Nowadays CES is a big part of the tech (gadget) world! But how did this expo become so big and what does the history of CES look like? We've made a brief overview of the start and some of the highlights in the history of CES.
Image via the Verge[/caption]
From 1978 until 1994 CES was held twice a year. In January the WCES (Winter Consumer Electronics Show) was held in Las Vegas and in June the SCES (Summer Consumer Electronics Show) was held in Chicago. Because the Chicago version started to loose it's popularity the organizers decided to try something new and move the show around the country. Unfortunately this didn't make a difference, which is why in 1998 the summer version was cancelled and the format was changed into a once a year event. This became CES Las Vegas.
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Image via PCworld[/caption]
Image via Engadget[/caption]
Image via wikipedia[/caption]
Image via Engadget[/caption]
Image via CES[/caption]
The history of CES - the beginning
The very first time CES was held was in June 1967, in New York. This was a spinoff of the Chicago Music Show, which was, up until then, the main event. During this first CES event 14 exhibitors were present, including Philips, Motorola and LG. [caption id="attachment_11798" align="alignnone" width="700"] Image via the Verge[/caption]
From 1978 until 1994 CES was held twice a year. In January the WCES (Winter Consumer Electronics Show) was held in Las Vegas and in June the SCES (Summer Consumer Electronics Show) was held in Chicago. Because the Chicago version started to loose it's popularity the organizers decided to try something new and move the show around the country. Unfortunately this didn't make a difference, which is why in 1998 the summer version was cancelled and the format was changed into a once a year event. This became CES Las Vegas.
[caption id="attachment_11405" align="alignnone" width="700"] Image via PCworld[/caption]
Highlights CES
At the beginning of CES not a lot of innovative technology was announced. Until the first videocassette recorder (the N1500) was revealed by Philips, in 1970. Until that moment a VCR could cost up to $50.000 and was mainly used by TV stations, but the Philips model with build in tuner was only $900. This would become the first home video recorder! [caption id="attachment_11805" align="alignnone" width="700"] Image via Engadget[/caption]
Atari 400 & 800
The Atari 400 and 800 computers were introduced during CES in 1979. These were not the first home computers, the first home computers were the Apple II, Commodore PET and the TRS-80. But the Atari 400 and 800 were the first home computers with custom co processors that featured excellent sound and gaming possibilities. Including iconic games, such as Star raiders, these Atari's were the first real gaming PC's. The names were initially based on memory, 4KB RAM for Atari 400 and 8KB for Atari 800. But at the same time as the Atari's were released, RAM prices were dropping, which is why the machines both got 8KB, with 4kx1 usage. The computers were for sale for $550 and $1000. [caption id="attachment_11915" align="alignnone" width="700"] Image via wikipedia[/caption]
The first CD-player
The Compact Disc was considered high tech in 1981. The hard drive only offered 5MB capacity, CD's offered up to 650MB. However, at the beginning these were only usable as audio format. This is exactly why Sony's CD player got a lot of attention during CES. The CD-player was supposed to be more trustworthy than vinyl and allowed you to smoothly play song after song and skip tracks, without delay or malfunction. In 1982 the CD-player was released in Japan, followed by the US in the following year. Despite it's price ($1.000) the CD-player was sold over 400.000 times in the US alone. With the release of the CD-player, CD sales were huge, with a peak of 200 billion pieces in 2007. After 2007 decreased more and more because of digitization. [caption id="attachment_11907" align="alignnone" width="700"] Image via Engadget[/caption]
Nintendo NES
Between 1980 and 1985 the gaming industry crashed, because consumers lost their faith in the gaming industry due to over-marketing and lack of games, despite an overflow of game consuls. Notwithstanding, in 1985 Nintendo brought out Nintendo Entertainment Games (NES) during CES. The NES consul came with 17 games, including Super Mario Bros and Duck Hunt. In 1988 Nintendo sold an impressing 7 million NES consuls. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hGEFDGmqA0[/embed] In 1990 there were over 1600 journalists present during CES. From this moment on there were more journalists than regular consumers present at the event. [caption id="attachment_11920" align="alignnone" width="700"] Image via CES[/caption]