Industry

CEDIA (the show) has been growing by leaps and bounds each year, so CEDIA (the organization) announced that they’re adding a Spring show in Las Vegas. I do think that there is room for another targeted CE show in the first half of the year; CES has gotten way out of hand. CES is so big and so crowded that it’s impossible for a small company’s announcement to stand out and nearly impossible to navigate for attendees. But CEDIA is scaling back expectations for the event, saying that, “Feedback from CEDIA members indicates that there is strong support for a …

The New York Home Entertainment Show has come and gone… and I missed it (I was tied up at a meeting most of the day Friday and had commitments on Sunday). I am upset that I missed seeing Internet-only retailers Outlaw Audio, who showed off a new line of speakers, and Aperion Audio, also a speaker vendor. I can ask for review units (my home theater isn’t set up again just yet, but at least it’s not under water any more), but without a dealer channel, open-to-the-public shows like HES are the best venue for normal folks to see and …

I will be attending both CES and MacWorld next week, but as you can imagine when you cram two shows and two cities into one week, I will be extraordinarily pressed for time. Therefore, I will only be taking meetings with clients at CES, though I will be attending most of the press conferences on Sunday. I will also be at Digital Experience Sunday night and Showstoppers on Monday night. Journalists who would like to contact me for quotes and reactions to the announcements can call me on my VoIP line: 703-788-3788 or shoot me an email at: agreengart (at) …

Back in January, 2005, I posted a column asking if the speed of new technology was outstripping consumers’ abilities to absorb its implications. Thanks to the magic of Google, that old column is now getting new comments, one of which spurred me to revisit the issue. The complaints are numerous: nothing works with anything else, it all gets outdated too quickly, and retail salespeople don’t understand what they’re selling, so there’s no place to turn for advice. This reader’s solution? Withdraw from technology altogether. The question of when to buy/when to wait is a common one; nobody wants to buy …