TECHNOLOGY REPORT

We were sorry to miss CES 2011 which wrapped up today. Encouraging was the high attendance of 140,000. I think this was not a record but it was close, and higher attendance than during the economic doldrums of the past few years. I consider technology to be a high quality and leading economic indicator – if Tech is doing well then the future is looking brighter for the global economy. Unlike some “regional specific” industries, Technology is critical in the developed world where the global economy is in many ways “directed” but also critical in the developing world where much of the production activity takes place and an increasing amount of innovation and services as well.

—– CES 2011 Post Show Press Release ——-

2011 INTERNATIONAL CES WOWS WORLD WITH INNOVATION AND OPTIMISM

Record-breaking 30,000 Overseas Visitors Experience World’s Largest Consumer Technology Tradeshow

January 9, 2011, Las Vegas – More than 2,700 technology companies across global industries dazzled attendees at the 2011 International CES®, with the ground-breaking event energizing the technology world. The 2011 CES set several new records, including 30,000 international attendees and 22 top CEOs participating in keynotes. Owned and produced by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA)®, the 2011 CES, the world’s largest consumer technology tradeshow, concluded today in Las Vegas.

“The 2011 International CES was a phenomenal worldwide event that spanned global industries including technology, automotive and entertainment markets,” said Gary Shapiro, president and CEO, CEA. “This global technology gathering featured more innovation, more news, more social media buzz and more international attendance than any other show in CES history.”

Preliminary attendance figures indicate more than 140,000 industry professionals attended the 2011 International CES. More than 30,000 attendees came from outside the United States, with the show attracting more than 80 international delegations. CEA conducts an independent audit of attendance at the International CES and final verified figures will be available in the spring.

Major technology trends emerged from the CES show floor including the launch of more than 80 tablets, wireless 4G LTE, connected TV technologies, smart appliances – featured for the first time in show history – and electric vehicles. Ford’s Alan Mulally unveiled the company’s first electric car at the 2011 International CES with its Ford Focus Electric.

The 2011 CES brought top CEOs to the CES stage including Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer, Verizon’s Ivan Seidenberg, Audi’s Rupert Stadler, Samsung’s Boo-Keun Yoon, Ford’s Alan Mulally, Netflix’s Reed Hastings, Cisco’s John Chambers, Xerox’s Ursula Burns and GE’s Jeffrey Immelt. These executives were joined onstage by leaders spanning various industries including Comcast’s Brian Roberts, Time Warner Cable’s Glenn Britt, Dreamworks Animation’s Jeffrey Katzenberg and Hulu’s Jason Kilar. The 2011 International CES conference program consisted of 250 sessions featuring 900 speakers.

As the relationship between technology and the content community grows in significance, the 2011 CES featured a new program, Entertainment Matters, designed for the Hollywood community. As part of the program, the 2011 CES featured the first-ever Entertainment Matters keynote panel with leaders from Microsoft, Coca-Cola, Akamai Technologies, Interpublic Group and WPP.

The 2011 International CES featured government leaders from the U.S. and around the world including United States Trade Representative Ambassador Ron Kirk, United States Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke and FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, along with Commissioners Meredith Attwell Baker, Mignon Clyburn and Robert M. McDowell.

The 2011 CES created phenomenal buzz in the social media world with more than 158,000 CES-related tweets since Monday, January 3, and more than 11,000 page views on CEA’s Digital Dialogue blog.

For more news on the 2011 International CES, visit CESweb.org. The International CES will return to Las Vegas next January 10-13, 2012.

About CEA:
The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) is the preeminent trade association promoting growth in the $186 billion U.S. consumer electronics industry. More than 2,000 companies enjoy the benefits of CEA membership, including legislative advocacy, market research, technical training and education, industry promotion, standards development and the fostering of business and strategic relationships. CEA also sponsors and manages the International CES – The Global Stage for Innovation. All profits from CES are reinvested into CEA’s industry services. Find CEA online at CE.org.

