Has CES Lost Its Star Appeal? 100
An opinion piece by tech writer David Gilbert looks at how CES might be losing some of its luster. "It's hard to know who the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) really benefits. A common perception is that CES is the place where all the major technology companies launch their latest and greatest gadgets. But this is simply not the case. Let's look at 2012 as an example. Last year's most talked about consumer technology products (in no particular order) were: the iPhone 5, iPad 3, iPad mini, Microsoft Surface, Samsung Galaxy S3, Google Nexus 7, Amazon Kindle Fire HD and the Wii U. How many were launched at CES 2012? None."
Um, good? (Score:5, Insightful)
The journo in the article is saying that CES is failing because companies no longer use it to launch their latest iteration of gadget. Instead, it's being used to showcase their pie-in-the-sky aspirations. It's becoming less a PR mouthpiece, and more a tech demo for cool, but not production-ready, tech.
In my opinion, that can only be a good thing.
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Notably absent is M$. But hey, why connect with consumers and compete in an open market when you can just legislate?
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Yes, Microsoft is absent this year, but Apple hasn't been there for ages, so any complaints about Microsoft apply to Apple many times over.
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Don't move, leave slowly. Nobody will get hurt.
Consumers vs Techs (Score:1)
I'm not sure that's so wise for a consumer show? If it was a tech enthusiast show maybe. I wouldn't bring my unfinished goods to market... don't keep consumers waiting or else!
Re:Consumers vs Techs (Score:5, Insightful)
Thing is, it wasn't a consumer show. It was a journalist show. There's no such thing as a consumer show anyway - if consumers were excited enough about the goods in question, they'd be tech enthusiasts by definition.
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consumer modifies electronics... they are consumer electronics... it isn't a *consumer* electronics show, it is a *consumer electronics* show
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Exactly. It's stuff that's going to show up to buy later tihs year, hopefully. Or at least supposed to - CES does have a habit of showing off really cool stuff that ends up not getting released in the end.
Though, I think "consumer electronics" has gotten very broad, given there's a whole bunch of non-consumer electronics out there as well. Stuff like RED cameras (a yea
Re:Um, good? (Score:5, Insightful)
CES has been drowning for awhile, now. It's too soon after the new year for people to have any energy and really prepare. It's filled with crap that is too far in the future to be relevant, but too close to today to be interesting (for example, 4k televisions -- which are too expensive and far away from being even remotely affordable but too near in our future to be pie-in-the-sky-fantasy-interesting). It's filled with wireless speakers, soundbars, ipad covers, iphone attachments, shitty phones, next year's shitty ultrabooks and tablets that will be considered a failure the year after *that*, and lots of shitty little gimmicks. It's basically like being subscribed to the Engadget website's RSS feed, but in meats-space. Ick.
I feel bad for people who have to attend CES to report on it, these days. Especially those doing it for TV and net shows, where they have to produce a lot of content in quick succession. Dealing with the crowds and Vegas itself and the endless halls of schlocky garbage for what amounts to very little that really gets your tech-buzz or day-dreaming purring seems like an absolutely miserable task.
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Snookie Fones (Score:3)
But travelling halfway around the world to see someone from Jersey Shore launch a pair of headphones, just doesn't seem to be cut it anymore.
Yeah, that's reason enough for me to run for the hills.
Horrible article - auto-plays video (Score:5, Insightful)
An article that automatically plays two videos, one with full audio, upon being loaded? Such actions should preclude such articles from being posted.
Won't somebody please think of the bandwidth?!
Re:Horrible article - auto-plays video (Score:5, Funny)
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I thought pretty much every major browser had a plugin that prevents autoplay of videos available. Hell I think I have about three installed in firefox since different people think it's obnoxious enough that they all include it as a feature.
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Wow, somebody on slashdot has yet to install flashblock? I think that says more about you than it does about their site =)
Tech is commodified now (Score:5, Insightful)
Same with technology. It's a faceless world-wide empire of giant companies, no one cares except the people directly involved in creating the things. We just shop online, say "ohh shiny" and buy whatever.
Stuff is also a lot cheaper so there's less risk in buying things on sight alone. Back when an empty motherboard cost thousands of dollars, it made sense to spend time and money to check things out in person. Not anymore.
The only thing that can change that equation is booth babes.
Where is Ceren Ercen these days anyhow?
Re:Tech is commodified now (Score:4, Informative)
She's right here:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/cerenercen [linkedin.com] :)
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Just to be clear, I'd do her even if she wasn't an infraops chickee-babe! <EG>
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Specialties
high availability
You may be in luck - or not.
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In a way it might be comparable to a gun show though. People of all stripes go to gun shows, except of course pacifists. Firearms are pretty well commoditized. Like technology, there are so many variations of them and even a lot of engineering that goes into them. Not only that but there's a lot of survival and outdoors gear, military surplus, knives of all kinds, and more.
