The annual International Consumer Electronics Show this week in Las Vegas is traditionally as much a boisterous celebration of all things technology as it is a trade show.
But with many Americans now more concerned with paying their monthly bills than buying the latest gadget or big-screen TV, the recession is threatening to turn this year’s CES into the most subdued since after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
“The party is over” for consumer-electronics companies, said Paul Carton, vice president of research at ChangeWave Research, a Rockville, Md., firm that tracks consumer spending on electronics and other goods.
“U.S. consumers have been splurging on consumer electronics for quite a long time,” Carton said. “But when you have to pay for food or doctor bills or consumer electronics — most people are opting to pull back on consumer electronics.”
According to a December survey by ChangeWave, 60 percent of consumers said they planned to spend less overall in the next three months than they did a year earlier, and 43 percent said they planned to spend less on electronics. The overall outlook was the worst since ChangeWave started tracking consumer sentiment in 2001.
The electronics sector is expected to be the among the hardest hit in coming months as budget-conscious consumers cut costs, Carton and other industry analysts say.
“As much as 2008 was a stress test for the electronics industry, 2009 is likely to raise anxiety levels further,” Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis for market researcher NPD Group, predicted in a recent research note. “Undoubtedly, the first half of 2009 will be miserable” for consumer electronics companies.
Also putting a damper on this year’s CES, where electronic companies unveil their latest and greatest goods for the coming year, is the lack of new must-have products.
Big-screen TVs are now all but ubiquitous. Nobody has come up with a replacement for the iPhone or the iPod. Personal computers have become commodities. And Micro soft, Nintendo and Sony aren’t due for a major refresh of their video game consoles any time soon.
CES, which runs for four days starting Thursday, is still the nation’s biggest and most influential technology show. Organizers expect this year’s show to draw about 130,000 attendees. But that’s down from 141,150 last year and off about 10 percent from a high two years ago. About 2,700 exhibitors from around the globe are expected this year, down from 3,000 last January.
Last year, manufacturer Leggett & Platt Inc. sent about 15 people to CES. This year, it’s sending 12 from its offices in Atlanta and Missouri, said Vincent Lyons, the company’s vice president for engineering and technology. The company’s Atlanta-based commercial vehicles subsidiary plans to unveil a new in-vehicle electronics charging system at CES.
“We’re not staying at the Super 8 (motel), but we are being very diligent about travel arrangements this year,” Lyons said.
Some companies are cutting costs at CES by simply showing off their latest products elsewhere.
