Microsoft switches off CES
Microsoft, one of the most visible superpowers at the Consumer Electronics Show, has decided its keynote and booth at the upcoming event in January will be its last.
The world’s largest software company, which has long tried to boost the profile of its consumer business, usually puts up a huge duplex on the floor to show off its games, phones and other gadgets running its products at the Las Vegas jamboree. CEO Steve Ballmer is a regular keynote speaker, as Bill Gates was before him.
But the company is now admitting what it has said privately: that a show right after the holiday season just doesn’t fit its consumer product cycle. That is to say, Ballmer rarely has much new to say, when all its Xbox, phone and software news is done and dusted for the year.
In the words of Frank Shaw, Microsoft’s PR chief: “Our product news milestones generally don’t align with the show’s January timing.”
It will certainly save Microsoft valuable time and resources getting ready for the show, which yields an uncertain return at best. Remember, Apple conquered the consumer electronics market without exhibiting at CES at all.
The company says it will still attend CES to meet up with customers and partners and will keep its relationship with the Consumer Electronics Association, the industry group which organizes the show.
It’s hard to see the upside for the association, which must fear further big-name defections from its marquee event. But it says it has already had expressions of interest from other exhibitors in taking over Microsoft’s show floor space, and is not bearing any grudges.
CES: Please turn off your phones and your Wi-Fi
English literature teachers, please tell me if I’m wrong to call this ironic.
The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas is all about technology, and pack journalists and tech experts all over the world say that wireless will be the next big boom. So why are various companies at this year’s CES begging and in some cases instructing people not to use their wireless devices or their Wi-Fi connections?
Here’s an email that my colleague Alexei Oreskovic received.
Alexei:
We have all heard of or experienced Wi-Fi challenges at high-profile events.
Please help our sponsors demonstrate their products. We ask you to turn off your phone before you enter Showstoppers tonight. If you can’t do that, please turn off Wi-Fi access on your smartphone and other mobile devices, including all mobile hotspot devices and anything else that acts as a mobile access point.
This is an increasing industry-wide problem common to press conferences, meetings and other high-profile events that rely on Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi was designed for homes and other small spaces with more modest Internet demands. Wi-Fi was never intended for large halls and thousands of people packing an arsenal of laptops, smartphones, tablets and hotspots. Perhaps the entrepreneurs, innovators and journalists attending ShowStoppers tonight can improve this? Got an idea? Send it to me by email.
CES: One strip club, one Howard Stern producer and 125,000 friends
In my second day of searching for the most interesting and interestingly written press releases about the Consumer Electronics Show, I came across what appears to be an invitation for 125,000 people:
LAS VEGAS–(Business Wire)– Gary Dell`Abate, best-selling author and long-time producer of The Howard Stern Show will host a party January 8th at Rick`s Cabaret Las Vegas, to which he has invited all fellow attendees of the world-famous Consumer Electronics Show. The club is part of the Rick`s Cabaret International, Inc. (NASDAQ:RICK) group of upscale gentlemen`s clubs.
The party will take place at the club at 3355 Procyron Street at Desert Inn Boulevard, just off the Las Vegas Strip, starting at 10 p.m. Dell`Abate will be in town to attend the CES, which he hosted last year. Dell`Abate will be assisted in his hosting duties by beautiful, raven-haired adult star Daisy Duxe, who has appeared in over 150 popular adult films. She is appearing as part of an adult-star extravaganza at the club, where blonde centerfold model and adult star Prinzzess appears on Friday night January 7th.
“I love the people who attend CES and I think they will love Rick`s Cabaret,” says Dell`Abate, who has been on a nationwide tour in recent weeks promoting his new bestselling book They Call Me Baba Booey. …
Admission to Rick`s Cabaret LV will be free to guests who call 702-367-4000 and request complimentary limo pickup service, or arrive in their private vehicle. Rick’s Cabaret complimentary transportation can also be arranged online at rickslasvegas.com.
That’s all well and good, but if all 125,000 people who are supposed to come to CES this year show up, it could create some tense moments with the fire marshal.
