CES : Four decades of futures technologies by Telegraph

The first Consumer Electronics Show was held in 1967 in New York City, attendance at the event was just 17,500 and over 100 companies came to show off their latest products. Sony, Sharp, Motorola and Toshiba were all in attendance and have come to every CES since.

At the 1969 CES TV and Radios were the biggest deal at CES, the cost of transistor radios dropped as manufacturing yields on transistors improved. An American radio that cost £270 in 1954 had dropped to £70 by 1969, opening the technology up to the masses.

In 1969 the home record player was popular and becoming commonplace in households; the format of Vinyl was eventually overtaken by the Compact Disc (introduced at CES 1981) but would live on as a niche format until the present day.

By 1971 CES had grown to more than 275 companies exhibiting on the show's floor. Sony had introduced the videocassette recorder (VCR) at CES 1970 and were about to put their first U-matic VCR on sale, while the product would initially struggle in the consumer marketplace the format would eventually dominate home recording.


The attendance to CES had reached 40,000 people by 1972, double the initial 1967 show, and now 300 companies came along for the event.

In 1975 CES continued to grow and had now become a biannual event now in Chicago. It had become the place for technology companies to announce new products and devices. This was the year of the Pong home console by Atari, a game that would define gaming for decades to come.

By the end of 1977 the CEA had decided that the following year they would move the Winter CES (known as WCES) to Las Vegas and continue to host the Summer CES in Chicago. The Summer CES in Chicago would continue for 17 years, but gradually lose interest in favor to Las Vegas' Winter event.


1985 saw the introduction of Tetris, a game that would go on to sell 35 million copies on the GameBoy alone, not counting other versions and copies on pretty much every games console since then.

The 1990's saw the decline of the biannual format of CES. The organisers attempted to keep the Summer show popular by moving it to different cities, but by 1998 companies were reluctant to sign up to the event. CES abandoned the format in favour of a yearly show in Vegas, a format which would carry CES to the present day.

1993 introduced the world to Sony's MiniDisc, a format that would struggle to find an audience in the marketplace while CDs and later MP3 Players took the portable music market away from Sony's control. The previous year's show in 1992 was the last which Apple would attend, at CES under the leadership of John Scully they announced the Newton tablet, a device that in many ways was a spiritual successor to the iPhone and iPad.

CES 2003 saw Sony's introduction of the Blu-ray format, the home movie format fought off competition from rival HD DVD to become replace the DVD (also introduced at CES, 1996). Notably Microsoft's co-founder and chairman Bill Gates made the keynote speech at the show, starting a trend for Microsoft that would continue until 2012.

While critics of the show highlight that more product announcements are now being made outside of its week every January, CES 2013 is undoubtedly the biggest and most popular ever. With over 150,000 attendees and 3,000 companies exhibiting their products, CES looks set to remain in size, if not in importance, for many years to come.

by  http://www.telegraph.co.uk