Digital Daily » CES

Bartz Bails on CES Keynote

John Paczkowski — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:14:40 +0000

“Yahoo! is a top global brand whose vision is to be the center of people’s online lives, and Carol Bartz is leading the development of Yahoo!’s approach to delivering personally relevant, meaningful Internet experiences. We welcome Carol Bartz to the 2010 CES keynote stage to talk about what’s next for Yahoo! and the industry.”

– Consumer Electronics Association president and CEO Gary Shapiro, Oct. 13, 2009

Now this is odd: Yahoo (YHOO) CEO Carol Bartz has canceled plans to deliver a keynote at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January. This not a month after the Consumer Electronics Association boasted of her participation in a press release.

The reason for the cancellation: An alleged scheduling conflict. Said CEA spokesperson Jason Oxman: “Carol Bartz informed us late last week that her schedule has changed and she will no longer be able to deliver the speech at the 2010 International CES that Yahoo and CES had announced some weeks ago.”

It’s worth noting that prior to Oxman’s remark, which was posted to the comments of Tech Trader Daily, no official announcement of Bartz’s withdrawal was made. Indeed, the CEA press release issued yesterday announcing the addition of Qualcomm (QCOM) CEO Paul Jacobs to the CES keynote roster made no mention of Bartz at all. Moreover, her bio appears to have simply disappeared from the CES site.

As I said, odd.

Bartz is Keynoting CES? Are They Putting Her on Five-Second Delay?

John Paczkowski — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 18:09:18 +0000

Carol Bartz, Yahoo’s all caps CEO has been tapped to deliver a keynote address at the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show.

What’s Yahoo (YHOO) got to tout at a consumer electronics showcase? Could be an update to Connected TV, the same Internet-to-television platform the company debuted at CES last year. Or it could be something else entirely.

Either way it’s likely to be an interesting session. As Bartz’s F-bomb-dropping performance at D7 demonstrated (see video below), she’s nothing if not colorful.

[ See post to watch video ]

Cisco Swallows Starent

John Paczkowski — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 16:00:30 +0000

[ See post to watch video ]

Text Offenders

John Paczkowski — Sat, 23 May 2009 00:00:35 +0000

[ See post to watch video ]

CES to Give Apple 25,000 Square Feet of Free Advertising

John Paczkowski — Fri, 22 May 2009 11:55:44 +0000

If Macworld isn’t on its last legs after Apple’s withdrawal from the event, the Consumer Electronics Association is clearly hoping the annual Apple-only convention soon will be. CEA, which hosts the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas every January, said Thursday that it is expanding the amount of show floor space dedicated to Apple. Once just a paltry 4,000 square feet, the iLounge Pavilion now maxes out at 25,000 square feet. Once populated with iPod, iPhone, and Mac applications and accessories, the Pavilion will this year feature a section for iPhone apps.

Such a drastic expansion of Apple-related show floor space will no doubt inspire speculation that the Mac maker plans to put in an appearance at CES. But that seems unlikely given the company’s reasons for bowing out of Macworld. “Apple is reaching more people in more ways than ever before, so like many companies, trade shows have become a very minor part of how Apple reaches its customers,” the company said at the time. “The increasing popularity of Apple’s Retail Stores, which more than 3.5 million people visit every week, and the Apple.com website enable Apple to directly reach more than a hundred million customers around the world in innovative new ways.”

In any event, this is unfortunate news for Macworld and IDG, the publishing company that runs it. Without Steve Jobs or even Apple (AAPL) to help it upstage CES as Macworld has done in some years past, the event has far less to offer attendees and presenters than before. Certainly, no one is going to be decamping from Vegas in the middle of CES this year to hit Macworld. There’s no reason to. And with CES ramping up its efforts to woo Apple accessory manufacturers and retailers, well, things aren’t looking too good for Macworld, are they?

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Weekend Update, 3.28.09

Beth Callaghan — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 06:15:16 +0000

Another week into challenging times and the theme for Weekend Update is undoubtedly cost-saving, with a healthy dose of revenue-seeking.

