Virtually Comdex
We
attended Comdex 1996 in Las Vegas, in search of ISO opportunities as
well as some insight into the future of Cyberpayments, and found this
year's show overall both dull and uninspired.
Although we were surprised that it was not a traditional trade show (no one was trying to sell anything), it became obvious that almost anything you wanted to know about the products and services of the companies in attendance could be found on the Internet, and with far less clutter. This is not to say that the show was a total bust; if you look hard enough, you can always find something.
One of the best
things we found at the show was the organization CommerceNet
(http://www.commerce.net).
CommerceNet is a Marketing and Business Development organization comprised of more than 200 companies and organizations, whose mission is to accelerate Internet-based electronic commerce.
This organization, laun-ched in 1994, is a consortium of leading companies in the electronic, computer, financial services, and information services industries who are committed to electronic commerce and accelerating consumer acceptance.
While the cost of participating at the core of Internet development is a bit high (membership costs $1,500 to $35,000 per year), if the Internet is important to your future and your business is heading in that direction, it may be worth the investment.
We found smaller
companies such as Multiplex and ICVerify, companies that we respect
and who made serious commitments to Comdex, but the show really
belonged to the big guys like Microsoft, as it always does.
From all the pre-show hype, we expected to see a lot of Internet products and services, the introduction of a new CD format, physically smaller and brighter PC monitors, new super-fast modems, and very small personal computers. This was all true, however, the products were planned for undetermined future delivery dates, and with somewhat fuzzy pricing.
In the case of the Internet services and products, we were struck by the fact that the method of consumer payment when using these Internet products was still so vague. While some of the software developers have worked out deals with CyberCash, bankcards and checks are something to be determined later, and by someone else, as far as the developers are concerned.
One of the
stranger products was a software package that permits your E-Mail to
call you with your messages or to leave voice-mail for you. Doesn't
it seem to you that it would have been better to have simply received
a call to begin with, and cut out all the artificial interfaces? This
just seems like a solution looking for a problem to solve (or a
product to market).
And then there was the InterNet phone call solution to cutting phone costs down to 15 cents per call. (I thought Sprint and others had already done this?) The product/service was actually being pitched as an ISO opportunity. It that had some very serious up-front capital requirements and seemed too expensive with too little opportunity.
In the last analysis, it seems to me that the future of Comdex must be to become a Virtual Convention.
This would mean no rooms or travel costs, and virtual attendance won't require us to take in the whole show at once since the virtual convention won't close at 5PM. Also, we won't be tempted to go to those girlie bars in Vegas or be gambling when we should be working.
But then again, the virtual world already has the same distractions, so maybe the only real gain from a virtual convention is that you won't have to eat airline food.
