Conclusion

That’s a wrap

Without a doubt, Comdex 2003 was the most unspectacular Comdex I’ve ever been to. I was honestly expecting that the show would rebound this year now that it had new ownership and the economy has been turning around. In addition, I was getting e-mails and calls left and right as early as September asking me to schedule a meeting.

I learned later from NVIDIA’s Diane Vanasse that it was probably because companies were desperate for people to show up at their booth/suite. I had thought it was because meetings were being booked quickly – a good indicator of recovery. It was only a few years ago that you had to book things a month in advance at the latest. By the time Wednesday (the day before Comdex ended) had hit, I think I could have walked in to all of my meetings unannounced. MSI told me this would be their last year at Comdex. Boy how times have changed.

As a result, the Consumer Electronics Show will now be the North American show you can’t miss. We haven’t reported from CES since the Xbox announcement nearly two years ago. With Bill Gates rumored to announce more details on the next generation Xbox at CES 2004, something tells me I’ll be packing my bags for Vegas once again a little over a month from now. If all else fails, I’ll probably camp out in front of one of the plasma displays. Having that media pass has its privileges after all…

And as for Comdex, I’m pretty much ready to play TAPS for the show. Unless a breakthrough product is announced at Comdex 2004, I don’t think it will be worth attending, despite all the cool goodies. Farewell Comdex, I hardly knew thee.