On the revenue-seeking side, BoomTown’s Twitter Business Plan Count-Up hasn’t yielded any real keepers yet. There is a real contender, though–since Jennifer Aniston so publicly broke up with her boyfriend, John Mayer, on account of his Twitter “addiction,” BoomTown suggests offering “Twitter rehab” for those not willing to lose their relationships just yet. Not sure how zoning would work on that one, but the profit margin could be nice. The Guardian’s Changing Media Summit in London didn’t provide a lot of hard answers to the revenue question either, but it did gather the curious together to discuss the matter further, ponder the Next Big Thing, and talk about what the media company of tomorrow looks like. And, perhaps proving that during hard times Americans love an unlikely hero (a Seabiscuit for our own economic disaster?), Steve Wozniak escaped elimination from “Dancing With The Stars” for yet another week–undoubtedly due to the will of the people and their appreciation of his determined and goodhearted willingness to look silly on national television. The Pillsbury Doughboy bit probably didn’t hurt, either.

On the cost-saving side, MediaMemo wrote about job and salary cuts at the New York Times (NYT). The job cuts were on the business side, but the company slashed all of its nonunion salaries by 2.5-5 percent. It will ask for similar cuts from its unionized newsroom employees, in a spirit of “shared sacrifice.” Google (GOOG) sacrificed 200 more jobs, this time from sales. One of the most drastic signs of recession, however, may be the fact that Condé Nast’s higher echelons are cutting back on chauffeured cars to get them around Manhattan.

According to Digital Daily, It was Black Thursday at IBM (IBM) on the 26th, with 1,674 job losses (and counting). 5,000 jobs are expected to be cut overall, with many of the lost U.S. positions being transferred offshore. Better news over at Viacom’s (VIA) MTV games–according to new statistics, the company’s Rock Band franchise recently surpassed $1 billion in North American retail sales, making it the number one title of 2008 across all genres, based on revenue. And that’s before Beatles: Rock Band even comes close to shipping. That’s the kind of magic shown so far by Palm’s (PALM) forthcoming Pre handset, which–without a price or a release date–has boosted the company’s share price more than $7 based on little more than a CES debut and some enthusiastic analysts. Digital Daily noted that not everyone feels magical, but the launch will tell.

Over in Personal Technology, Walt Mossberg offered quick reviews of the iPhone apps he uses most often and that make the shiny Apple (AAPL) gadget worth the price. In Mossberg’s Mailbox, Walt pointed out the usefulness of IE8’s compatibility button, which makes the browser act like IE7 in certain instances, on Web sites that were coded around the peccadilloes of the earlier versions of the Microsoft (MSFT) software. Other readers had questions about ordering broadband service without a land line and burning movies to Blu-ray discs using an iMac. Katie Boehret spent the week testing out a new TV from Samsung–the first to integrate with the Yahoo (YHOO) Widget Engine, which enables viewers to watch shows and access the Web on the same large screen. Her thoughts are in The Mossberg Solution.

More next week.

CES Attendance: "The Right People"–Just Fewer of Them

John Paczkowski — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 15:08:41 +0000

The International Consumer Electronics Show didn’t break any attendance records this year. In fact, it didn’t even break the projected attendance figure of 130,000 that the Consumer Electronics Association offers up every year. Missed it by a pretty wide margin, actually. Amazingly, CES isn’t immune to the worst recession in 50 years.

Preliminary estimates suggest the show drew 110,000 attendees, down 22 percent from 141,150 in 2008.

A nasty little drop, although it doesn’t appear to have fazed the CEA, which is propping this year’s attendance figures with some over-the-top ALL CAPS hyperbole.

2009 INTERNATIONAL CES ELECTRIFIES AND ELICITS OPTIMISM FOR GLOBAL ECONOMY, reads the CEA press release in which the group makes its peace with the massive decline in attendance.

“Our board concluded that it is essential to have the right people attend CES. Board members reported getting more business done this year than at any prior show,” said CEA CEO Gary Shapiro. “One board member reported his company scheduled 450 customer meetings prior to CES and every one of those 450 meetings took place at the show. Quality trumps quantity when it comes to exhibitors and attendees conducting business at CES.”

At least in those years when attendance is down, anyway.

