I spent a good part of last week at the 2008 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. By my calculations, this was my 22nd CES that I attended in Vegas. I've certainly seen a lot of changes during that time, not only in the consumer electronics industry, but in Las Vegas, as well.
First of all, I have to tell you this was the first year I took a direct flight to Vegas for the show. I flew on AirTran, an up and coming airline based out of Orlando. I normally fly on United or American, mainly because I have accumulated a lot of miles with both carriers. But flying on either one of those two airlines means you have to change planes in either Chicago, Denver or Dallas/Fort Worth. And flying in the winter is so iffy, especially if you have connecting flights in Denver or Chicago.
Actually, booking the flight on AirTran was a no-brainer. I checked prices to Las Vegas last October on both American and United and the fares were astronomical. I believe United wanted something like $869 bucks for a round-trip flight from Moline to Vegas thru Denver. Now, my company doesn't usually bitch about my travel expenses, but my Midwestern fiscal conservatism came through on this one and I checked out AirTran.
It turned out that they had seats for $99 each way from Moline. And if I wanted a row with a little more leg room, it was an extra $10 bucks each way. I opted for the leg room on the way out and took my chances on the way home.
The only problem is that with one flight out of Moline to and from Vegas four days a week, the travel times are kind of funky. I had to leave at 7:00 a.m. on a Saturday, and I didn't leave Vegas until 5:55 p.m. the day after the show ended. I had a full day to kill in Vegas, but being there so many times before I really didn't want to stick around if I didn't have to.
One thing to know about AirTran - they don't screw around when it comes to getting out of there on time. I almost missed my flight home last Friday night in Vegas. I was in the gate area, but never heard them call for the flight. Finally, 20 minutes before the flight was scheduled to take off, I heard the "boarding all rows of AirTran flight 730 to Moline." So I got up, went to the bathroom, which wasn't far away, and then went to the gate. Imagine my horror to see that there were no AirTran personnel at the gate, the door to the jet way was closed, and the plane's door was shut with the jet way pulled away from the plane. It was 15 minutes before we were scheduled to leave.
I finally found an AirTran employee who was standing near the gate. I showed her my ticket and she said, "Oh, you're going to Moline, too?" She immediately tried to get someone on the radio, but to no avail. She opened up the door and ran down the jet way. I next saw her knocking on the pilot's window to get his attention.
Sure enough, the jet way came back to the plane and the door opened. She ran up the jet way to open the door for me. I got on, they shut the door, I sat down and 30 seconds later, they were pulling away. Five minutes before the scheduled departure.
I figured out the next day that the Air Tran crew has the 7:00 a.m. departure the next morning. And FAA rules state that a crew must have 8 hours of rest overnight. The plane is scheduled to come in at 10:55 p.m. in Moline, giving them just a couple minutes over the 8 hours needed between the flights. No wonder they wanted to get going.
But the bottom line is that my experience flying AirTran was very good. The seats are roomy, they take credit cards instead of cash for alcoholic beverages - and they keep the credit card open in case you want more, and they have XM Radio at every seat. And for a nominal fee, you can bump yourself up to Business Class for each flight if seats are available. I'll fly them again if I get the chance.
Anyway, I digress from the subject matter at hand...
First of all, attendance at this year's CES was down nearly 10% from last year's high of 143,000 people. Attendance would be down even more if the Consumer Electronics Association wouldn't allow consumers and end-users into the show like they did years ago. The CEA says they're doing their best to keep non-industry people out of the show, but gauging the amount of baby-strollers reportedly seen on the main floor of the Las Vegas Convention Center they're not working all that hard to keep 'em out.
Once again, our company showed our products in four suites on the 28th floor of the Las Vegas Hilton. Most of the other high end manufacturers were over at the Venetian, but we like showing at the Hilton because it isn't overrun with consumers like the Venetian. The Hilton suites are destination locations for dealers who come to see us. We can have meetings, can take our time with them and not have to worry about some guy from Bakersfield interrupting us and asking for confidential price sheets on Focal loudspeakers.
The big buzz as CES this year had to do with the on-going format war between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. Just after the first of the year, Warner Brothers Studios made an announcement that they would distribute only Blu-Ray format movies starting in June of this year. They had been the only studio to distribute both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray movies. Now with over 70 percent of movies in a high definition format available on Blu-Ray, two HD-DVD studios - Paramount and DreamWorks - were rumored to be looking at dumping their 2007 agreement with the HD-DVD camp. However, both studios were vehemently denying any such action during CES.
Paramount, whose agreement with the HD-DVD camp ended on December 31, 2007, said they have not abandoned the HD-DVD format even though a new agreement is not in place and won't be in the foreseeable future. However, rumors are that the Blu-Ray camp is putting financial pressure on Paramount in the form of subsidies and incentives to move to their format.
With the federally mandated cut-off date for the end of analog television broadcasts looming in just 13 months, LG and Philips showed their analog to digital broadcast converter boxes at CES. These converter boxes will be necessary if you get your signal via an over-the-air antenna beginning on February 19, 2009. The boxes will be available by this spring thru most of the big box stores such as Best Buy and Circuit City for $50 bucks. However, vouchers for the converter boxes worth $40 dollars are available through the federal government. If you get your non-HD television signal through a cable or satellite system, you won't need one of these boxes.
In the continuing saga of "Mine is Bigger than Yours", Panasonic unveiled a 150-inch plasma television at CES. Panasonic showed a 103-inch plasma television at last year's CES and were stunned to sell over 3,000 units of that product last year. Panasonic touts the 150-inch plasma as a digital home theater/promotional install product. Price and availability of the monitor was not released.