CES: Achieve new positions
If you’re going to Las Vegas, you might as well go to bed in public. And what better way to do that than on a mattress whose ability to achieve new positions is unrivaled? Leonard Cohen would be jealous.
Yes, it’s true. There will be a mattress on the floor of the Las Vegas Convention Center starting January 6 for the 2011 CES show.
Actually, it will be in the Vivon Life booth (South Hall, lower level #22057). It may be the first sleep mattress ever to be shown at the Consumer Electronics Show and we think it will get people to turn their heads and take notice.
Vivon is the new premium mattress company that brings technology and comfort together. The big breakthrough idea is that we have patent-pending technologies that bring all the moving parts inside the mattress; we call these Positional Mattresses (they change positions – and we don’t want to be called “adjustable beds”!). It’s the perfect mattress for people who embrace technology and love using their iPad, smartphone, eBook readers, or Wii games in bed. That’s why it just makes sense for a tech-driven mattress to be at CES this year.
At CES, we are announcing a new line of Vivon Prestige Powered by Brookstone Massage mattresses. Here again, we’ve figured out a way to make all the moving parts go inside the mattress itself. It’s nothing short of amazing and I hope you can stop by our booth in the South Hall (Booth #22057) to see it and feel it. Brookstone has been a trusted leader in massage for 40 years and we couldn’t be more pleased to partner with them.
Massage? Mattress? Vegas? Positions? Partner? Adjustable beds? All of the above, please.
CES: You will take this meeting. You will take this meeting.
The Consumer Electronics Show, or CES as most people call it, produces approximately 1 million press releases for every person who attends the annual Las Vegas technology trade show. (Think: “There are 8 million stories in the Naked City. This has been one of them.”)
Here are excerpts from my favorite one so far:
CARDIFF, Calif., Jan. 4, 2011 /PRNewswire/ – Mind Technologies Inc. (Pink Sheets: JEDM), announced today that the Company’s management team will be attending the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) Conference in Las VegasJanuary 6-9, 2011.
“We have been contacted by several media outlets for an interview and explanation of our software products,” said Mind Technologies CEO and President, Brent Fouch. “This particular conference is rich with opportunities for us to build relationships and expose our company to thousands of people at the same time. This is an excellent way for us to kick off our aggressive marketing program we have lined up for 2011,” concluded Fouch.
I like it. A press release to tell the press about the press interviews you lined up before the show. I wish Facebook would send me a press release in advance to warn me that it’s talking to the New York Times. Like any competent editor, I noted an absence of information about what the company does. I looked in the “boilerplate” area at the bottom of the release:
Mind Technologies, Inc. develops software for thought controlled technologies, allowing the user to interact with the computer and other machines through the power of the mind. The technology involves the use of a wireless headset, which detects brainwaves on both the conscious and non-conscious level. This revolutionary neural processing technology makes it possible for computers to interact directly with the human brain. The Company creates medical applications and video games that are controlled by the power of your mind.
Wow! I looked into this company and wish they had exhibited so I could test this fascinating technology. I was skeptical that this could really work, but if their videos are true-this technology will change our world. I picked up shares as well and cant believe the price is in the pennies. Lots of upside!
Does OLED TV have a future?
Two years ago at the annual Consumer Electronics Show, Sony unveiled an OLED television — that’s an Organic Light Emitting Diode TV. It was sleek, sporting credit-card thinness, superior picture quality and energy efficiency, and some thought the technology might eventually overtake plasma and LCD. Its only hang-up was sticker shock: $2,000 for an 11-inch screen. No worries — the price will drop and demand will rise and more units are manufactured, right?
Maybe not. Sony has pulled the plug on OLED TV sales in Japan due to poor sales. It is still difficult — and expensive — to make big OLED displays, especially when prices for other forms of TVs are shrinking while sizes are increasing. Sony showed off a slightly bigger models at this years CES, including a 3D prototype. As for the models on store shelves, New York Electronics retailer J&R Music and Computer World is selling one for $1,500 after a whopping $1,000 discount.
But OLED isn’t dead: LG, which bought Kodak’s OLED business, showed off retail-ready 15-inch OLED TVs at this years CES.
