Ennui Sets In At CES
Jan 10th, 2008 by John Stodder
Technology is how a lot of people kept themselves amused before presidential politics got interesting again. No doubt Steve Jobs is already working on an iPhone that can cry.
To keep things in perspective, however, more people did attend the Consumer Electronics Show than the Iowa caucuses–despite rising costs that might drive the show out of its traditional Las Vegas home. But the digital revolution seems to have entered a rococo phase.
In case you’re not sleeping off a Red Bull hangover in a Vegas hotel room right now, here are a few tidbits about CES from around the business press and blogs, so you can feel like you were there:
The New York Times‘ David Pogue saw a few things he liked, particularly the Sony XEL-1, an 11-inch TV that initially will retail for $2,500, because:
It’s the thinnest TV on earth (three millimeters), and the picture is breath-catchingly spectacular. Its color range is far superior to any other TV technology, and so is its contrast ratio: a million to one (compare with 20,000 to 1 on a typical plasma). You just can’t get past the astonishing, real, liquid, vivid look of this screen.
It’s an OLED screen, a very new technology with low power consumption and no motion ghosting. In time, the size will go up and the price will go down. Get psyched.
The BBC noticed TN Games’ rather military-looking vest gamers can wear to simulate what their avatar feels:
The vests are based on technology that was originally designed for use by doctors to remotely examine patients.
The vests, connected to the computer by USB, consist of a light weight air compressor that pumps air into bladders.
A version designed for first person shooters contains eight cells that are able to recreate the direction and force of bullet fire.
Another version recreate the G-forces felt whilst driving and flying.
When the player accelerates, the cells inflate in the chest. Faster acceleration causes the cells to inflate quicker, whilst braking causes the back cells to activate.
The firm has also designed sleeves, leg covers and a helmet that plug into the vests to deliver what it says is a “full body gaming experience”.
Beyond the gadgets, the San Jose Mercury News’ Troy Wolverton picked up on a growing detente between the consumer electronics industry and the entertainment industry, which has viewed with suspicion each new audio and video device:
(T)he entertainment giants seem to be taking another tack. Instead of fighting technological change - or ignoring it - many content providers at the Consumer Electronics Show here are trying to get a grip on what changes are coming - and how to profit from them.
“The Hollywood guys realize that in a digital world, they need to think differently about how they distribute their content,” said Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies, a technology consulting firm. “I don’t think it’s a fluke (that they’re here).”
Their presence is “going to be a very important part of the show going forward.”
That might be important for keeping some reporters from falling into the old ennui. This year’s show left the Wall Street Journal’s Portals columnist, Lee Gomes, feeling a little jaded:
At every CES, it’s promised that the living room-office divide will at last be breached; that people will start doing the sorts of things on their big living room sets that they do on their PCs, notably downloading and viewing videos.
And at every CES, the big computer companies try to convince the world that they are really consumer electronics companies, and thus something that folks ought to get excited about. (Bill Gates usually gives some sort of “vision” keynote speech toward this end.) Meanwhile, the real consumer electronics companies have come to accept, however reluctantly, that what really excites consumers is watching “National Treasure: Book of Secrets,” and that they are just along for the ride.
So what is “new” this year? Same old same old.
Gizmodo scorns some of the familiar CES traditions in this post. The show, “a cluster—k of nerds, sluts and suits,” signals “the downfall of our society.” After ragging on “booth babes,” fake game shows and magic acts to lure gawkers, the popularity of “tacky” digital picture frames, weird products like designer tasers, and hype for the unaffordable Panasonic 150-inch TV, they take aim at the PR…
We get suckered in to covering CES like it’s the second coming every year; we brought something like 14 people this time around. For what? So we can cover stuff we normally would pass on in hopes that we can get it up three minutes before Engadget. Companies cocktease us and make us go and do pointless liveblogs of their boring press conferences only to announce minor upgrades of the same garbage they released last year. This is worth 14 round-trip airline tickets and a dozen hotel rooms for a week?
…the marketing…
The way people talk here is like 1984 if Big Brother was more interested in LCD TVs than suppressing the people. Is the Jook wireless streaming dongle really “revolutionary?” No, not even a little. Is it true that “There’s a fine line between art and technology [and] it’s called Opus, from LG”? No. That doesn’t even make sense, and it offends me that you think I’d take such an idiotic statement seriously. You can’t walk five feet on the show floor without hearing some horrible line of moronic marketing speak come out of the mouth of an overly perky 5-foot-tall PR girl in a pantsuit, and it makes me want to stab myself in the ears.
…and the scams:
Half the stuff at this show is utter junk, created by money-obsessed vultures who would kick their own mothers in the teeth to figure out a way to trick consumers into paying a 5000% markup on something that nobody wants. It’s booth after depressing booth of Wii weapons, nano knockoffs, iPod accessories and any number of other things that are pumped out at alarming rates with no thought being put into innovation or usefulness. When you disregard the top, most visible 1%, pretty much every consumer electronics company eschews good engineering, good design and imagination for getting derivative garbage out to market as fast as possible. It’s a marketplace overflowing with lazy ripoff artists, greasy-haired shysters just looking to make a quick buck with the least amount of effort possible. And that’s not even mentioning the environmental impact of manufacturing thousands upon thousands of tons of plastic crap every year, a good chunk of which ends up in landfills.
These days, the biggest consumer-electronics profits go to retailers who sell nothing but (usually unnecessary) peace of mind. From the AP:
Consumer Priority Service Inc.’s humble little stand at the International Consumer Electronics Show has no blaring speakers, no shiny flat-screen display, no “booth babes” in tight clothes. But it is memorable for its honesty.
The company facilitates the extended warranties that electronics retailers sell to consumers. In the midst of an ardent celebration of gadgetry, Consumer Priority Service is reminding people that this stuff isn’t flawless. Sometimes it needs to be fixed.
“There’s nothing else out here in this entire conference that can attach to any product that’s sold,” said Jack Heftez, a salesman for the Newark, N.J. company.
The key truth in CPS is on a sign in its booth that reads: “Any product + CPS more profit.” Above “more profit” it shows a pile of greenbacks.
This is because extended warranties are enormous money makers for retailers, generally more profitable than the underlying products. Consumers will pay a lot for peace of mind.
But it’s likely that consumers are overestimating how often repairs are necessary and what they would cost. In fact, Consumer Reports magazine has urged consumers to reject almost all such warranties, which sometimes cost several hundred dollars.
If extended warranties are not a good bet, Consumer Priority Service might not deserve the blame.
It arranges for repairs of broken items, but it doesn’t directly sell the warranties. It sells them to retailers, which resell them to consumers at a markup. And Heftez said his company adjusts its prices regularly to reflect how often certain products need to be fixed. That means that stores pay less for service contracts on goods that don’t really break much.
Whether the stores pass the savings along to consumers is another question.
Dull for a consumer-electronics show, but a thrill ride for those who keep track of money.
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