The annual show, held at the Las Vegas Convention Center, drew in more than 2,300 exhibitors and 110,000 attendees, which many say is evidence that business is back and its booming in the segment.

"I think [the crowds are] indicative of the economy and the industry," Robert Bielby, senior director of strategic solutions marketing at Xilinx, said. "The digital consumer sector's been one of the strongest sectors in the industry and has been what's really held up and kept the industry afloat."

The logic company hired Bielby with a mission of diversification, he said.  And Xilinx's diversificaiton toward CE has seriously paid off. According to the executive, the company recorded 144 percent revenue growth for a two-year period on CE products. Xilinx attributes 33 percent of its revenue to the CE business and was able to avoid layoffs during the downturn, in part, due to sector's strength. The company now finds itself in numerous CE products, including ones from Sharp and Sony, and today announced its technology in a line of Gibson electric guitars.

Members of the PC sector, once loyal to Comdex, also say their heads have been turned by CES.

"Comdex has traditionally been one of our larger shows, but CES is proving to be one of the larger trade shows for the industry as a whole," John Crank, an AMD Athlon product manager, said. "It's not traditionally a PC show. Comdex is an IT show, and we're starting to see CES pick up different pieces of the IT environment."

Martin Booth, mobile marketing manager at AMD added: "The consumer market last year was the biggest for the PC industry. Commercial was slow, just on the general state of the economy and budget restraints. As people get into digital audio and digital video, having a more powerful PC becomes important."

Indeed, even Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, who kicked off CES on Wednesday with a keynote on convergence of digital audio and video for the connected home, has looked beyond the PC. One key partnership for Microsoft on the converge front is with one-time tech industry outlaw Napster. Napster, which has also teamed with Samsung and Case Logic on the device front, appeared at CES this year for the first time.

"For years we heard about convergence, but now you see real products, real software and real services that might have originally been PC-based but it is an experience from the entire PC platform," Brad Duea, VP of worldwide business development at Napster, said. "Now when you look at Napster, it relates to your connected DVD player or your plasma or your home stereo."

While the PC is far from dead, CE discovery is what it's all about, according to Duea.

"CES now gets the attention of all the PC folks, as well as all the CE folks. It's a place where everyone can come and see all the cool things."

By: DocMemory
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