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Gun Shows exist for a very different purpose. They are designed to support the private exchange of firearms between individuals... CES does not exist for that (or anything like that) at all.
Waiting around for CES... (Score:1)
...to launch a product is suicide.
Large companies don't use CES that way.... (Score:2, Informative)
They have there own conferences and that is where they announce there latest and greatest product. Given that these companies are the ones with the advertising dollars it is no wonder CES isn't where the most talked about product launches are announced/demonstrated. That doesn't mean CES doesn't have cool stuff. It just means it is smaller companies and/or not leading products from the largest companies that end up at CES.
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I would say what's killing CES is what happened last year. A kajillion companies launched/demo'ed/promoted tablets. Some that actually worked, some that were just assembled parts, some what were just plastic models. A tiny fraction of them actually shipped.
I wonder what this years "product" will be.
Changing market (Score:5, Insightful)
Also, lot if not all of those announcements were done by big companies doing their own, exclusive events, focused mostly single products, very awaited and with long enough preannoucements campaigns, usually not meant for shared space/attention with other companies.
Not surprised... (Score:5, Insightful)
Fairly well known musicians play at music festivals, where they can be one of many drawing people to go there. Superstars hold a concert and fill a stadium all by themselves. Why launch at CES if you're big enough to get all the attention you want on your own without sharing the spotlight?
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"Why launch at CES if you're big enough to get all the attention you want on your own without sharing the spotlight?"
Not saying this is the case at CES, but I see some good reasons for a superstar to share the spotlight with other stars. Winning in the Olympics, where there are more star athletes, gives you more prestige than winning at a sports event where your competitors aren't quite world class. So I say it depends. If you have a mediocre product, launching at the same tech show as Apple would be the ki
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But if you're huge like Apple and you launched your product at a show where there is potentially another product better yours, its damaging to your brand.
If you're huge you stand out on your own surrounded by your own marketing. Everyone in attendance can go "wow" instead of "wow, that does almost everything that product over there does"
Microsoft always last to leave the party (Score:5, Informative)
Microsoft is famously last to leave the party. Remember Comdex? After years of scatch-your-eyes-out boring keynotes by Bill Gates, it finally bit the biscuit. Microsoft kept going right to the bitter end. Replay at CES: Microsoft to announce the walking wounded XBox 720 without the remotest chance of keeping up with even mid specced PCs, and with idie revival the new game in town. Clue train on the way, last stop is Microsoft.
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Microsoft also went down the route of holding it's own one-off launch event for the Surface tablet, showing once again that CES is not the place to show off your next big thing."
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Microsoft is famously last to leave the party. Remember Comdex? After years of scatch-your-eyes-out boring keynotes by Bill Gates, it finally bit the biscuit. Microsoft kept going right to the bitter end. Replay at CES: Microsoft to announce the walking wounded XBox 720 without the remotest chance of keeping up with even mid specced PCs, and with idie revival the new game in town. Clue train on the way, last stop is Microsoft.
The Xbox 720 isn't supposed to be announced until later this year at the Electronic Entertainment Expo. Rumors are that the Oban chips just went into production. There are rumors that the PS4 will be announced at the end of February, but more like is an E3 announcement as well.
CES glory days were the 1980s (Score:5, Insightful)
CES's glory days were the 1980s, during the first personal computer boom. Then, everyone I think introduced stuff at CES... I remember reading old Compute! and Byte for goings on at the CES - there were reviews of the new Ataris, Apples, Commodores... and then I think even console systems were introduced there as well. So, CES meant, PC in its exciting newness, and already the luster faded a bit as computers became more commonplace. I imagine CES is still pretty cool, and if I were a retailer, I would think I'd want to check it out for the not marquee labels that introduce things that might still sell. But its not the center of the computing universe that, for one brief time, it was.
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> the luster faded a bit as computers became more commonplace
Not just commonplace, but the diversity and creativity has disappeared from the market.
The luster faded as the field narrowed from literally hundreds of different platforms, to just two for the consumer level, and then eventually, one, for the desktop (OSX machines are just IBM PC clones with a different OS). There's only a little bit of excitement for portable platforms, but again, there hasn't been anything Earth-shattering for the journos t
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There are arguably MORE different computing platforms than ever. They just don't look or act like the 'general purpose' computers that you, and I suspect much of the rest of the Slashdot demographic, is waxing nostalgic about.
Everything north of pencil has a CPU in it. There are more opportunities to interact with electronics from a consumer standpoint than ever. They just don't have floppies and RS-232 ports.
