Reporting Straight from the Consumer Electronics Show (CES)

by Lori Cunningham 

 I can’t believe the Consumer Electronics Show just happened this past week!  This is my ultimate favorite tradeshow to go to – it’s the end all for every geek — worldwide. 

 It was my intention to post the latest news and show the fun from the showroom floor everyday.  But the reality is that unless I wrote my updates at 12am in the morning, there’s just not time!  This year I thought I would share with you some of the press meetings, press parties, and sights of CES to give you an idea how fun and exciting a geekfest like CES really is! 

CEA gave an overview of the consumer electronics industry to a press-filled room

 As I post articles about CES, I will be reporting on some of the innovative products for moms and families rather than detailed descriptions of products introduced during the show.

<—The first press meeting of the show is shown to the left.  The CEA, Consumer Electronics Association who puts on CES gave reporters an overview of the trends, stats, and antidotes of what occurred in 2010 and what is about to change in 2011.  In a later post I will write about the top trends I foresee occurring in 2011. 

Monster press meetings at CES are always high energy, they make me feel as though I’m in a hyped up sales meeting.  The animated leader, Noal Lee, made his usual appearance on a Segway, which he balances on during the entire meeting.   —->

<—  CES Press meetings are great because the top executives make their appearances to make the latest announcements and product introductions.  Afterwards,  members of the press have the opportunity to talk to executives to ask further detailed questions.  Here, Sharp is announcing their new media tablet called Galapagos.

Companies, like Panasonic, add a lot of flash, music, video, and slides to enhance the excitement of their product launches and incite reporters to highlight their products in their publications…online and offline.  —>

Verizon iPhone 4G

There was a lot of buzz during the Verizon Press Event….would they announce that the iPhone4 would be available on their network?  After a lot of anticipation, the iPhone 4 was not even mentioned.  To my surprise, none of the members of the press asked this question either, although all of us were dying to know if and when it would occur.  I suppose they decided to hold off on their iPhone announcement so their other new products, like the Galaxy Tab 4G, and other LTE phones could have their own place in the mainstream media.

Nonetheless, I’m happy to announce that as of this morning, Verizon did make the announcement that the iPhone 4G phones will be available on the Verizon network, beginning February 10th.  Current Verizon customer can pre-order their iPhone 4G phones now to avoid the probably sellouts.  The iPhone 4G 16 GB phone will sell for $199 and the 32 GB phone will sell for $299.

Stay tuned for more news and pics from the CES showroom floor.