It also seems to have a future on smaller devices, such as Microsoft’s latest pocket-sized Zune HD media player, and HTC’s new Desire mobile phone. It remains to be seen if the technology makes a difference for which consumers are willing to pay a premium.
Photo: Reuters; Youtube
It took 25 years for LCDs to progress from calculator displays to televisions. Be patient.
$800 per family for 3D TV glasses?
Big time gadget makers filled this years this year’s Consumer Electronics Show with 3D TV’s, promising that consumers can enjoy an “Avatar”-like experience at home some time this year. And the news is even better — research firm Gartner says that it only costs about 15 percent more to make a 3D TV than a regular flat screen, so the TVs may be affordable.
Here’s the thing. The glasses. You must have them. And they are fragile. And they cost a lot. Like, more than the TV itself, if you’ve got a big family. Gartner analyst Van Baker explained on a conference call:
“If you are talking about a family of four, that’s $400-$800 you are going to be spending on the micro-shutter glasses. Not to mention that the glasses can be lost and can be broken.”
Ouch. But can’t I just use the movie theater glasses I stole… i mean… forgot to return, from, you know, “Avatar?”
“Unfortunately if it’s an LCD television, those already have polarizing filters built into them, so the glasses that you use when you go to the movie cannot be used. You have to use the micro-shutter glasses that actually open and close shutters on a very rapid basis to give you the 3D effect. And those glasses are expensive. the industry is going to have to come to grips with how they (deal with that).”
“By this coming holiday season, its likely you will be able to buy a 3D TV for just slightly more than you are paying for a flat panel television today. But if you need additional family members to be able to view it, the cost is going to be something that you are going to have to step up to.”
LG FPR 3D Glasses too provide family glasses at a lower rate.Today looking for the comfort and handy glasses the best choice is the FPR 3D Glasses which is free from flicker , no crosstalk image, no battery, comfortable watching at any position and above all health friendly too.
CES: iPod Guitar and Intel computing wall (video)
AS CES wraps up in Las Vegas, here are two clips showcasing cool technology from the floor, one from an unknown company, another from one of the big boys. Each displays the kind of keen forward thinking that can be found all over the Las Vegas show.
Here is an demonstration of Fingerist, from Evenno. Yes he is “strumming” “Smoke on the Water” by Deep Purple — on an iPod Touch.
And here is a display of one possible future of massive multi-user computing power, from Intel. I wish I had tech like that to help quicken the time it took to post to this very blog.
CES live blog
Our live blog features contributions from Reuters Staff as well as our Guest Bloggers: Michael Gartenberg (gartenberg), vice president of strategy and analysis at Interpret; James McQuivey (jmcquivey), vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research ; Mike Vorhaus (mikevorhaus), president of Magid Advisors; Avi Greengart (avigreengard), research director of consumer devices at Current Analysis; Ross Rubin, Director of Industry Analysis at NPD (rossrubin, npdtech displaysearch.)
Too bad HP had to hide thier new products behind closed doors and were toooooo bashful to bring it out into the public. I think Rima’s comments at http://www.fromwhereistand.info are right on the money!
CES: Gadgets from the Consumer Electronics Show
The Consumer Electronics Show is underway, with myriad companies announcing new devices and services. Here’s a sample, as seen through the lens of Reuters photographers Mario Anzuoni and Steve Marcus.
the Infoscape concept at the Intel booth
Panasonic’s 3d Camcorder. Sure, it kind of looks like a “viewmaster”. But its one of the keys to creating 3D content for consumers to see when they buy a 3D TV.
A super-thin OLED screen from LG Electronics. OLED (Organic light emitting diode) screens are clear and bright, but TVs with the screens are still mostly small and expensive.
So far I think two of the most promising things are the Light Touch Pico display which projects an interface onto any surface and uses lasers to track interaction. And secondly the Skype TV which makes our Back to the Future dreams of TV video communications a reality.
I’ve created a list of the top 10 best and worst of the CES at baduku.com so check it out and add your opinions if you agree or disagree: http://www.baduku.com/topics/things-at-c es-2010_32
