Podcast: Play in new window
Vegas CES invades City to display new gadgets – Interview with Andrew Eisner at Retrievo
125,000 Vegas CES attendees invading desert town for sizzling electronics show.
Each person, emitting 100 watts, like light globes, crushing Vegas’s AC system, 1.3 BILLION watts raising heat. TV’s, computers, smartphones, other gadgets draining juice. AC maxing out at Las Vegas Convention Center.
CES heat won’t melt cell towers and mobile gear. Root Metrics and PC Mag say plenty of voice and data pipes for everyone’s smartphones, laptops, netbooks, ultra’s, pads–20 pounds of gear.
Verizon, leading pack like wolves. AT&T madly deploying LTE broadband. Sprint, T-Mobile equally confident. TM staff cartwheeling on hot pavement; AT&T, like the Borg, no longer assimilating them. They will comply.
Prepping for Vegas CES
Andrew Eisner of Retrievo fame cools feet with good pair of shoes. Enjoying walking exhibit floors, eyes searching for hidden companies sporting little-known products. Attendees fixated on 55″ OLED TV’s, $8,000 + tax. Rich folks planning to take some home.
Gadgets lying on floor never making it to market. Manufacturers testing exotic products, like rare parrots, 50% dying a quick death. CES,, largest testing zone for consumer acceptance.
Coke, Mercedes, Colgate-Palmolive, e-Trade, Timex big-wigs meet behind closed doors. Consumer electronics firms making media deals. Marshall McLuhan rolling in grave pondering “medium is the message.”
Interviewing Andrew Eisner
Andrew and I talk. Mind-stimulating questions. Future consumer electronics. New gizmos no longer called “devices.” Problem: products released without differentiation, say Android tablets against Apple, Amazon. No media, accessory aftermarket compared to two big “A’s.” No iTunes, App Store, Android Marketplace. No Kindle Fire Shop streaming videos, eBooks.
Prices dropping on commoditized Androided, BlackBerried “devices.” RIM considering buying Angry Birds’maker until BB OS ports to Android. Home entertainment systems wirelessly mating with $295 RIM tablets, Samsung OLED phones. iPhoners gobble bandwidth playing with Siri.
About Brian Prows