CES 2008 - Noisy, fluff-ridden “My hard-drive is bigger than yours” exhibition

Posted by Editor || 01/07/2008 - 12:52 || 0 comments

It's day one of the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, the world's largest electronics convention. But with each passing year CES keeps getting bigger and encompassing more product types. Critics are saying it's lost focus.

Yogi Berra famously said: "Nobody goes there anymore, it's too crowded."

This year's CES will encompass 1.85 million square feet of exhibition space through which an estimated 140,000 attendees will pass.

Michael Gartenberg, Industry analyst from JupiterResearch says he's skipping the show even though he has attended for the last four years because he feels it's fast losing its relevance.

"You've got a 150-inch plasma screen and next to it some guy selling electronic toothbrushes." Said Gartenberg.

Jonathan Kaplan, Chief Executive for PureDigital Technologies said: "CES is about one-upping the competition with features - my hard drive is bigger than yours... we would get lost in the noise at CES..."

Sony and Apple are two major electronics companies that now make big announcements only at their own shows. The last major product introduction from Microsoft at CES was 2001 when the software gian introduced the original Xbox. Since then Microsoft has made its major product announcements at other trade shows.

It's hard to believe that it was at a CES back in 1970 that introduced the VCR. Back then you can imagine it was a geeks-only event.

Today the industry is so big and commercial that many feel the event has earned a low signal-to-noise ratio. We've seen other important events turn into fluff filled conferences that were toned down by organizers like the Electronic Entertainment Expo.

Is it possible we'll see limitations placed on CES in the future?

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