In past years, the story about Comdex,technology’s annual party in Las Vegas getting under way this week,was what companies planned to do there. This year it’s whether they’re going at all.
Irvine chipmaker Broadcom Corp., a big participant in years past, is scaling back at Comdex this year in favor of the Western Cable Show in Anaheim at the end of this month.
“Comdex isn’t really our show,” Broadcom spokesman Bill Blanning said.
That attitude is shared by other OC tech companies who have chosen not to lease space on the show’s floor but still are going to meet customers. Others have opted out of attending altogether.
Upstart Irvine chipmaker Valence Semiconductor is one of the latter.
“We had a suite in a hotel lined up and the whole bit,” said Antony Beswick, Valence’s chief marketing executive. “But we talked to all of our customers and found that many of them didn’t want to travel to Comdex this year because of a perceived lack of security following the terrorist attacks. I guess that’s always a handy excuse.”
Findings similar to Valence’s have prompted some to forecast that attendance at the computer industry’s biggest party will be down 10% to 20% this year. Key3Media Events Inc., the company putting on Comdex, has adopted extra safety measures such as not allowing bags into keynote presentations and requiring photo identification on attendees at all times.
Other OC companies are taking a more moderate approach than Valence and Broadcom. Lake Forest-based disk drive maker Western Digital Corp. planned to send some of its engineering and sales staff to meet with personal computer makers and other potential customers. The company also may be taking the wraps off a new drive that features an improved computer interface.
Still Western Digital, a longtime Comdex attendee, said it wouldn’t be throwing any special parties as it had in the past and wouldn’t be paying for floor space.
“We’re not exhibiting this year,” Western Digital spokesman Steve Shattuck said. “We’ll have space just for meeting purposes. We’re definitely more limited than we were in past years.”
Western Digital Chief Executive Matt Massengill won’t be attending this year’s show, Shattuck said.
In all, nearly 2,000 companies have bought exhibition floor space totaling 750,000 square feet. The show is expected to attract 130,000 visitors from today through Friday.
While many OC executives have opted out of this year’s show, there still will be a sizable presence from several companies. Here’s a brief list of the activities planned by local names:
++Like last year, Newport Beach’s Conexant Systems Inc. won’t be taking floor space but has reserved some hotel suites for demonstrations of new products. Among those will be the wireless Bluetooth technology Conexant has been working on.
++Aliso Viejo-based QLogic Corp. plans to show off three of the company’s technologies for connecting storage systems together into what’s known as a storage area network. Among the products will be the new SAN Connectivity Kit, which allows small and midsize businesses to set up storage area networks by themselves. The product is expected to cost $100. The company has paid for floor space to show off the new wares.
++Fountain Valley-based memory maker Kingston Technology Co. plans to be at Comdex in a big way. While the company won’t be pushing any new products of note, it hopes to convince personal computer owners and big PC companies to purchase more memory products. The computer memory industry has been in a severe slump in the past couple of years as PC sales have fallen.
“Things are going to get better,” Kingston spokeswoman Heather Jardim said. “You’re going to want to purchase memory now while it’s cheap.”
++Samsung Electronics America’s digital information technology unit, which relocated to Irvine in August, will have high-definition TV-ready flat-panel computer monitors, along with several new laser printers the company says are for home users and smaller businesses.
++Irvine-based Pacific Digital Corp. plans to show off some of its new universal serial bus-based recordable compact disc drives, which can store music files and documents at a much faster rate than currently available. n