Not saying this is cause and effect, but... (Score:5, Funny)
2013 is the first year Microsoft has missed CES since 1995. In fact, either Bill Gates or Steve Ballmer usually delivers the CES keynote. This year, no booth, no Surface, no Windows 8, no Windows Phone, no Xbox, nada.
2013 also marks the shift in scheduling: AEE (Adult Entertainment Expo, the industry convention for porn stars) is now being held the week *after* CES, instead of *the same week* on the Vegas strip (which used to give both presenters and attendees extra incentive to book a trip to CES).
Coincidence? Ah yeah, I guess..
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AEE changed the schedule in 2012. Also, instead of holding it at the gigantic Sands Expo like they did for years, they physically moved the show to several very small and wholly inadequate separate conference rooms at The Hard Rock Hotel. Apparently they didn't learn their lesson, because they are holding it there again this year.
Since there were buses to the LVCC from the Sands all day long, you could travel between the shows easily. I think AEE moved because their main crowd got tired of paying the "jac
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And exactly WHY do you know this in such detail?
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He goes there for the articles...
I dont care about any tradeshow. (Score:4, Insightful)
The idea of a tradeshow somehow being important is just stupid. Its companies showcasing their products, they dont need a show to do that. They could just do it themselves without wasting millions of dollars. Samsung want to show off some kick ass new tv with video, descriptions and pictures? They could do that on their website anytime they want to.
Tradeshows are basically just scams run by the people who operate them. Companies spend a lot of money and time and energy to be at them for no real reason. If companies actually collectively said "We spent like 8 million bucks going to e3 and ces. How about we dont do that this year, save 8 million bucks and just advertise on our websites" then ces would be no more and millions would be saved.
I know tradeshows are just ways of getting advertising time and all but I just dont give a shit.
1- I still cant own or purchase items at a tradeshow so I dont care.
2- I can read about products in articles on companies websites or read related news on websites I frequent.
3- You dont actually learn anything from tradeshows and can not get an honest opinion because youre seeing a carefully crafted and setup demo unit. You dont get to see the real world end product or hear opinions on it from people who have used the product for any length of time in the real world. I dont buy tech stuff anymore until its been out atleast a month.
4- Tradeshows made a lot of sense back in the day. But when I can read previews before a product even comes out at a hundred websites, see a thousand video reviews once it comes out and basically get every single bit of information I could possibly want and a whole lot more on the internet anytime I want it, why do I need a tradeshow? The internet and google are my personal tradeshow thats there for me 24 hours a day. You can get information anywhere and anytime you want now. Back in the day all you had were magazines and occasional newsletters so a tradeshow was important because it allowed people to connect, but now I can connect with anyone in the world while sitting on a toilet in a airplane flying over the ocean.
I get so much god damn advertising, sales pitches and annoying slogans thrown at me in my life everyday the last thing I want is to subject myself to more of it in a giant room of high concentration sales people. I went to e3 awhile back 3 years in a row and god damn, the was enough to last me my whole life.
Re:I dont care about any tradeshow. (Score:5, Insightful)
But when I can read previews before a product even comes out at a hundred websites, see a thousand video reviews once it comes out and basically get every single bit of information I could possibly want and a whole lot more on the internet anytime I want it, why do I need a tradeshow?
Do you work in sales, marketing or business development? I go to numerous shows per year, and they're all about the meetings that go on in the background. Discussions around sales channels, marketing, training - Pricing. Trade shows are an opportunity where eveyone is already all together, so they're a highly efficient way to get business done. You can go on one plane flight instead of 20.
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So.... you're saying that it's an excellent place to collude prices and make oligopolies?
No you Anonymous Coward, typically it's the opposite: "What deal did you give Dell? Whatever it is, I want a better price."
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Tradeshows are basically just scams run by the people who operate them. Companies spend a lot of money and time and energy to be at them for no real reason... I just dont give a shit.
...
I get so much god damn advertising, sales pitches and annoying slogans thrown at me in my life everyday the last thing I want is to subject myself to more of it in a giant room of high concentration sales people. I went to e3 awhile back 3 years in a row and god damn, the was enough to last me my whole life.
All good and dandy, dude, but... are you somehow saying the free t-shirts you've got in 3 years at e3 are enough to last you an entire life?
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CES (Score:1)
Similar to what happen to COMDEX.. Was a great show then they just got so big and expensive that people just didnt show up any more. Why wait a year to announce something, With the web and socail netwroks anyday and be a big announcement day.
Surprising but not completely unexpected (Score:2)
> "How many were launched at CES 2012? None."
Even Belladonna introduced her latest VigorTech(r) WiFi remote-controlled dildory elsewhere. Even the basement at CES is empty now.
It's not what it use to be anyplace else either (Score:2)
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Perhaps someone thought the populace was becoming too intelligent via the interweb, and put into play a plan to stop that.