[Image Credit: Flickr International's CES photostream]

Palm "New-ness": A Share Price of $6.10

John Paczkowski — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 16:15:10 +0000

Palm’s long-suffering investors are today basking in the company’s “new-ness”–specifically, a stock that’s continuing the big rally it began last week after the announcement of the Palm Pre handset and Web OS.

As I write this, Palm is trading at $6.10–up an astonishing 85 percent since its big announcement. And it seems destined to go higher still, given the enthusiastic reception analysts have given it.

Deutsche Bank’s Jonathan Goldberg raised his rating on Palm (PALM) to Hold from Sell saying this morning that he is impressed with the Pre and the direction in which the company is now heading.

“Our thesis on Palm has been that its future is a binary outcome,” he wrote in a note to clients. “We are favorably impressed with the new device and more importantly with the new WebOS. We think the focus has now shifted from their mere survival to execution. The earnings model has the potential for significant earnings leverage, but our outlook is tempered by Palm’s history of missteps. We think they can ship 1m units FY09 and 4m in FY10. The stock has run significantly over the past two days reflecting this, but as we learn more about the popularity of the OS and the potential for them to actually ship a UMTS version of the Pre this year we will revisit our thesis.”

Obviously, there are a few noteworthy caveats in there. Still, Goldberg’s note is vastly different from the funereal notes analysts were writing about the company less than a month ago. Indeed, on Dec. 18, Canaccord Adams analyst Peter Misek essentially dismissed the company. “Due to increased competition in the industry, Palm has lost its place as a leading smartphone manufacturer and has gradually become less relevant as more competitors have introduced more innovative smartphone devices,” Misek said. “The company is financially distressed and lacks any viable future catalysts which could help restore profitability…. We believe that Palm has become largely irrelevant in the smartphone space due to a series of strategic errors and poor execution.”

Clearly, Palm’s situation has changed for the better. Now, let’s see for how long.

Weekend Update 1.11.09

Beth Callaghan — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 19:00:23 +0000

There’s got to be a joke somewhere in the fact that Macworld, the Consumer Electronics Show and the AVN Awards (the “Pornies”) all happen during the same week. Maybe even one that hasn’t been played out 10 times over. All Things Digital was too busy covering two out of three this week to think of one.

Digital Daily was on hand at Macworld ’09 Monday. Despite the flurry of wonky reporting about the health and/or “imminent death” of Steve Jobs–put into perspective here by BoomTown–nothing too remarkable happened during Apple’s (AAPL) final appearance at the annual event. Phil Schiller did a solid job delivering the keynote in Jobs’s place, introducing a new 17-inch MacBook Pro with an eight-hour internal battery and some innovative updates to iWork and iLife. Schiller ended his keynote with the announcement of changes in pricing and digital rights management for iTunes, punctuated by the surprise appearance of crooner Tony Bennett. Apparently, as Bennett sang, the best is yet to come. Crack photojournalist Adam Tow was on hand to capture the keynote in its entirety–All Things Digital’s photo coverage can be found here.

MediaMemo reported from CES about the pervasive 3-D theme of the conference and wondered whether people would pay cash to see a football game in 3-D at a theater instead of just staying home. There was the ongoing litany of the casualties of the econalypse: “Semantic” ad network Peer39 shut down its ad operation this week, Hearst is about to pull the plug on the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Forbes announced layoffs and Sir Howard Stringer announced the elimination of thousands of jobs at Sony (SNE). MediaMemo also caught the much anticipated introduction of Palm’s (PALM) new smartphone, the Palm Pre, and its new Web OS, a combo Palm deems superior to the iPhone and that many others consider Palm’s last chance for survival. The product’s success or failure will have a lot to do with its pricing, about which there’s much disbelief.

BoomTown had the lowdown this week on an amusing rumor about a Microsoft-backed (MSFT) run at Yahoo (YHOO), the emergence of Carol Bartz as the top prospect for Yahoo CEO and Microsoft’s deal with Verizon (VZ) and Dell (DELL) to distribute search. Jerry Yang submitted to the all-seeing eye of BoomTown’s Flip camera along with Yahoo President Sue Decker to talk about Yahoo’s new product, Connected TV. The camera also caught some chatty attendees and a few demos, including one of a new Disney (DIS) music product given by a guy who looked like a member of ZZ Top.

