The economy took its toll on the International Consumer Electronics Show, but its organizers found a bright side. They said the more modest attendance pleased exhibitors.
In previous years, CES has been the largest trade show in the country, with 140,000 attendees. This year, the Consumer Electronics Association expected more than 130,000, based on registrations. But now the association says there were at least 110,000 at this year’s event in Las Vegas, pending a final, audited count.
Even with the lower attendance, CES will maintain its title as the largest trade show in the U.S., according to The Association for Exhibit and Event Professionals.
Jason Oxman, senior vice president of industry affairs at CEA, said the economy was in part to blame for the smaller turnout, because exhibiting companies brought fewer people to staff their booths. The association also consciously limited attendance by introducing a $100 fee for people pre-registering late and a $200 fee for those registering at the door.
That kept out “trick-or-treaters” — people who visit the booths just to grab promotional products — and others who don’t go to the industry event to do business, Oxman said.
“The quality of attendees was higher than any year anyone could remember,” he said. The CEA’s board unanimously asked the staff to keep attendance at the same level in the future, he said.
Sony’s PS2 still hot: The Sony PlayStation 2 debuted in 2000, before the beginning of the Bush administration, when Google Inc. was still a private search startup and the iPod and Windows XP hadn’t been born. Yet despite its age in a business obsessed with the new, the video game console remains a big seller today.
In fact, Sony Corp. announced Tuesday that it has sold 50 million PlayStation 2 units in North America.
Microsoft Corp., meanwhile, has already discontinued the original Xbox, which launched a year after Sony’s PS2. According to the most recently available figures from the NPD Group, which tracks U.S. sales only, Redmond-based Microsoft sold 14.5 million of those Xbox consoles. Nintendo Co.’s GameCube, another PS2 competitor, sold 12 million units in the country. NPD puts U.S.-only sales of the PS2 through November at 43 million.
Find the right match for free: In a move that may appeal to penny-pinching online daters, a new Web site from Match.com is letting users search for that special someone for free.
Match.com, which is owned by Internet company IAC/InterActiveCorp and also runs dating site Chemistry.com, was set to announce Thursday the launch of DownToEarth.com. Though Match.com has not been vocal about it, the site has been publicly available for about six weeks.
DownToEarth.com joins other free dating sites like Plentyoffish.com and OkCupid.com, and expects to bring in revenue from ads. It is geared toward Web dating newcomers and lets users put up post-rendezvous ratings regarding the truthfulness of others’ pictures and profiles.
The Associated Press
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