iTunes, you will be asked if you want to buy that song. The Polk radio is available now for $500.
The Casio Exilim EX-F1 is a 6-megapixel digital camera and an HD video recorder. It will be available in a few months and may be worth the $1,000 price tag. This puppy has what’s called a high-speed sensor that can shoot 60 still images per second and 20 using the built-in flash. I don’t think you’ll have shutter lag problems. For video, you can shoot up to 1,200 frames per second and in full-high definition.
Rodney Beasley has started calling himself a computerized caricature artist who no longer has ink or paint all over his fingers. He was using the Portege R400 tablet PC from Toshiba ($2,200) and the Alias software program from AutoDesk to draw caricatures of show attendees. His portraits look just like those you can have drawn at Navy Pier, except when he was finished Beasley sent the subject an e-mail of his fine work.
In the “I’m not sure anyone needs this but it sure is fun” department, we have the Sony Rolly, a 2gb digital music player that rolls around and dances to the beat. Yes, we’ve seen other gadgets dance but this one flaps its speakers, too. You can stream music to the Rolly through a Bluetooth device, too. It’s small, cute and the sound was surprisingly good. But Sony didn’t release pricing info, so I’m not sure if it will be worth the cost. Look for it later this year.
The Panasonic Life Wall. You may have heard that Panasonic introduced a 150-inch HDTV here, but compared to the Life Wall, that big TV is like a kitchen set. The Life Wall is what it sounds like: imagine one wall of your house as a giant video monitor that can access the Web, the TV, can put digital pictures in a virtual frame, search Google Earth and other visual goodies—all operated by the touch of your hand. It was awesome, but experimental. Still, we may see versions of this at some point.
Read today's New York Times' C.E.S. story here; the Washington Post's "Post I.T." Blog here; and Eric Benderoff's Chicago Tribune blog summary here. For a nice photo-and-video recap of the show, we recommend checking out this link from CNET.