Speaking of ZZ Top, catch gadget godfather Walt Mossberg trying out some 3-D glasses on his annual odyssey around the convention floor. All he needs is a longer beard and a ‘32 Ford and he could be a band member, too. Walt and colleague Katie Boehret caught many of the more interesting gadgets on video, and Walt previewed some more for FOX News.

More next week.

Palm–Without Me

John Paczkowski — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 23:32:02 +0000

[ See post to watch video ]

CEA CEO on Economy: We Can Rebuild It. We Have the Technology…

John Paczkowski — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 18:42:22 +0000

“We are the industry that will breath life into the economy.” This according to Consumer Electronics Association President and CEO Gary Shapiro, who at CES this morning proclaimed the consumer electronics sector as some sort of financial Viagra for the worst economy since the Great Depression.

“Innovation is the best medicine to end economic stagnation,” Shapiro said. Well, if that’s the case, perhaps we need to up the prescription a bit. Because for 2009, the CEA is projecting a 0.6 percent drop in revenue–if all goes well. Things should be better in 2010, which, according to Shapiro, will herald a return to growth in the industry. Again, if all goes well. Says Shapiro, “Innovation is the moon that will cause the economic tide to blossom.”

Innovation is the moon that will cause the economic tide to blossom.

And rising on that economic tide, a million little remote-control boats, each with a little corporate logo and a diminutive CEO. And all of them, to a one, sailing forth into a new dawn of profitability. A profitability brought forth by growing unit sales, which are the sun, its every ray a glorious new revenue stream refracted in the glistening waves.

Yeah. Those PC Guys Never Stood a Chance, Palm.

John Paczkowski — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 11:00:32 +0000

We’ve learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone. PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in.”

– In 2006, Palm CEO Ed Colligan utters the words he’s been choking on since the debut of Apple’s iPhone

For Palm (PALM), which lost two-thirds of its market value in 2008, today may well be a watershed event–the point at which its long downward trajectory was suddenly reversed, buoyed up by a new operating system too long in coming. At a Consumer Electronics Show event later this morning, the company is expected to uncrate its Nova OS and a line of Nova-powered offerings with which it hopes to reinvigorate the Palm franchise.

Hope, of course, is the operative word here. Because while insiders describe Nova with superlatives typically reserved for the likes of Apple (”We’re onto something huge,” Palm engineer Mike Bell recently told BusinessWeek. “Some of the stuff we’re working on here is mind-blowing.”), Palm’s platform and its business remain very much a show-me story–or rather a you-can-show-me-but-I-probably-won’t-believe-you story. Consider this late December research note from Needham analyst Mark May:

Although the new platform is unlikely to challenge any of the competing smartphone platforms, the credentials of Palm’s engineering team lend a modicum of credibility to this possibility…. Palm is on the verge of oblivion. While the company has traded water the past three years, new competitors, such as Apple (AAPL) and Google (GOOG), have entered the market while others, such as Research In Motion (RIMM), have gotten much stronger.

Clearly, May isn’t buying Palm’s “we’re onto something huge” claims. That said, there’s no reason to dismiss them–just yet, anyway.

CES '09: Microsoft Yawnote

John Paczkowski — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 02:00:46 +0000

With little in the way of exciting news to announce, Microsoft (MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer’s keynote address at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas tonight promised to be a lackluster, if not downright wearisome, affair–even if you’re unnaturally excited by the idea of Windows 7. With the beta version of the operating system widely leaked last week, there simply was not all that much to reveal. Unless, of course, Windows 7 PCs–like Vista PCs before them–ship with XP downgrade rights….

Beyond that, there’s likely to be a fair bit of talk about the Windows Mobile platform, the company’s new–and prematurely announced–agreement to become the default search provider for Verizon Wireless (VZ) and perhaps provide some sort of Zune interface for cellphones, but little else.