Of course, the convergence computer and entertainment technology continues to be a big topic at CES. A number of companies showed new products that tied in mobile computer capabilities with on-demand video content. A year ago, these units were being called "Personal Viewing Devices" by the industry. Now, the common phrase being used is "Ultramobile" devices. While still not available with optimum capabilities, ultramobile content will get better in the next couple of years with the advent of WiMAX and Verizon's Evolution-Data Optimised (EV-DO) network that is scheduled to come on line this summer.
Pioneer's Project Kuro television - a prototype plasma television that promises "absolute black levels" that will make for eye-popping pictures was unveiled at CES. People who saw the television told me it was absolutely stunning. Some industry pundits said the Pioneer Kuro television will make the current 8th generation plasma televisions obsolete before they fully reach the marketplace later this year.
Mitsubishi debuted their new "laser television" panels that promise double the color vibrancy of other models that will be released later this year. Laser televisions, compared to plasma or LCD models, don't degrade in visual output over time, they have a wider range of colors promising more vibrant and stunning pictures, and they're about 50% less in price than most plasma or LCD units. Plus, they weigh about half the weight of current plasma or LCD monitors. Oh! And they have a built in 3-D processor to be able to watch three-dimensional encoded programming with a pair of special glasses that come with the set.
My friend, John Smith, who is a regional manager for Mitsubishi, told me the first time he saw the panels he was just stunned. I understand that many dealers who saw the debut at the Palms last week were equally stunned by how great the picture looked.
XStreamHD announced a new service that will allow customers to receive movies, games and other on-demand programming in a 1080 progressive format via a satellite and a receiver box. The XStream HD will also feature 7.1 lossless surround audio, and either 4:3 or 16:9 screen size content.
Actor Michael Douglas (right), who is also an investor in XStreamHD, was on hand at CES to introduce the product and service. The XStreamHD box will be available for $400 through retail locations. Also needed is a small satellite dish that will go outside the house with a hard wire connected to the receiver box. There will be a monthly subscription fee for the content, but if everything they said XStreamHD will be comes true, it could be a major player in content distribution.
Navigation devices, cellular phones, digital photo frames and digital cameras were also hot at CES. I guess I didn't realize the intense interest in these digital photo frames. But that segment of the consumer market place has just exploded over the past few months. I've never really seen them or played around with the digital photo frames but there was a lot on display at CES. While most of the digital photo frames are sized not much larger than 8X10 inches, Smartpants showed a 32" 16X9 digital photo frame at CES (left). Geez, a 32" digital photo frame? I wonder how good the resolution would be for that size...
Some other fun things that came out at CES - Nikko Electronics came out with their R2-D2 projector. Yep, it's a projector that's mounted in a replica of the Star Wars robot. No, I'm not kidding. Reportedly, it will run $2500 bucks, but the picture quality was supposedly not that good. Still, if you're a Star Wars nut, this would be a fun thing to have.
There were some really "out-there" items shown at this year's CES. There was the Electric Swatter; a mini-washing machine; and the "Guitar Hero Air Rocker" which consists of a small amplifier that attaches to a person's belt, along with a magnetic pick that sends impulses to the amplifier which will then play up to 10 different "riffs", depending upon the beat and motion the person is doing. For more info on those and other weird items shown at CES, click here.
In conjunction with the Adult Entertainment Expo that goes on the same time as CES, FyreTV showed a set top box that promises to bring over 20,000 porn movies to your home for only $10 a month. The box must be hooked up to an ethernet and promises to deliver high quality adult movies to your television. Hey, it's better than renting the adult movies from Family Video, I guess.
Still, with all the glitter and glamour Las Vegas conjures up, there continues to be problems with the show. Just before the show started last week, reports surfaced in a number of local media outlets in Las Vegas that the CEA was looking to move the show from Las Vegas after the current contract expires in 2012.
One of the big problems with CES is the high prices hotels charge in conjunction with the show. Hotel rooms that are normally $99 to $159 a night go for $599 to $799 during the show. Hewlett-Packard announced they brought 15% less workers to the show this year because of the high price of rooms and meals in Las Vegas during CES.
Some hotels reportedly charge larger corporations up front not only for the blocks of rooms they'll stay in during the show, but also for guaranteed food and beverage service in the hotel's restaurants and bars. This guarantee for food and beverages is angering a number of companies who are reassessing their CES strategy for the short term.
CES organizers have reportedly talked to officials in Chicago and Orlando - both have venues and hotel space capable of hosting the show - about the possibility of a move. I'm sure it's more of a leverage ploy than anything. CES officials can't make hotels change their pricing policies, but they can sure threaten to move in a few years if action isn't taken. After all, CES is the largest trade show in the U.S. and Vegas would take a noticeable hit if it were to move.
CES has lost its luster among the industry's heavy hitters for home audio and video. Many of the companies in the audio field now show only at the annual CEDIA Expo. I think I had - maybe - six dealers from my Midwestern territory show up for CES this year. We're supposedly going back again next year to display our products, but it's up in the air after that. Frankly, I'd rather not go to CES as long as the CEDIA Expo exists. It's much more of a relevant show for my business. Plus, I've had my fill of Las Vegas.
Will - I always look forward to your synopsis of CES. Thank you once again. Also, I have flown Airtran a three or four ties in the past and have had impeccible service and a great experience each time. Seems like the little airlines are trying a lot harder than the big guys.
Posted by: Richard Goldman | January 16, 2008 at 11:31 AM
I saw in Newsweek that Sony has a new OLED television that supposedly walks all over the LED televisions that are out there now. Did you see it?
Posted by: Peter Lawrence | January 17, 2008 at 11:28 AM