5 decades of CES hits and epic flops
The Consumer Electronics Show is the tech industry's annual gadget lovefest. It's launched some history-making devices -- and some major disasters.
1970: VCR
The early-1970s VCR was clunky compared to today's models, but it was cutting-edge technology for its time.The Consumer Electronics Show spans five decades: It launched in New York City way back in 1967, mainly as a spinoff of the Chicago Music Show. The show experimented with different cities and twice-a-year schedules until 1998, when it moved permanently to Las Vegas and became an annual extravaganza.
In the 1970s, CES was still largely a trade show, with little mainstream media coverage. The first CES of the decade brought the commercial debut of the Videocassette Recorder, which was first marketed as an easy way to record TV shows for later viewing.
VCRs had been around since the mid-1950s, but they cost around $50,000 and were used mainly by TV networks.
An awestruck audience at the 1970 CES loved the VCR's convenience -- but Hollywood battled back, warning that piracy would run rampant and kill network television.
The VHS remained on top until the late 1990s, when the DVD (unveiled at the 1996 CES) began to take over. By the early 2000s, the DVD was king of pre-recorded releases. But even today, blank VHS tapes are a major medium for recording content -- and VCRs are still big sellers, though they're now most often found in DVD player combo units.
By Julianne Pepitone, staff reporter
1976: Cheap digital watches
Texas Instruments' digital watch, which sold for less than $20, sparked a hot trend and helped revive the company.
Texas Instruments was slogging through a tough decade. The company invented the single-chip microprocessor, which revolutionized small devices like calculators. Then it got caught in a price war that decimated its sales in the very market it created.
But TI turned itself around with a product that seems almost silly in retrospect: an electronic digital watch that sold for just $19.95. The trend took off overnight and became a bona fide craze -- much to the chagrin of classic watch manufacturers, who saw their market share decrease rapidly.
TI was so successful, in fact, that it dropped the price of its digital watch to $9.95 less than a year later. But ever-cheaper knockoffs from Asia arrived in 1978, and TI's digital watch sales plummeted in 1979. The company left the digital watch business in 1981, though the devices live on as a throwback symbol of nerdery everywhere.
1996: Apple Pippin
The Apple Pippin was a half-computer, half-console that flopped with consumers.
Apple's a hotshot tech company now, but the mid-'90s saw the company fighting for relevance after several failed products. The Pippin launched at CES 1996 as a network computer that could also be used to play games. Apple licensed the technology to Japanese toymaker Bandai, and the pair launched the multimedia device as a team.
The San Jose Mercury News called the Pippin the "future of cyberspace," but consumers were confused by the half-computer, half-console branding. The Pippin's 14.4 kpbs modem made the device super-slow, and few games were available for the Mac operating system.
The Pippin cost $600 -- almost double the price tag of consoles from rivals Nintendo and Sega. It's estimated that only about 10,000 Pippins were purchased in the U.S. The device is now considered one of the Apple's biggest flops.
PC World named the Pippin No. 22 on its list of the 25 worst tech products of all time. In their words: "Underpowered, overpriced, and underutilized -- that pretty much describes everything that came out of Apple in the mid-90s."
2001: Microsoft Xbox
The 2001 CES brought the first version of Microsoft's popular Xbox gaming console.
Bill Gates unveiled the highly anticipated Xbox, Microsoft's first video game console, in a keynote speech at the 2001 CES. The sleek black box included an Ethernet port, a built-in 8GB hard drive and the capability to play movie DVDs.
Professional wrestling star The Rock joined Gates on stage for the announcement of WWF's "Raw is War" Xbox game. The unlikely pair bantered for a few minutes in front of the audience.
"To the untrained eye, it just might appear that The Rock and Bill Gates don't have a heck of a lot in common," The Rock quipped. "That can't be further from the truth. Both The Rock and Bill Gates stand on top of their industry. And both The Rock and Bill Gates are bestselling authors."
The Xbox was released a few months later to long lines and waiting lists. Some of the platform's games that have become legendary, including the Halo series, various NFL titles and Dead or Alive. In 2002, Microsoft launched its Xbox Live online gaming service.
The next generation of the console came in 2005 with the launch of Xbox 360. But the original Xbox is still beloved, and video game sites including IGN have named it one of the top consoles ever launched.
2003: Blu-ray Disc
The Blu-ray Disc, unveiled at CES 2003, was supposed to be the David to HD DVD's Goliath.
