Companies Make Best of Downsized Comdex
By ANDREW SIMONS
Broadcom Corp. took aim at a rival. QLogic Corp. turned things up a notch. Finding a good party took some work.
Such was Comdex Las Vegas 2003, the computer industry’s annual confab. This year, big product unveilings were eclipsed by the show’s scaling down,it was about half the size of last year’s and a fraction of Comdex’s technology boom heyday.
“We walked the show floor in 45 minutes,” said a spokeswoman from Santa Ana’s Ingram Micro Inc. “We can’t believe how small it is this year.”
Still, Ingram Micro came to the show with dozens of business development, marketing, public relations people and executives.
“This show gives us a chance to talk to customers,” said Mike Grainger, Ingram Micro’s president and chief operating officer, while sitting down to watch Bill Gate’s Nov. 16 keynote speech.
Even with big price cuts on exhibit space, many Orange County companies passed on Comdex this year. Newport Beach-based Conexant Systems Inc. decided not to attend. GlobespanVirata Inc.,the New Jersey company Conexant plans to acquire and meld with,had a small booth in Microsoft Corp.’s massive exhibit.
Costa Mesa’s Emulex Corp. passed on sending exhibitors to Comdex even though the company rented a suite at the Monte Carlo.
For Emulex, which makes circuit boards for linking data storage devices, Storage Networking World, held in April in Phoenix, is more important.
Lake Forest-based Western Digital Corp. also passed on exhibiting at the show. The disk drive maker did send someone to walk the show floor.
OC companies that did exhibit made the most of the smaller show.
Aliso Viejo-based QLogic had a bigger exhibit than in years past. Instead of a small booth, the maker of data storage products had a walk-on display with an announcer telling showgoers about a QLogic product called SANbox,short for storage area network box. The box is a fibre channel switch with ports that can transfer data at 10 gigabits per second, five times faster than earlier models.
As it did last year, Broadcom showed off its full line of networking chips. The latest was the company’s so-called “In Concert” wireless networking chip, which allows for different wireless networking signals to work together.
Broadcom found itself as the instigator of a pitched marketing battle with Sunnyvale-based rival Atheros Communications Inc.
Two days before Comdex started, technology trade publication PC Week reported that Broadcom was accusing Atheros of making a chip that could interfere with wireless networking gear using Broadcom chips.
“It’s a bad neighbor technology,” said Jeff Abramowitz, marketing director for Broadcom’s wireless networking group.
In its private exhibit room, Broadcom put on a test to back up its claims.
Atheros quipped back, saying its own tests revealed that devices with its chip didn’t interfere any more than others running on the same wireless networking standard, 802.11B.
Much of this year’s Comdex was focused on corporate computing. Word was that organizers of this year’s show,in the interest of making Comdex more focused,frowned on letting exhibitors show consumer gadgets. But a few did.
ViewSonic Corp., based just over the northern county line in Walnut, unveiled its newest item,a tablet personal computer.
Last year, Irvine’s Toshiba America Information Systems Inc. made a splash with its Portege tablet PC. This year, ViewSonic seemed to be garnering attention for its device,thanks in part from the nod the company got from Gates in his keynote speech.
Microsoft and ViewSonic worked together on the tablet and other products.
The party scene was decidedly sparse at this year’s show. The most notable omission: the Microsoft party after Gates’ speech.
Broadcom, which held a reception last year at the swanky Palms Casino Resort, also passed on partying this year.
But there still was mingling. Industry publication Computer Reseller News held its annual Hall of Fame awards ceremony at The Joint in the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino.
But for a usually well-attended event,complete with an Academy Awards feel with people dressed in formal gowns and tuxedos,the show’s entertainment ended the minute an executive got to the podium and started talking about “solution sets,” “price value” and “margins.”
Since most of the official Comdex events,including the “After Dark” networking programs,were a yawn, more ambitious attendees had to work to find a party.
One swinging spot was Light, a chic club in the Bellagio Hotel & Casino, where Comdex’s under-35 crowd congregated.
“Comdex was so boring this year,” said a spokeswoman for an East Coast software company who went to Light. “We had to get out.”
Some things never change. As always at Comdex, there were some wild stories. One group of marketing people from an OC company,who requesting anonymity,called and said they were going to get tattoos while in Vegas.