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Perhaps someone thought the populace was becoming too intelligent via the interweb, and put into play a plan to stop that.
I don't think facebook has anything to do with this.
The problem facing "computer stores" is the upgrade treadmill is dead. Hmm my video card from 2 years ago pretty much does everything I'd want it to do. I'm still not out of memory on my main desktop. The audio market has gone spec crazy with higher and higher sample rates and theoretical bits and extra channels, although no one wants to talk about actual SNR.
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...People don't rush out and line up to buy the new 2013 kenmore microwave or get excited the new maytag washer has 1 more washing mode than before.
Hey! I have a neckbeard and a black pseudo-turtleneck (aka "dickey"), and I just heard that there's a shiny new button on an i-Device.
I'm on my way to camp out at the Apple Store, you insensitive clod.
cheers,
reality check (Score:1)
A show about Consumer Electronics that is not attended by Apple is a fail right from the word go.
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Only if you're an Apple worshiper. The rest of the world is interested in what others will be producing.
Re:reality check [uhm, check your facts!] (Score:2)
Apple does attend CES -- last year they had 250 or so people attending [huffingtonpost.com]. No, they don't have a booth, but they felt the need to spend a couple of million dollars to have people go to stay in touch with the consumer zeitgeist.
And that's the whole reason for trade shows. I would never go to a trade show to find information on a particular product -- if I know what I'm interested in, there are a number of better ways to find out about it online. What is unique and vital about trade shows is the serendipity
Yes. (Score:5, Insightful)
Ever since they kicked out the consumer.
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Maybe your problem is that you spent all your money on a Blu-Ray player and not enough on a keyboard with a shift key.
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We have the Internet now (Score:4, Insightful)
We don't really need trade shows to show us new products and technology anymore.
Google chose ASUS Eee Pad MeMO ME370T from CES2012 (Score:4, Informative)
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"ASUS Eee Pad MeMO ME370T"
Wow, did someone get paid to come up with this name?
Hmm (Score:1)
I think we'll see many more mobile device iterations and perhaps some new product (soft?)launches at CES this year. Sure, MWC is the destination event for mob
Times have changed (Score:5, Interesting)
Just like ComDex, CES is becoming irrelevant due to the internet. The whole point of trade shows was always to get the reporters and salesman in front of new products and (hopefully) generate some positive press leading to consumer demand. Once the internet started to go big, and magazine reviews weren't quite as necessary for product exposure, the tradeshows tried to almost evolve into entertainment expos.
The final nail in the coffin has been when individual studios or manufacturers get enough industry cloud to host their own tradeshow, which just fractures the already weakened idea.
CES reminds me a lot of Kodak and Polaroid and other older businesses that have chosen to brute force their way into the future, rather than change their models to fit it. It never works out.
Trade Shows vs. Internet (Score:2)
They still launch products (Score:1)
Check out nikonrumours.com, nikon is slated to release the D5200 around that time.
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Woo hoo! ANOTHER low range just-a-bit-better-than-last-year's camera.
Stop the presses. Call the Pope. See if Beyonce can do the intro.
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Hey, if your a camera hoarder, you need the next model.
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I'd like to have a cheap electronic organizer with keyboard that can be synced to PC, runs on ordinary AAA batteries and has more than one year of battery life. They used to make them in the 90s but I can't seem to find one now.
Is there anything like this at CES?
I don't think that time machines will be demo'd until 2019, at the earliest. Right after they get holographic storage nailed down.
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That's not following the herd, and manufacturers are only allowed to participate in herd behavior. There really isn't much at a place like CES. Its like having 50 farmers at a farmers market all selling genetically identical potatoes and claiming they're the pinnacle of variety because there's 50 of them, missing the point that all 50 are doing exactly the same thing the other 49 have done, and almost exactly the same thing they've done for 10 years.
The specs you listed are pretty much a brand new HP50G c
What could be at the root of lack of interest? (Score:2)
Let's think:
1. Down economy -- people are rethinking how much they "need" these new things
2. Lack of creativity -- companies seek to control whole classes of products through patent legislation which, hopefully enables them to slow the release of new things so that they can sell new versions of the same old sheit with a couple of new things or changes.
Possibly (Score:2)
CES may lose some of it's star appeal, but as long as it's still upstairs from the porn convention it's sure not going to lose any of its popularity.
We used to sneak downstairs during breaks. It may have changed, but in the early days a vendor badge got you in either place.
CES is not about what's popular... (Score:2)
In my opinion, CES is a show where vendors can showcase their offerings to the media, industry, etc. It's not about showcasing popular gadgets. If so, based on the Apple love lately, it would simply be held in an Apple showroom. My thought is that It benefits smaller companies the most, since moves by larger companies are already followed by the media.