UPCOMING EVENTS

CEA Economic Retreat
March 1-4, 2011, Snowmass Village, CO
CES on the Hill/Digital Patriots Dinner
May 10-11, 2011, Washington, DC
CEA Line Shows
June 2011, New York, NY
CEO Summit and Board Retreat
October 1-3, 2011, Stresa, Lake Maggiore, Italy
CEA Industry Forum
October 2011
CES New York Press Preview featuring CES Unveiled @ NY
November 2011, New York, NY

Contacts: Tara Dunion e-mail: tdunion@CE.org
www.CE.org

Sarah Myers smyers@CE.org
www.CESweb.org

CES 2011 Twitter Updates:

Gizmodo, the gadget blog has announced their “best of show” CES techology:

http://gizmodo.com/5725706/the-best-of-ces-2011

Although we’re missing our normal live coverage of the CES 2011 Technology Conference this year (for the first time in several years), it’s going to be interesting to follow the stories and buzz from afar.    Today is CES Unveiled – the big press event before the main show – and reports are  already streaming in about some great new technology.

My favorite item so far is ASUS new tablet computer with a pull out keyboard.   For bloggers and others who like to have a “real” keyboard, the iPAD just doesn’t fill the bill.     ASUS tries to fix that problem with what looks like a stylish and powerful and long battery lived tablet that also offers a real keyboard hidden away.    We can only hope ASUS is better at delivering this device than Lenovo was last year when their brilliant computer/tablet hybrid was unveiled and then delayed so long it was pretty much forgotten….though maybe not by ASUS… who appear to have come up with something even better.

Read more at Engadget , Gizmodo , CNET, CES Web.    (we’ll be adding a LOT of blogs to the list over time.   CES is one of the most blogged events in the world and also a place where blogs are the best way to get the really good information)

Technology Report takes pride in extensive coverage of the Computer Electronics Show “CES” in Las Vegas, but it’s looking more and more like we will miss the show this year thanks to a busy schedule – including live reporting from Vietnam on the growing technology business scene in Southeast Asia.

However we won’t miss coverage of CES 2011.   In fact I predict the best coverage we’ve ever had could be this year as we’ll focus daily attention on the best and brightest reporting, reviews, and press event information as the tsunami of technology news surges from CES Las Vegas starting on Tuesday January 4th with the “CES Unveiled” press event.   We’ll try to measure the buzz and interest as new products are released and reviewed, and as always try to look beyond the hype at important underlying themes in technology as well as direct you to the best first hand accounts.

Stay tuned for CES 2011 … reported live and virtually …. right here

Update:  After seeing the demo of Wordlens and hearing that reviewers were “disappointed” due to speed and effectiveness I think this application needs a lot of work.

Remains, however, a great idea

Kudos to the folks at Quest Visual:  Questvisual.com.   Their free  iPhone application “Wordlens” allows real time translation by simply pointing your iPhone at a sign or other text.

As any traveler knows it’s very helpful to be able to interpret signs, menus, and  other text.   This is naturally very difficult in countries where you don’t speak the language.    Wordlens is only available in spanish now but other languages are on the way, and this is clearly a great step in the direction of our phones and handheld devices becoming “universal translators”

Via Singularity Hub

more at Quest Visual:  Questvisual.com

Super insightful tech insider Henry Blodget has  a really interesting take on valuations of some of the online big players.   Article here.     He makes a strong case that Myspace, once the darling of the social networking scene,  now may be worth “next to nothing” as Facebook and Twitter seem to have eaten up their social networking lunch, leaving Myspace without any profits.    The caveat is that with modifications he thinks Myspace might resume profitable operations and fetch 0.5 to 1 billion in a buyout, but this is only about the 580 million that Rupert Murdoch paid for Myspace many years ago.

