CES for Mom and Pop

It has been said that the difference between men and women is that men like The Three Stooges and women don’t understand why. So it is with the 2007 International Consumer Electronics Show—CES for short—now taking place in Las Vegas. If you’re a gadget geek, you get it. But does your mom? Your dad? Your non-technical cousin who has owned three cell phones and never entered a single speed-dial number.

The truth is, you don’t have to worship at the altar of cutting-edge technology to appreciate the significance of CES. Much that happens here eventually trickles down into the hands of your mother and others in the non-technical set. For example, today’s easy-to-use digital video cameras and compact disc players were introduced years ago at CES, and at the time carried a significant “coolness” factor. The CD player, which debuted at the show in 1981, is now ubiquitous. Even your non-technical aunt probably has one in her car and knows how to use it.

Consider one of this year’s early big announcements: On Sunday morning, before the official opening of CES, LG Electronics showed off its Super Multi Blue DVD player. This single-tray DVD player plays both HD DVD and Blu-Ray DVD disk formats. That’s a huge development, particularly for non-technical users. Do your parents know, appreciate, or even care about the difference between HD DVD and Blu-Ray DVD formats? Highly unlikely—which is precisely why this product is so important. They don’t have to know, appreciate or care about the differences. They can just get a DVD, pop it in the player, and enjoy a movie of such breathtaking clarity that they’ll feel transported right into the action. And, oh, by the way, they can also watch good-old standard-definition DVDs, too, which is perfect if they don’t care about the difference between high-definition and standard formats, or don’t feel like replacing their entire DVD library with high-def DVDs.

And it’s not just in the area of DVD players and home theater that CES showcases critical innovations with broad appeal. More than 2,700 exhibitors are using 1.7 million square feet of convention space to promote their products and services. Companies are trotting out everything from user-friendly satellite navigation systems that double as in-car audio/video players to hand-held translation devices to Internet-enabled appliances that your uncle could use as a kind of Internet mailbox. You could send him e-mail and digital photos and this device would automatically print them out, saving him the hassle of pulling them off the Internet himself. Although these products may sound slightly excessive today, undoubtedly they’ll become mainstream products in cars and homes over the next few years. You can bet the bank on it.

Following the Money
Your non-technical family members might be more intrigued by CES if you mentioned—casually, as though it were actually important to you, too—that a good number of the convention visitors are not merely gadget geeks. Indeed, those not possessed of the glittering eye are likely to be the consumer electronics industry analysts. They take a much more sober view of all these blinking lights and chirping boxes. They come to CES to figure out which companies have the breakout products, and therefore are likely to make large amounts of money in this highly competitive industry. After four days of gazing at gadgets and talking to company representatives, the analysts head home to tune mutual fund portfolios and advise stock brokers on good investments for—you guessed it—your mother.   

If this is piquing your non-geek audience’s interest in CES, you can go on to say—casually again, like you just know this stuff—that the average U.S. household spends more than $1,500 on consumer electronics each year and that the companies that make up the Consumer Electronics Association—the group that sponsors CES—are expected to see sales in the area of $150 billion this year. So, it will be interesting to see what the analysts have to say about the technologies they see and the companies they champion.

If you’ve got their attention, you might want to take another lesson from Las Vegas and stop while you’re ahead. If you say anything about how sweet a 108-inch 1080p screen is and how much it costs, you’ll lose all the gains you’ve just made.

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