Consumer Electronics Show 2004 Day 3 - And now, the rest of the story

Final Words

The king is dead! Long live the king!

That about sums up the experience we had at CES this year. We are certainly not ones to admonish buzz words for the sake of buzz words, but as the inevitable drive towards convergence pushes forward, more and more computer hardware will be packaged into shinny plastic handheld boxes that do more and more for their users. It was almost inevitable that CES would eventually overshadow COMDEX; the change of ownership of the latter just sped the process along.

Overall, we were pleased with what we found in Las Vegas. More and more devices are becoming network aware, and others are adopting wireless. More and more different devices are being shoved into one tiny package. And the consumer reaps the benefits. This year will be more about the evolution of technology rather than an abrupt revolution. Convergence has been talked about for years, and we are finally starting to see the signs of real movement in that direction.

Hopefully we've been able to offer a glimpse into the coming year of cool gadgets and convenient computing. Next year promises to be even more exciting, and we'll be there once again to offer in depth coverage.