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| PC meets TV: this time we mean it It's been nearly a decade since we first started telling you about convergence. Now, it's finally headed for your living room. |
By Steve Fox
Editorial director, CNET.com
(3/7/02)
Convergence was supposed to happen in the mid-'90s. How many of you remember the Gateway Destination? A poster child for dashed convergence dreams, this PC/TV combo boasted a 31-inch screen, a wireless keyboard, hot graphics, and a $4,000 price. The Destination was targeted squarely at the family room. But consumers simply weren't biting. In truth, the technology wasn't ready. Today, it is.
Look no further than CES
If you're looking for evidence, I direct you to exhibit A, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which took Vegas by storm back in January. With slick product introductions and scads of exhibitors and attendees, this was simply the best CES I've ever attended. In fact, CES has become the most influential technology show in the United States, surpassing the lackluster Comdex and the attendance-challenged PC Expo. As always, old-guard consumer-electronics standbys--high-end speakers, car audio, still cameras, home-theater systems--commanded a fair share of exhibit space. But this year, PC makers and software vendors took up more real estate than ever. While every other major tech show is in the doldrums, CES, a potent brew of consumer electronics and computers, is electric.
| With slick product introductions and scads of exhibitors and attendees, this was simply the best CES I've ever attended. |  |
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Then, a peculiar thing happened. In week three, after both shows had shut their doors, CES made the Buzz Meter again. More people had searched for information on CES after it had shut down than when it was in session. Generally, once a trade show closes, interest disappears faster than an Enron document before a congressional hearing. Macworld, Comdex, and PC Expo followed that pattern. Yet there was CES, still grabbing headlines.
A confluence of products
Mind you, readers don't necessarily care about trade shows; they just care about the products, trends, and services that come out of them. This was an especially good year for CES product introductions, particularly those that promised to give your living room a digital makeover. Even weeks before CES had started, rumors were circulating about a groundbreaking product from Rearden Steel, a stealth start-up founded by WebTV creator Steve Perlman.
| Once a trade show closes, interest disappears faster than an Enron document before a congressional hearing. | |
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As in a good horse race, no one knows who will win. Some vendors are betting on products that incorporate entertainment technologies into the computer, while others are betting on those that add computer functionality into the entertainment center. The first category includes such CES barn burners as Creative Labs' Sound Blaster Extigy, an external sound card that connects to your PC's USB port to deliver high-quality audio for digital music and DVDs. Other products that place the computer at the red-hot center of the digital-entertainment universe are Sony's VAIO Digital Studio, a PC-entertainment hybrid that features TV, music, recording, and playback; and Nvidia's Personal Cinema, which promises to turn your PC into a personal digital VCR. However, the product that sits squarely in the entertainment camp, the Moxi set-top box, is the one that garnered more media coverage than anything else on the show floor.
Ultimately, consumers' checkbooks will declare the winners. Odds are good, though, that someday soon, you'll have one of these devices in your living room. And all those smarty-pants media types will have something to rhapsodize about again.
Read the previous CNET Insider
Steve Fox
is editorial director of CNET.com. For more tech trends, read his weekly Buzz Meter column at buzz.cnet.com.