Supporting his low valuation notion is the fact that the now-nearly-forgotten early Social network Friendster recently sold for a paltry approximately 26 million.   Techcrunch Reports on that

Update:   The deal didn’t go through though it appears there was disagreement within the Groupon Board about accepting Google’s offer.

Sites such as TechCrunch are quoting expected 2011 revenues  for Groupon in the *two billion* range, considerably higher than the numbers noted below.   My quick estimate method below no longer holds up as “low revenue” – many of the deals now show thousands of groupons sold and tens of thousands in revenue for some cities.    Also, based on a Charlie Rose interview with Groupon founder Andrew Mason, it’s clear that Groupon is signing a lot of deals now for future runs, so the revenue numbers probably reflect a lot more than simply the deals showing at the site now.

Rumors continue to swirl that Google may buy Groupon for anywhere from 2.5 to 6 billion dollars depending on the rumor source.     With money to burn it won’t be too surprising to see Google pick up Groupon but one has to wonder why Groupon has become such a sensation, going from complete near obscurity to billion dollar valuation (based on recent 135 million investment) to a potential multi billion value in the course of just a year.

A Techcrunch report suggested Groupon’s annual revenues are about 350 million with “profits” of about a million a week.     So if we estimate the EBITA at about 52 million a year the rumored Google purchase price of 5 billion is almost 100x earnings –  this seems very rich to me given all the uncertainties of online commerce, especially for a business model that would appear to be easy to copy and improve upon.      Groupon’s marketing of the concept to big players has been extraordinary, but it remains to be seen if this model can continue to grow and generate the massive profits needed to justify a valuation of over 5 billion dollars.

Looking at a bit more detail brings even more confusion.   If we review what appear to be all the cities here: Groupon Cities , we find that several are not yet active and those that are appear to only generate hundreds of dollars in revenue per day on deals that are often overpriced boutique shopping or expensive cosmetic treatments like “laser hair removal”.   How could Groupon be generating a million a day in revenue from 150 cities, many of which are not yet online and few of which appear to be earning even 1000 per day from the deals?

I’m guessing that the revenue numbers suggested by Techcrunch are high and also that Groupon revenue must come in large part from large deals they are striking with big players for the future rather than from current coupon deals.   If so it raises some important questions about this business model.

CES 2011 brings an excellent new online planning tool – a virtual conference brochure with extensive information about the conference tracks, keynotes, exhibitors, and more.

Follow this link for the brochure: http://digital.virtualmarketingpartners.com/vmp/CES/conference-program-2011/

As any previous CES attendee knows, the number of CES sessions and keynotes alone is overwhelming, and only with planning are you likely to avoid missing talks and sessions you’d like to attend.

When the Tsunami struck  SE Asia, killing huge numbers of people, I was struck by how poorly information flowed in that region.   Scientists viewing pacific ocean irregularities seemed to be alarmed, but I understand it generally takes up to “hours” for word to spread from those scientists to those affected by the bad news.

This delay seems totally unnecessary in all but the remotest locations on earth – certainly not including the beaches of Thailand or even most islands of Indonesia where at least a handful of people have internet access.

My proposal is that Twitter create an “Emergency Broadcast Network” to spread news of pending trouble both regionally and around the globe.    The system could be as simple as a simple informal network, but I think stronger would be a formal Twitter verification of thousands of credible people who are allowed to broadcast a tweet to everybody in an affected area.     This in turn will be retweeted rapidly, effectively creating a huge swell of targeted “emergency tweets”.

Obviously everybody affected is not on Twitter, but enough people will see this that those folks can then contact authorities and media to spread the word.    This is likely to work *faster* than the outmoded legacy systems such as radio and fax that plague even many “modern” police and media agencies.

Perhaps to enhance the credibility of the network Twitter could very formally assign several thousand volunteers – who collectively can easily be on call 24/7,   the ability to review  ”Emergency Tweets” for authenticity, though this could create delays so I think the first experiments would be to assume those authorized would use the power responsibly.

Why not?