The keynote begins a bit before its scheduled start–not with Steve Ballmer, but with two beat-boxers. Wonderful, they’re rapping about CES. Where’s Bill “Big Pimpin’” Gates, when you need him?

The performers leave and Consumer Electronics Association President Gary Shapiro takes the stage. He acknowledges it was a “tough 2008,” and after a few introductory remarks (”Steve received a perfect 800 on the math portion of the SATs!”), introduces Ballmer. But first a little video. As it plays, I notice my inbox filling up with a handful of Microsoft press releases: Microsoft’s Ballmer Announces Availability of Windows 7 Beta and Windows Live, Microsoft makes new, early version of Windows available, etc.

Ballmer takes the stage a few moments later, all high energy and charisma. He begins by recognizing Microsoft’s history at the event and, of course, that Bill Gates has keynoted a CES or two in his time. A brief aside about email messages he’s received about the event today. There’s one from Gates: “Steve make sure you’re at CES and not that other event in Las Vegas this week” (presumably the annual Adult Video News Award show). And one from Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang: “Steve why do you keep ignoring my friend requests on Facebook?” Then, on to an industry overview.

“Today our world, our nation and our industry face some really big challenges,” Ballmer says. “All of us, we’re all feeling it. And its impact will likely be with us for quite awhile. But no matter what happens with the economy or how long this recession lasts, I believe our digital lives will only continue to get richer.”

Companies that pursue innovation will do better than those that pull back, says Ballmer. “We will continue to invest more than others.”

Outlining the broader vision now. Microsoft’s original vision was to put a PC in every home–a single screen. Today, it’s about three screens. The PC, the mobile phone and the TV. And the barriers between these screens are slowly going away. They’re being connected by the cloud. This is the “last mile” for the consumer experience–bringing the TV, the PC and the mobile phone together through the cloud.

And at the center of this experience? Windows, of course.

“In the next couple of years the computer will be able to hear you,” says Ballmer. “Speech gestures and handwriting will become a normal part of the way we interact with our PCs, our phones and our TVs…. Windows has become the language that over a billion people speak around the world.”

Moving on to hardware now. “At this time economically, when people are struggling…the choice that offers the most power and most value for the money is the PC.”

Oh, we all know what’s coming now, don’t we?

Yep. “That’s why I’m a PC and I’m proud of it!”

Onward. “Microsoft is transforming Windows from a PC operating system to the cloud,” says Ballmer, who notes that he’s excited by the progress the company’s made with Windows 7. “It’s the best Windows ever,” he says. Faster boot times, touch support, etc. “We are on track to deliver the best version of Windows ever. We are putting in all the right ingredients…and working hard to get it right and to get it ready…. Windows 7 will make every day tasks faster and easier.” And then, as expected, Ballmer announces the official beta. Smattering of applause. No big surprise here. “I encourage you all to get out and download it,” Ballmer adds.

Moving on to Windows Live now. A handful of announcements. Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live Photo Gallery, and Windows Live Mail. A partnership with Facebook. And a distribution deal with Dell (DELL) and the Verizon Wireless search deal, which was unofficially announced earlier today.

Ballmer invites product manager Charlotte Johnson to the stage for a demo of Windows 7, etc. Apparently very easy to clear desktop clutter in the new OS. Easy to compare two documents or Web sites as well. If that’s Windows 7’s marquee feature, Microsoft is in big trouble. This is all stuff that was in the pre-beta. “Homegroup” feature seems a nice way to set up a home network. Course, all the PCs involved must be Windows 7 machines for it to work.

On to multi-touch. “We built touch into the DNA of Windows 7,” Johnson says. She uses a touchscreen to navigate a 3D map of Manhattan. Yawn. Very little new here. The same is true of the Windows Mobile demo. Big revelation: Internet Explorer 6 for mobile phones supports Flash. And the Windows Live home page can now display updates from Facebook, Twitter, etc…. No. Nothing much new here at all. Seems today’s big announcement is the official beta of Windows 7.

Oh, here’s something. A new feature in Messenger. Some sort of dynamic display picture to communicate user moods. Exciting. A bit more patter and we’re on to the obligatory “I’m a PC” ads.

And then…another band? An Australian musical comedy act called Tripod. WACKY. No Flight of the Conchords, though.

