CES: Bigger or Smaller?

Well, it's the last day of CES 2008 and the show is still going strong. But the taxi lines heading to the airport are growing pretty quickly.

Last night I had a quick chat with Albert Lin, an analyst with American Technology Research and a CES veteran. This being my first time at the show, I was blown away by the number of little-known companies doing impressive things and the extravagance of the displays put on by the household names. But he said the show actually seemed a bit smaller than previous years. (Surprising: It seemed pretty darn huge to me.)

I find myself agreeing with telecommunications analyst Jeffrey Kagan, who noted Wednesday that while CES is growing in size, it may be waning as a source of truly cutting-edge gadgets and ideas.

 
"I'm not sure how to say this kindly, but this year's Consumer Electronics Show was pretty dull," he said in a note to reporters. "It was big, in fact huge, and getting bigger every year...But there were no new ideas that have not been talked about to death already."