Thirty-two years ago, I arrived in Las Vegas for my first CES Show. Enough of the geezerism– this is a new world. The optimism here was cautious, and many people are well aware of the fact that the HD-buy peak period is about over. Add that to the down economy, and there are a few missing faces here. I know of at least two large organizations that pulled out as recently as a couple of weeks ago from the show.
That doesn’t mean that the show isn’t chock-a-block with vendors with seriously large stands. The entire showfloor at CES 2009 is just plainly jammed. The press conferences are packed like sardines (lacking the oil), despite the fact that there is a huge reshuffle going on in both print and online publishing– often downsizing or simple closings. There are a lot of unhappy press people walking around, looking for work. Some will survive. Others will move on.
That doesn’t mean that the three huge press events, CES Unveiled, Digital Experience/PEPCOM, and ShowStoppers weren’t also jammed with people– mostly ‘press’. But press doesn’t mean ink on paper any more at all. Indeed bloggers have official status and their own separate (if not smaller) dedicated CES/CEA areas to use. There are a few ‘press’ people that cross-over into the blogging realm. What’s changed is the fact that bloggers have enormous amounts of sudden dignity.
If there were initiatives that could be cited as new and fun, they’d be in the areas of personal technology, charging devices, and the advent of interesting media moshes. As CES was somewhat pre-empted by MacWorld, some of the announcements suffer the overpowering shadow of Apple, and the seeming demise of its leader, Steve Jobs. Jobs isn’t here at CES (as far as I know), yet he overshadows Steve Ballmer vastly. Jobs knows how to keep a secret and deliver, while Ballmer promised many things, including Windows 7, an update to Windows 2008 Server Editions, and the final delivery of Windows Live (which as too many people renaming it with evil phrases).
Automotive integration of varying kinds of electronics has become infinitely more sophisticated and numerous vendors displayed auto-kit. One vendor showed license plate frames with built-in cameras so that you won’t back up onto your dog, child, or that Lamborghini behind you.
Still others will have your car charge nearly anything. GPS devices abound. Some even have free subscriptions that’ll tell you about realtime traffic conditions and delays. The form factors are smaller and smaller, while the displays get better and better.
But there is no ‘iPod’, no huge competitor to the ‘iPhone’ (although the number and varieties of mobiles/cell phones seems increasingly infinite), and the only category that Apple doesn’t dominate is the latest netbook category— where no one makes any money, but we all have fun.