Tripod finishes up and Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft’s Entertainment & Devices Division, takes the stage. “Zune had a great year. We’ve won critics over,” he says–and without a trace of irony. Two million people on Zune social, apparently.

Moving on to Xbox. “Not only our best holiday season but our best year ever for Xbox sales.” Two new Halo games in the pipe–”Halo Wars” and “Halo 3 ODST.”

Then a few moments on Xbox Live Primetime and we’re on to Kodu, a tool that enables users to create games without knowing a traditional programming language. Bach invites a 12-year-old girl onstage to demo it. She shows off a game she created and then beats Bach at it.

Ballmer returns to the stage for some Microsoft Research demos. First, some sort of digital anatomy textbook. Five bucks and a copy of Bill Gates’s “The Road Ahead” says we’ll get another Surface demo next.

And indeed we do. That’s followed by flexible color display less than one millimeter thick. And that’s pretty much it. A few final remarks from Ballmer and Shapiro and then Tripod closes out the keynote.

Meet "Kevin the Sad PR Guy," Our 2009 Booth Babe

John Paczkowski — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 20:41:42 +0000

Our industry is the one that this going to get the economy through this recession.

– Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association

The International Consumer Electronics Show will kick off next week shrouded in a nimbus of recessionary gloom. Show attendance is expected to be down eight percent this year, according to Gary Shapiro, CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association, who expects 130,000 attendees to flood the convention–11,000 fewer than last year. The show floor itself will be slightly diminished as well. CES exhibitor booths required 1.8 million square feet in 2008. In 2009, they’ll take up 1.7 million, presumably thanks to the absence of Seagate (STX), Logitech (LOGI), Cisco (CSCO), Philips (PHG), Yahoo (YHOO) and Sanyo–all of which have abandoned plans to exhibit on the show floor. That said, the overall number of exhibitors will remain the same as last year, at about 2,700.

So the show will be a bit smaller and a bit less clamorous than in years past. Likely a bit more sober as well, given this rough retail year. Quite a change from the extravagance of years past, but not without a certain upside. “This is the bleakest CES in 30 years going in,” said Envisioneering Group analyst Richard Doherty. “[Some exhibitors] will be spending more of their time off the show floor. We may now be able to get between the Venetian and the convention in less than an hour.”

That's Not a Carrier-Level Routing System, It's a Wireless Stereo

John Paczkowski — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 19:58:13 +0000

“Cisco wireless music system.” To the home entertainment enthusiast those words make about as much sense as “Apple carrier-level routing system.” But to Cisco (CSCO) they’re perfectly logical, and the beginnings of a new growth business. At the Consumer Electronics Show in January, the company plans to introduce a new line of products, among them a wireless digital stereo system and an Internet video set-top box.

Consumer electronics devices like these seem an odd shift in direction for a company whose core business has long been peddling switches and routers. But for Cisco it’s another step toward the end-to-end triple play solution for carrier networks and the digital home it’s been yammering on about since acquiring Scientific Atlanta in 2005. Question is, can a company whose name is synonymous with routers and switches expand its brand to include consumer electronics? Certainly, it’s no easy task. Said John MacFarlane, CEO of Sonos, the company that developed what’s now the gold standard in wireless digital stereo systems, “I don’t think that when they hear the name Cisco they think of great products in consumer electronics.”

Now, MacFarlane clearly has a horse in this race, but he speaks the truth. Cisco’s not a brand one expects to see in, say, Magnolia Audio Video. Which begs the question: Is a connected audio component really the best strategy here? “I can’t help but wonder why Cisco is not simply focusing on enabling the connectivity and distribution piece on the network rather than going for the end-point,” Jonathan Greene writes over at Atmasphere. “I’d rather have something neutral that provides access to content (and not just music, btw) where I want it–whether that’s in my house or pushed out to my mobile device. The limited info on the upcoming Cisco product seems to limit the usefulness to a connected audio component. These typically sit in your stereo rack connected to your home network and stream content through as though it was in your audio player. Sounds a lot like Sonos, AppleTV and quite a few other boxes that have been sold with considerably less success.”