Consumer Electronics Show: Year in Flux?

It's that time of year again, when the electronics world and all of the related industries head to Las Vegas for their annual gathering: the CES.

The confab's official name is the 2009 International Consumer Electronics Show. Officially, the 41-year-old trade show begins on Thursday and runs through Sunday. Unofficially, the meetings, parties, press conferences, demonstrations and the like already have started.

2009 CES Surprises

The show is truly immense, and although I'm hearing from a number of companies that they're cutting back the size and location of their booths, CES is still enormous. Officially, the exhibits span the entire Las Vegas Convention Center, the Sands Expo and Convention Center, and a large portion of the Venetian Hotel. Exhibitors include "manufacturers, developers and suppliers of consumer technology hardware, content, technology delivery systems and related products and services."

Unofficially, you can find many companies exhibiting off the show floor -- in hotel suites and private spaces throughout the city.

As for attendees, CES officials say: "Verified registrants representing the United States, Canada, Mexico and more than 140 other countries include manufacturers, retailers, content providers and creators, broadband developers, wireless carriers, cable and satellite TV providers, installers, engineers, corporate buyers, government leaders, financial analysts and the media from around the world."

In the 1970s and 1980s, CES focused on the most popular home electronics of the day: high-fidelity stereo systems, televisions, VCRs. As consumers shifted their disposable income to personal computing and most recently cell phones/smartphones, CES has been shifting its focus as well.