Bits & Pieces From All Over

The last week of June was a winning one for the computer giant, which defeated an attempt by the federal government to break it up into inert, bite-sized technological pieces. With that danger passed, it can focus on the introduction of the Xbox game machine and, more importantly for the computer industry, the rollout of Windows XP — both of which are set for this fall.

For many the introductions and the courthouse win are intertwined. A retailer at one of the spring buying group meetings interjected this comment while we were discussing the slowing economy: "Did you notice that the high-tech market began to go south in the stock market when the Feds took an aim at Microsoft? They stopped innovating because they are fighting the government." Many others seem to agree. Does this mean that venture capitalists will begin throwing money at dot-coms again? Not likely.

By the way, Microsoft didn't stop "innovating" completely. Witness the development of Xbox and Windows XP. The former should, along with fellow combatants Sony and Nintendo, reinvigorate the video game business.

As for Windows XP, many in the computer hardware business are licking their collective chops. To run the newest version of Windows you need a PC with 233 MHz Pentium processor and 128 MB of RAM, or even more to get all the high-end horsepower this is supposed to provide. If that's the case, we may be looking at another boom in PC sales.

This was one CEA event that yours truly had never attended until a couple of weeks ago, and I now know why it is valued so highly. While all of us have attended CES, individual company line previews, buying group meetings, or even charity dinners where manufacturers and retailers mix, socialize and talk about the industry, this is different. Unlike those industry get-togethers, the main reason for the meeting is to take a couple of days and discuss industry issues. That is, without the burden of selling each other anything. (Of course when vendors and merchants get together in this industry something along those lines is bound to happen.) This was like an all-star game, a meeting of many of the top manufacturers and retailers in the business. In the informal chats I had with many of the executives during the Summit, the candid consensus outlook was that sales will improve in the second half and the industry will have a decent year. One hopes that it wasn't just the lush environment of Lake Tahoe that made everyone seem so upbeat about the year. (Kudos for the meeting's success go to CEA president Gary Shapiro and his staff.)

We found out how popular the DTV charts are to the regular readers of our Web site, www.TWICE.com. When our newly designed site came online a few weeks ago, we had to work out a few bugs, one of which was we had to figure out a way of getting executive editor Greg Tarr's absolutely dense-with-information DTV charts back on the site. Well, with a lot of work and little fanfare on our part, the charts returned about 10 days ago. For those of you who were quietly waiting for them, thanks for your patience. For our more boisterous readers, they're back, so you can stop those cards, letters, e-mails and phone calls! Tarr will continue to update the charts as more and more product is introduced by manufacturers. Watch for more innovations on our site, as our new format will give us the power to provide additional coverage and new features. Check www.TWICE.com on a daily basis for the latest coverage of major news stories.