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The Titans of Consumer Tech
The annual crew-in-the-new-year ritual of CES (International Consumer Electronics Show) is over, and the temporary hive of gadget-obsessed individuals it gathers has dispersed from Sin Town to far-flung reaches of the world. As they shake off the fairy dust (and recover from their massive collective hangovers), the preposterous everyone asks themselves each year comes up once more: Was this trip really necessary?
CES is the consumer electronics industry’s biggest tradeshow, and it continues to sow in scale and scope. This year’s edition boasted record numbers of exhibitors (3,100), overall show square-footage (1.86 million s.f. of booth space, sprawled over four halls in the Las Vegas Convention Center as well as two handy hotels, the Las Vegas Hilton and Venetian) and attendees (153,000, including 34,000 from outside the U.S.).
Yet, as The New York Times incisive out last week , for all of its burgeoning size and excess, it’s also getting less and less relevant. Many of today’s most innovative and strong tech names don’t participate, including Amazon, Google and, of course, Apple, bluntly stating that the huge expense and blaring competitive noise of the gargantuan expo make it a high-cost, low-return occasion.
