Newcomers make a splash at Comdex

From...

by Mark Boslet

(IDG) -- For more than two decades, Comdex has been the personal-computer industry's premier trade show. This year, though, the PC is playing a supporting role.

The nearly 200,000 show visitors descending on Las Vegas this week won't find row upon row of exhibits plugging new hardware and software for the desktop computer, the industry's long-standing icon. Instead, handheld gadgets, Internet-enabled wireless phones, e-commerce software and networking gear will get top billing.

The industry's largest trade gathering is showing clear signs of change. For the first time, companies such as Handspring, Nortel Networks, Ericsson and Siemens will display wares. Dell Computer and IBM will be absent, as they have been in recent years, though both will sponsor events or meet customers elsewhere in the city.

Comdex 2000 Coverage     MESSAGE BOARD Comdex Fall 2000    VIDEO CNN's Rick Lockridge finds out what's being touted at the annual trade show Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)

This year, networking equipment will take up almost 30 percent of the show's 1 million square feet of floor space, and wireless gear will sprawl across about 20 percent of it, according to Kim Myhre, executive VP of event sponsor Key3Media.

Some of the most anticipated product announcements will come from the handheld computer companies Palm and Handspring. Handspring is expected to show off a phone attachment for its Visor device, while Palm unveils a new portal to make it easier to visit Web sites. Other companies developing technology for the handheld market will show off plans for a Global Positioning System satellite locator and a high-speed wireless broadband link. On Friday, America Online and Gateway lifted the curtain on a jointly developed Internet appliance. The $599 machine is designed to simplify access to AOL's Web community and e-mail.

Boeing will demonstrate an in-flight broadband Web connection that will enable passengers to access e-mail, live television and online shopping at 30,000 feet. Boeing says it hopes to serve commercial and private jets by 2002. And General Motors will sketch out plans for putting Internet technology in its cars.

MORE COMPUTING INTELLIGENCE

IDG.net home page

The Standard.com

IDG.net's Comdex news channel

Gates wows Comdex crowd with Tablet PC

Wireless hailed at Comdex

Reviews & in-depth info at IDG.net

E-BusinessWorld

Industry Standard email newsletters

Questions about computers? Let IDG.net's editors help you

TechInformer: The Thinking Internaut's Guide to the Tech Industry

Search IDG.net in 12 languages

News Radio

Fusion audio primers

Computerworld Minute

None of this is to say that the PC will be forgotten. Advances in desktop computing are still a major part of Comdex. This year's highlights will include inexpensive cameras for mainstream machines, and a push for built-in microphones and faster processors from Intel and Advanced Micro Devices.

During a Sunday night keynote address, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates said his company has just released a new version of its Office software for pre-commercial testing. The new features include "smart tags," or drop-down menus, that try to anticipate a customer's needs, search technology that can probe a computer's hard drive and the Web at the same time, and easier tailoring for corporations.

But while Gates argued that PCs with muscular processors and burly hard drives would remain fixtures in the Internet world, he spent a lot of time outlining Microsoft's work away from the desktop. Peer-to-peer software such as Napster's music-sharing service is bringing attention back to the PC, he said, but "we can't just swing back and be oriented toward the client." Instead the Microsoft cofounder pointed to his company's Pocket PC handheld, which is now being built by Hewlett-Packard and Compaq Computer, a planned "Stinger" cell phone that would have all the power of a Pocket PC, and an Etch-a-Sketch-like Tablet PC with a wireless pen for making handwritten notes.

Hewlett-Packard and Compaq "had to double and double their production rate and still can't keep up with demand," Gates said. "There is going to be a lot of client hardware."

Playing games at Comdex
November 23, 1999
Comdex: Monitors show dual analog/digital skills
November 19, 1999
The best and worst of Fall Comdex
November 19, 1999

IDG.net's Comdex news channel
(IDG.net)
Gates wows Comdex crowd with Tablet PC
(PC World)
Wireless hailed at Comdex
(InfoWorld)
Metricom WebPad offers a taste of the future
(IDG.net)
LG unveils combination MP3 player/digital camera
(IDG.net)
Microsoft Player downloads video to Pocket PC
(IDG.net)
Sony to launch wireless adapter, service for Clie
(IDG.net)
Gates touts XML in Comdex keynote
(IDG.net)

Comdex Fall 2000

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.