Hand-wringing over consumer spending may dull the glow of millions of new flashy gadgets on display at this year’s International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
The trade show,the biggest of its kind,is set to feature 2,700 exhibitors in Sin City this week.
It attracts companies from Orange County and around the world eager to display the latest in consumer gear as well as retailers looking to buy for the year to come.
The consumer electronics industry is banking on a funky concept of consumer behavior that it has dubbed “cacooning.”
That’s where consumers faced with tighter budgets opt to pimp out their home entertainment and stay inside instead of going out for a night on the town.
“The industry benefits from the fact that consumers still consider their electronic products a necessity, not a luxury,” said Jason Oxman, vice president for industry affairs at the Consumer Electronics Association, the Arlington, Va.-based trade group that puts on the annual show.
A slew of Orange County technology companies are attending the big event. But some have decided to scale back in light of tougher times.
Some are getting smaller, less-flashy booths, while others are opting for meeting rooms instead of high-priced exhibition spaces.
Still more have taken the whole shebang offsite to demonstrate their products at a suite in one of The Strip’s many hotels.
The Consumer Electronics Association dances around the idea that the economy could hurt turnout.
It puts a rather positive spin on it: “What we are finding in economic times like these is that trade shows are more important than ever and make the most business sense,” Oxman said.
Taiwan’s D-Link Corp., a maker of networking gear that has its U.S. headquarters in Fountain Valley, is skimping in some places and splurging on others.
‘No Girls’
Last year, D-Link had an enormous setup on the show floor with freestanding pedestals showing off its gear, a stage for live demonstrations and a gaggle of scantily clad ladies handing out T-shirts and Frisbees.
“No girls this year,” said Dan Kelly, director of marketing. “We actually decided to scale down CES over a year ago, when we predicted we would be falling on even rougher times. We are finding ways so that we can still get to the right customers, editors and visitors because consumers are still a key market for us.”
D-Link is set to have a meeting room on the show floor and a suite at Caesar’s Palace.
The company still is doing that other CES standby to drum up interest,a big party.
D-Link is partnering with Fountain Valley’s Kinston Technology Co., the biggest maker of computer and flash memory products, to throw a red dragon-themed soiree at Club Tao.
“We are still making a sizable investment in the show,” Kelly said.
Irvine’s IOGear Inc., which makes keyboards, cables, mice and other computer products, is set to have a smaller booth this year.
“We did have to take steps and scale back on what we are doing with the booth,” said spokesman Bill Nguyen. “We looked at building a double-decker booth but the look and feel of the layout had to be scaled back and we are doing a single-floor version. We all feel the stresses of the economic situation and we are making adjustments.”
Companies without booths on the show floor still are sending representatives this year to various media events around CES and to main suites where buyers can test out their wares.
“For Kingston, we feel it’s more effective for us to have our meetings in a quieter place away from the chaos of the convention center,” spokesman David Leong said. “CES is a crazy time for companies and attendees. We’ve hosted meeting rooms in the past few years like a lot of other companies. It’s more conducive for us to get business done.”
Some other companies with big local operations that are set to be at CES include Cypress-based Universal Electronics Inc., Irvine’s Toshiba America Information Systems Inc., Irvine’s Vizio Inc., Viewsonic Corp., which is headquartered in Walnut, and Irvine’s Linksys, a unit of Cisco Systems Inc.
There’s also a handful of OC chipmakers set to attend, including Irvine’s Broadcom Corp., Irvine-based Quartics Inc., Newport Beach-based Mindspeed Technologies Inc. and startup Symwave Inc., which moved to Laguna Niguel from San Diego earlier this year.
Symwave is set to demonstrate the first “real world” use of chips that go into the next generation of universal serial bus ports, dubbed USB 3.0.
USB ports are the dominant means of transferring data between PCs and other consumer devices such as digital cameras, cell phones and music players.
Symwave is set to show off the faster transfer speeds of its USB 3.0 chips, according to spokeswoman Lauri Julian.
Familiar Themes
In addition to next-generation technology, the show’s main themes will be carried over from last year, including products getting revamped for aesthetics and sleek industrial design. Of course, going green will have a big place this year as consumers show their interest in finding gadgets that use less power, can multitask and are recyclable.
Also, expect consumer gadgets to take on each others’ characteristics: PCs will look more like TVs, and TVs will do things that PCs normally do.
“People will be looking to see what kind of digital media is going to be available in the coming years,” said Oxman. “They want to see new means of delivering entertainment content and bundling devices with that content. There will be a lot of talk about what consumers are buying. When the economy is tight, businesses are looking for new ideas, businesses and revenue streams.”