Both formats offered improved picture and sound quality over the regular ol' DVD. But HD DVD, developed by Toshiba and NEC, had already attracted the big players. Its supporters included Microsoft, Intel and Warner Bros -- and the format was backed by the influential DVD Forum industry group.
USA Today dismissed Blu-ray as an also-ran in an article touting HD DVD's quality: "Sony has developed the competing Blu-ray DVD, but hasn't signed up any studios beyond its own."
Despite HD's major leg up, the Blu-ray Disc Association soldiered on as a joint venture between Sony and Philips -- and slowly slowly garnered support from content manufacturers and major retailers.
A mere day before CES 2008, Warner Bros. announced it would drop HD DVD for Blu-ray. That signaled the end for HD. Less than one month later, Toshiba conceded defeat and discontinued its HD DVD business. Once again, a tortoise triumphed over the hare.
2005: Windows Media Center fails -- again and again
Bill Gates suffered through an embarrassing presentation filled with multiple product failures.
At the 2005 CES, Conan O'Brien hosted a chat with Microsoft's then-CEO Bill Gates. The event offered a first look at the Windows Media Center.
Gates said he'd pull up a slideshow of photos with a single click on the remote control. But he clicked ... and clicked ... and nothing happened. The audience gasped and roared with laughter.
"Right now nine people are being fired," O'Brien said as Gates fumbled with the remote. "Digitally fired!"
Gates changed the subject and O'Brien tried to keep it light. But they attempted the slideshow again, and it failed -- two more times.
"And again...just incredible," O'Brien murmured. "I don't know who's running things here. Who's in charge of Microso-- Oh."
The demo hell wasn't over. Later in the presentation, Microsoft program manager Garrett Young tried to spotlight personalization options for a racecar in a video game. As Young showed off paint jobs and decals, a system failure caused the infamous "Blue Screen of Death" to pop up.
"I'm sorry, I'm out of system memory, apparently," Young said, hastily shutting down the program. "So just imagine, if you will, that I was customizing my car."
2009: Palm Pre
The darling of the late '90s, Palm was seriously suffering by the start of the current decade. Management miscalculations, the dot-com bust and competition ravaged the company that popularized PDAs (personal digital assistants).
As the handheld device market switched its focus to smartphones later, everyone wondered who could take on the iPhone. Palm -- possibly the unlikeliest of contenders -- stepped up to the challenge at the 2009 CES with the Palm Pre.
The Pre, which launched exclusively on the Sprint network, blew reviewers away with its touchscreen, full keyboard and new Linux-based WebOS platform. PC Mag wrote: "Step aside, iPhone, sit down, Bold, this is the Palm, maybe the device, I've been dreaming about...There's a real prospect that I have witnessed Palm's phoenix moment. It's rising from the ashes."
CNET slathered the Pre with a slew of rewards, including Best in Show, and early reports said the device's June launch was the best in Sprint's history.
But the iPhone 3GS debuted later that month, selling 1 million units in its first weekend. Pre sales slowed considerably. Some users complained about broken sliders and malfunctioning power buttons.
As a result, the Pre failed to save Palm. In April 2010, HP agreed to buy the battered company for $1.2 billion.
2010: Tablets everywhere
• 4 iPad rivals
Tablets were the talk of CES 2010, with several companies showing off devices they promised would launch soon. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer even waved around a prototype during his keynote.
But the tablet that stole 2010 was Apple's iPad -- which was nowhere on the CES scene. (Apple traditionally skips the show.) Released in April, the iPad was an immediate game-charger for the tablet field. All those gizmos touted at CES? Delayed, changed or scrapped altogether.
Lenovo's "IdeaPad U1 Hybrid" prototype, unveiled at CES 2010, was a detachable screen that could be popped into a case with a keyboard. It was slated to run on a custom Linux-based Skylight operating system, but months later Lenovo killed the project and said it would completely start over with Android.
The Dell Streak came out in August, but with a five-inch touchscreen it's more like an oversized smartphone than a true tablet. The Samsung Galaxy Tab, which runs on Android, is available from all four major carriers -- but it lacks the iPad's sizzle. Research in Motion's tablet, the PlayBook, won't be available until early 2011.
Tablets will once again be in the spotlight at CES 2011, with companies including Palm (now part of Hewlett-Packard) and Toshiba rumored to be unveiling their own devices. Let's see if this time around, they get it right.
Credit: CNN (www.cnn.com)
No comments:
Post a Comment