What’s the big deal about the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show?
If you make, market, sell, service or write about consumer electronics; you’ll probably be in Las Vegas this week with close to 150,000 of your closest friends. The consumer electronics show is so huge that it fills the Las Vegas Convention Center and the Venetian Convention Center. Other manufacturers display their products in a dozen or more additional hotels and conference venues, each hoping to grab some of this year’s spotlight.
Over 140,000 attendees have signed up and are coming from over 140 countries to see, buy and sell technology to a world that can’t wait for the next biggest, smallest, fastest or lightest device. Did you know that the average U.S. household has 24 consumer electronics devices in their home, representing a $190 billion dollar market each year?
The Consumer Electronics Show is the largest convention in the United States each year and the world’s largest consumer technology show with over 2,700 exhibitors, covering 1.7 million square feet of show floor (that’s 35 football fields.) Over 4,500 journalists and broadcasters will be here to bring you the stories as they break. With almost two journalists for every vendor, there should be no lack of stories hitting the wire this week. (It’s also why local motels that usually go for $69 per night can command $249 per night during the show.)
But what else makes this the granddaddy of all conventions? Simply put, if you have a breakthrough innovation, this is where it’s usually introduced. Just look at the record of products that have debuted at the Consumer Electronics Show since its inception in 1967.
· 1970 The VCR
· 1981 Camcorder and the CD player
· 1990 Digital audio technology
· 1994 Digital satellite systems
· 1996 The DVD
· 1998 High definition television
· 2000 Satellite radio
· 2001 Microsoft Xbox and plasma TV’s
· 2003 Blu-Ray DVD
· 2004 HD radio
· 2005 IPTV
· 2009 3D HDTV
· 2010 Tablets, netbooks and Android devices
· 2011 Android Honeycomb, connected TV and smart appliances
Will this year see another ground-breaking technology innovation? Stay tuned and subscribe to this column for plenty of updates during the coming week.
Doug Bardwell, based in Cleveland, OH, writes about interesting new travel technology topics, across the country and around the world. Feel free to drop him a line at travel.dougbardwell@gmail.com with suggestions for future products to be reviewed. If you've ever used one of the products he's reviewed, please leave your thoughts in the comment box below. To get his stories delivered to your inbox, click the RSS feed or the "Subscribe" button above or follow him on Twitter @photodb.. To read Doug’s disclosure notice, click here.
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