A few years ago it was all about CeBIT. The global technology show where every client and every journalist wanted to be. Three days of trekking across the vast expanse of the Hanover Messe trying to link the two groups together!
Meanwhile, a small niche show in Cannes called The GSM Conference and the CES show in Las Vegas were establishing themselves on the media agenda. Both started out smaller and more niche in their appeal, GSM focusing on mobile telephone technology and CES on consumer electronics, whilst CeBIT covered a wide gamut of technologies.
However, over the past few years, as the chart below shows, both general interest (as measured by web searches) and media coverage of CES has massively overtaken CeBIT, even MWC is now attracting more media coverage than CeBIT (see 2011 chart)
Red = CeBIT / Orange = CES / Blue = MWC
So what’s happened to CeBIT? Perhaps it is more a case of what’s happened to CES and MWC. Both have undoubtedly profited from the consumerisation of IT – with more technologies now immediately targeting the general public as well as or instead of the corporate. Also the mobilisation of technology – and the increasing ubiquity and functionality of mobile devices has made MWC in particular of wider general interest than before.
In addition, there have been some key moments that have added to the fame of CES and MWC – the launch of Blu Ray technology at CES in 2004, Bill Gate’s famous ‘Blue Screen of Death demo of Windows Media Centre at the same conference in 2006 – even Apple’s decision to launch the iPhone, not at CES but at MacWorld a week later in 2008 all helped build the fame of CES.
For MWC – the move to Barcelona in 2006 and the name change to Mobile World Congress (from 3GSM) the following year, plus a series of high profile keynotes from chief execs of industry bell weathers like Cisco, Microsoft, Nokia etc helped cement the date in media and market minds.
So what does this mean for CeBIT? Well this year’s news included launches by Intel, Samsung and Asus which underlines its importance to the tech marketplace – especially serious, back office, enterprise class systems. Over the past few years these have been out of vogue, but perhaps they are poised for a return to the front pages (at least of the tech media) and CeBIT will return to its time in the sun.
