CES Scales Up While Companies Push Back

The Consumer Electronics Show is being pushed in ever-more-glamorous directions as organizers attempt to top themselves every year. Much like the final years of the E3 event, this week's showcase will feature loud music and brightly-lit stages. At the same time, also mirroring E3, the big businesses that drive CES are starting to rethink the need for the event itself. The New York Times reports: "Technology companies now frequently introduce their products elsewhere, in an effort to reach consumers more directly. The Apple iPhone, the Nintendo Wii and other recent must-haves were not unveiled at C.E.S. One of the industry's biggest hits in 2007 was the Flip Video camcorder, an easy-to-use pocket-size device that sells for $120. Executives from Pure Digital Technologies, its maker, visited Las Vegas last year during the show but kept to their hotel suite at the Wynn."

Re:It's only reasonable.

[Loibisch]

Because reviews do not shine as much as all the heavens a gadget maker will promise onto you.

Or clearer: Showing off your product and claiming it's the best is one thing, proving the stetement by submitting it to review is another and might actually convince fewer people. :)

Excellent quote from TFA

[paxgaea]

"One of the reasons Apple stole C.E.S. last year was that its message was simple and succinct," said Rob Enderle, an analyst with the Enderle Group. "C.E.S. does not have a crystal-clear message. There's too much information, and it looks like you have to get a Ph.D. to get these things to work."

Plain and simple, it's hard to stand out in a crowd!

Re:It's only reasonable.

[paxgaea]

That just says to me that their products won't stand up to review, and likely won't get to be killer hits anyway even amongst all that noise at CES, so that company should go back to the drawing board and spend their money on R&D for a better product.

Like many things in a capitalist economy, it just seems that CES has gotten too big for it's britches, and maybe needs to be broken into smaller parts (kinda like an antitrust for trade shows).

Although it does fit well in Vegas, being over the top and glitzy.

Re:Public admission?

[postbigbang]

CES is a 'trade-only' event. That doesn't mean that a huge number of (international big box) retailers, installers, and other industry people don't go; it's just not as big as COMDEX (which was trade-only wink wink) was. COMDEX wasn't prepared for 9/11 and was killed by the industry down-turn and a bad chairman (IMHO).

Every big trade show needs industry strength to survive. In Europe, CeBIT is down, and while IFA and MobleWorld/3GSM are up, CES (even though it's a trade association show) must constantly re-justify itself and re-invent its value, otherwise it's a pricy proposition in an ever-pricier locale.

Re:Public admission?

[nbert]

According to cesweb.org:

The International CES is not open to the general public and all attendees must be in the consumer electronics industry to be eligible to attend the show. Due to the investment made by our exhibitors, International CES show management wants to ensure that its attendees are members of the trade.

So it's not open, but I wouldn't necessarily see this as a bad thing. Public technology related trade shows have become less popular in recent years, because there are cheaper and more convenient ways for both sides to communicate.
I went to such shows ~15 years ago because they really offered lot's of information I would have missed otherwise. Today it's much easier to look up some review on the web or to hear about new gadgets in the media. Furthermore product cycles don't really match fairs and trade shows anymore (which can be seen as a cause or a consequence for their decline in popularity).

Re:It's worth it just for the Keynote speech alone

[Moonpie Madness]

Do you think any of Bill's circle are willing to tell him that Vista is a total mess? Probably not. Bill Gates no longer needs to know the bad stuff, he's not in charge anyway.

I wanted to buy a laptop yesterday, and the kid at Fry's told me they just didn't have any laptops with XP anymore, but I should be happy to take Vista, because it's so much safer. Except, I'm not an idiot, so XP is actually really safe enough for me, and 170% faster, and works with all my software. Can't blame MS for moving forward or whatever they are doing, but I'm glad there are some alternatives for my computer if I can get a fast laptop with no OS on it.

Take a cue from the porn guys

[BenEnglishAtHome]

Take this with a grain of salt; it's been years since I was in the porn industry and actually got paid to go to CES so my knowledge may be out of date. But the adult section of CES (that once was the main draw for lots of attendees and certainly was an entertaining break for 99% of them) got too big and flashy, questioned the need to be a part of CES, and broke away years ago. Their completely separate gathering has been quite a success, from what I hear.

I've never understood why CES was so unfocused. Back when I went every year, there was the car stuff section, the adult section, the high end audio section (usually at a completely different location), the crap audio section, the home theatre section, the incredibly weird and useless lo-buck gadget section, and on and on. Lots of those things had nothing in common with anyone else and could have existed as their own (often large) trade show. CES is just too big and unfocused. If anyone is a big enough retailer to carry all the stuff that shows at CES, then they're big enough that they don't need to go to CES; the vendors would gladly come to them. Better to break it up and have people going to smaller shows where the products they're actually interested in are shown in more depth.