Doors open at biggest gadget fair
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Thousands of new products will be unveiled over the next few days in Las Vegas.
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It's finally here in our hands! Take a look at this much-hyped gadget from all angles in our CNET photo gallery.
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Overclocked notebook and wireless radios will debut at the Computex Taipei trade show.
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The Mobile World Congress is seeing the introduction of a wealth of gadgets to meet needs and desires.
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Televisions big enough to cover  living-room walls and postage stamp-sized hard drives for  playing movies on mobile phones were among the gadgets unveiled  as the year's big U.S. electronics show kicked off on  Wednesday.
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A mix of mobile gadgets and services will jockey for dominance at the Mobile World Congress.
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One of the industry's largest trade shows is underway this week in Spain as new phones, services and strategies take the spotlight.
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The IFA international consumer electronics show in Berlin featured HDTV sets, 3D displays, a multitude of digital displays and more.
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Motherboards are a way of life for the growing crowds at the Taiwan trade show. Plus: a new take on the megahertz wars.
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Companies attending Asia&#39;s leading information technology trade fair here are showcasing their latest products marking a new era of fast video, mobile and Internet services at low prices.
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(InfoWorld) - There will be something for everyone at this year's Cebit trade show. Unfortunately, that's not what everyone wants. When the world's biggest IT fair opens its doors next Thursday in Hanover, Germany, there will be plenty on show for business customers, including CRM, VOIP and RFID products. There will also be much for consumers, with high-definition TVs, digital cameras and next-generation DVD players all on display. Something for everyone is nice, but the growth in consumer products has made some exhibitors think twice about attending. The cell phones and flat-screen TVs draw more consumers to the show, critics say, and that's not good for companies that want to meet professional IT buyers. "The ROI [return on investment] of a presence at Cebit is not really worthwhile," said Christine NÃ¶stelbacher, a marketing manager for enterprise content-management company Open Text Corp., which decided not to attend Cebit this year. "The target group I want to meet is not corresponding to the target group at Cebit." It's a problem that has affected other shows, notably Comdex in the U.S., which closed in 2004 after exhibitors turned their backs on what became a sprawling, unfocused event. Few predict the imminent demise of Cebit, which attracted some 450,000 visitors last year, more than any show of its kind. But anecdotal evidence suggests it is not the must-attend show of years past. A quick check with Hanover's business hotels, such as the Radisson, Ramada and Park Inn, revealed that most are booked up only for Wednesday and Thursday next week, with openings from Friday onward. "We noticed a few more last-minute cancellations this year and weren't able to fill them as quickly as we have in the past," a reservationist at Park Inn said. "And beginning Friday, we have a number of room openings." Last-minute reservations for private rooms in Hanover are "a bit difficult" but possibilities exist, said a sales agent at Travel2Fairs GmbH, which books rooms for trade show visitors. "Finding a room directly outside of Hanover is no problem," the sales agent said. "We've noticed a drop in demand this year." Cebit itself is also less busy. About 6,000 exhibitors will attend this year, down from nearly 6,200 last year and 8,000 in 2001, said Katharina Siebert, a spokeswoman for show organizer Deutsche Messe. The floor space sold has also slipped, to around 280,000 square meters, from slightly over 300,000 square meters in 2006, she said. The decline reflects a slow but steady departure of companies using Cebit to promote products and meet customers. Along with Open Text, handset makers Motorola Inc. and Nokia Corp. will also be absent this year, following in the footsteps of Dell Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co., which ended their participation years ago. "It's getting a bit calmer at Cebit; you can't compare it with 8 to 10 years ago," said Regina Israel, European corporate communications manager for Seagate Technologies Inc., which will attend the show this year only in its partners' booths. "Cebit tries to make something for everyone," she said, "but I'm not sure that really works." Marcus Ehrenwirth, a public-relations worker with phronesis PR GmbH of Germany who attended his first Cebit in 1998, said the show has developed an "image crisis" by trying to compete with the IFA consumer show in Berlin. But companies are too quick to judge the event, he said. Getting sales leads depends on direct marketing beforehand, which some companies don't do. And Cebit offers other advantages, like being able to meet several existing customers in one location, he said. Open Text's NÃ¶stelbacher said the industry is maturing. IT is of interest now to business managers, she said, not just IT people, and Open Text thinks it can find a better audience at focused events such as SAP AG's Sapphire and DMS Expo, a document-management conference in Cologne, Germany. Deutsche Messe says its show has not lost its business focus. Cebit has always showed consumer goods, which attract professional buyers as well as consumers, Siebert noted. And organizers say around 85 percent of attendees are professional buyers. The show also remains important for some big vendors, such as IBM Corp., which retains a huge presence this year. Still, Deutsche Messe has taken steps to address the concerns. In January it announced a "restructuring" effort for 2008 that includes shortening Cebit to six days from seven, and opening on Tuesday instead of its usual Thursday start. The idea is to cut costs for exhibitors and give them four consecutive days of mostly enterprise buyers, with consumers and small businesses likely to come on the weekend. It's also promising joint marketing programs to help generate sales leads, and is adding new business-focussed events like this year's SOA World. "The success of Cebit will rise again, " Ehrenwirth predicted, "but it will take some time."
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The annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas has never been bigger, but it has become a challenging and sometimes ineffectual place to introduce new products.
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By Al Gibes  This is the last of three columns devoted to my discoveries at the 2007 International Consumer Electronics Show held in January in Las Vegas.  New Web sites, services and software prove that an idea doesn't have to have a cord or be battery-operated to turn heads at CES.
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Internet TV, mobile TV and video on  demand may be the talk of the technology sector but when it  comes to buying decisions at this week&#39;s IFA electronics fair,  television sets are set to be bigger business than ever.
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Big HDTVs, next-generation DVD, and plenty of connected devices for your home take center stage as the 2005 CES prepares to open.
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At a tech expo in Beijing, big names like Nokia vie with as yet unknown companies to get attention for their wares.
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Consumer electronics giant shows off its new wares with an emphasis on "lifestyle," "emotional" and "experience."