Howdy, I'm MG Siegler. I’m a general partner at CrunchFund and a columnist for TechCrunch. This is where I collect things.
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Happy 35th Birthday Star Wars
I’m going to celebrate by watching the theatrical release tonight. How are you celebrating?
Following up on this post, Angel Alvarado goes back a couple more steps. The results aren’t pretty:
Best of CES winners:2011: Motorola Xoom2010: Panasonic’s 3D plasma TV2009: Palm Pre
— Angel Alvarado (@alvaradoangel) January 12, 2012
While some of what you read from the people who attended CES talks about how great it was — cool launches, record attendance, yadda, yadda — this is absolutely what it looked like from afar. Apple, Apple, Apple. (As predicted.)
Or worse: copy Apple, copy Apple, copy Apple.
A cynic might suggest that those who went are trying to justify their decision. A cynical bastard might suggest those same people are trying to justify their continued involvement with a show that simply does not matter anymore.
This won’t matter. This is nonsense. Case in point: CES 2011 — Motorola Xoom Wins Best of Show.
Update: CES Winners Are Losers
In a bit of fortuitous timing, I was already planning to be in New York next week.
Haven’t heard much about the event beyond “textbooks”, as was previously reported.
Naturally, Apple chooses to announce the event right in the middle of CES. By the end of the afternoon I expect 75% of the companies at that event to be talking about their upcoming textbook offerings.
I’ve never been to CES and doubt I’ll ever go. The only reason I would have any desire to is just to see the spectacle of it, not for anything actually announced at the event, which seems to be less and less each year.
As Nick Wingfield reports for The New York Times, this doesn’t sound good:
The group said it was expecting more than 2,700 exhibitors at this week’s event, compared with 2,800 the year before, although it does not have a final number yet because it is still selling space. Attendance for the show last year was more than 149,000, but it’s too soon to tell whether this year will exceed that figure.
There’s one common feeling amongst every single person I’ve talked to that is going this year: dread.
This morning, Microsoft made waves with a big move: they’re pulling out of CES. Frank Shaw, Microsoft’s head of communications, made the announcement on the company blog, noting that this year’s CES (which is in a few weeks) would be the last one featuring both a Microsoft keynote and even a Microsoft booth.
Like Apple before them, Microsoft apparently decided to move on from the notion of a big conference dictating their early year news and release cycle. Or that’s how Shaw framed it, at least:
We’ll continue to participate in CES as a great place to connect with partners and customers across the PC, phone and entertainment industries, but we won’t have a keynote or booth after this year because our product news milestones generally don’t align with the show’s January timing.
But wait.
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