 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
Comdex 2002November 18-22
|
||
|
Should you have been there? The jury is definitely out on this one. We thought Comdex was incredibly useful. We met with very good people, we learned a lot and we gave a couple of presentations, at Lunch@Piero's and the RDVDC meeting, that seemed to go over well. (The slides are available on our web site and the audio transcript of our presentations at Lunch at Piero's can be found at the Pat Meier and Associates site. The RDVD Council published press releases about their meeting. You can find them at http://www.rdvdc.org/english/press/index.html. In fact, we had no trouble finding candidates for our Jon
Peddie Research Awards. Kathleen provides a picture of the consumer video market for the RDVD Council meeting. The question could well be, will Comdex be there. Increasingly companies come to Comdex but they don't exhibit. Rather they take a hotel room and invite their customers and the press in to see them in suites that cost considerably less than a trade show booth or a meeting room in the convention center. This does not make the Comdex organizers at K3Media happy, as you might imagine. In fact, they claim that off-site exhibitors will kill Comdex and then where will we be? That could be true. It could also be true that the large trade shows are pricing themselves out of business and they're going to have to figure out a way to make themselves relevant in a world where many of their customers can find out all that they need on the Internet.
Sharp's svelte little laptop uses a Transmeta processor and synchs to a desktop via cradle. One of the exhibitors who had an off-site booth was Transmeta. The
company took a suite in the Venetian where they showed off the cool little
devices that make use of Transmeta chips. In addition, Transmeta's CTO
Dave Ditzel and Barry L. Rubinson, the company's VP of Software, and brand
new CEO Mat Perry took us into the super secret demo room where we saw the
company's newest chipset perform against a 1.8 GHz Intel Pentium 4M. You
won't be surprised to hear that the Transmeta out-performed the P4.
Rubinson's team has gone to work to optimize Transmeta's performance on
start-up and opening files. But, on other tests it seems the chip is truly
faster. However, the company isn't giving out much details just proving a
point -- Transmeta can keep up. Transmeta CEO Matt Perry says he's optimistic about his company's future. From the look of the companies showing product in Transmeta's suite, their Japanese customers are hanging tight. The other major competition to Comdex are the satellite shows that have
cropped up around Comdex. In addition to Lunch@Piero's, we visited Show
Stoppers and Mobil Focus. In fact, it was at Mobile Focus that we ran into
the people form PC Laptop. Based in Utah, PC Laptop offers your basic ODM
laptops but they add service as a value add. In fact, Dan Young, PC
Laptop's CEO (shown here as Austin Powers) told us the company has a
service option to transfer files and set-ups to the new laptop to ensure a
smooth transition. In the next wave of the PC era, service is going to
define a company, not Mega/Giga-Herzes, not transistors, and not
benchmarks. The guys at PC Laptop are wild and crazy. They're selling laptops in Utah and no one has told them this isn't a fun business And speaking of service. The entertainment PC will never get off the ground until someone figures out how to build service into the package. At Comdex, Microsoft was preparing the fields for its new XP Media Center Edition. Early partners in this effort include Gateway, HP, AlienWare and Samsung. But, if these things are going to play nice in the living room along with the TV, the set-top boxes, the speakers, the remote control, the projector, the stereo, etc. etc. etc., they're going to need a professional to mediate between all the factions. Opinions vary. HP believes that the most logical place for the Home Media Center is not as the prime entertainment provider, but rather as the vehicle to take entertainment to the bed room or the office or the basement. AlienWare has built their cute little cube to sit on the shelf next to the stereo equipment. And Gateway, bless 'em, is hoping to find a whole new life in the living room. |
||
Microsoft and partners demo'd the Windows XP Media Center. They're leading up to CES where Microsoft's latest plan for a WindowsTV will get its big showcase.
Acer showed off their Tablet PC, but what these costumes were supposed to communicate we do not know The TabletPC was Microsoft's main focus at Comdex. And the new machines swept Comdex's Best Of Awards -- although no one is taking any bets as to how well the things will really sell. Acer opted in early and enthusiastically with their model that has a reversible screen. On the show floor the company didn't wait for the machines themselves to catch the eyes of passers by. Spokes models did the talking and they had no trouble finding people to talk to. Like we say, everyone is crazy about those Tablet PCs.
ATI's new board partner Sapphire ups the ante on heat sink fins ... one 'o these days there's not going to be enough room in the case for these things Samsung's showed Monitors with small bezels for multi-mon and
display walls. And great big monitors, 52-inches, for a nice big home
display.
Comdex 2002 was also the show in which multiple monitor use was acknowledged to the point of being built into designs. (Your guess is as good as ours as to why it has taken so long.) Display companies including Samsung showed monitors with smaller bezels. In some cases the monitors got larger while the bezels got smaller -- designs with home entertainment or big displays in mind.
New meaning for Private Idaho The multi-monitor configuration is becoming common although, in our
studies we have found that many users still don't get the picture. It is
something that has to be experienced -- not unlike the total work
environment displayed above. We don't think we'd want to have to wear a
seat belt at work. The Estari multi-monitor notebook. The keyboard is external.
Another view of mobile computing. In this case your work follows you home. For months leading up to the show Comdex organizers played hardball and asked top dollar for booth space and meeting rooms. By the time of the show, large space was given to massage therapists, shoe insert sellers and chair vendors. Deals were made. On the other hand, it's some of the stranger exhibits that make Comdex worth going to. And, if it weren't for the stranger trends like hidden cameras and communicator pens, we'd be working in a dying industry. This industry is not dying but it's certainly mutating.
Phone worship. Nokia was a major exhibitor at Comdex -- tells you a little something about how Comdex has changed and how phones are changing. Will people really recording video with their phones? Not today, but they are crazy about taking and sending tiny little snapshots. The phones of the future are going to have cameras ... period.
|
||
The JPR Comdex AwardsComdex represents the fall lineup of products coming out for the year. It’s
a good time to get a look at the hopeful new products and for us, it’s a good
time to make a few judgments on the products and technologies that are going to
be influential for the coming year in the technology business. In all humility,
and admitting that we didn’t see everything—although we tried, we really did—here
are our picks for the Best New Products The Sis600 is a .13-micron design with AGP 8X and support for DirectX 9 that shows what can be done with determination and your own fab. Best Computer—Mobile Entertainment Center Best Computer—New Home Entertainment PCs from Gateway and HP— Best Peripheral Best New Processor Best Software Best New Box Best Guitar Products we most want to see in our stockings this Christmas
|
|
|
|
|
Jon Peddie Research |
Jon Peddie: jon@jonpeddie.com Errors and Omissions: We do our best to keep our website current and accurate, but typographical errors occasionally occur. We reserve the right to correct or cancel any orders based on incorrect or erroneous information. |
|
This document maintained by webmaster@jonpeddie.com |
|
| | |
