Posts Tagged ‘comdex’

During the 80’s and 90’s, there was a little show called COMDEX. It stood for Computer Dealer Exhibition. For a while, there were 2 versions: The Spring COMDEX (Alternating for a while between Altanta and Chicago) and the Fall COMDEX (Las Vegas). The show was attended by many and there were vendors galore. I remember seeing Bill Gates at the 1998 Comdex for the Blue screen error when they plugged in a scanner. I also saw President William Clinton give a keynote.

COMDEX finally fell in 2003. Nonetheless, a lot of History falls between this time and about April from the show. Therefore, the next few days there will be a lot of “At the COMDEX Show”.

Sponsor:  Try GoToAssist free for 30 days – GoToAssist.com/techpodcasts.

Please add to your favorite aggregator. RSS Feed – iTunes – Stitcher – TechPodcasts

Other Historical Events in Technology

• Mosaic becomes Netscape
• Power PC CHRP
• Ubuntu on ARM

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 10:32 — 4.8MB)

1986 – Back in that day, Comdex was the big computer show. There were two versions: one that was held in Chicago in the spring and the other in Las Vegas mid-November. At this time, Atari was the big dog on the block. Jack Tramiel was putting all efforts in this years Comdex after seeing a small dip in the shares.

So they set up a 65 booth display with different 3rd party developers that would show off what the Atari could do. The big innovation that year – the SX212 1200 baud modem for $99.95. They also showed off the Atari 2600jr and the Atari 7800, and because of that impressive show, Atari boasted a $25 million profit that year.

Of course, the company went well for a few more years, merged with JTS, which was then bought by Hasbro in 1998. The company still is survived in a way to this day, but not in the glory that it was back then.

Sponsor:  Try GoToAssist free for 30 days – GoToAssist.com/techpodcasts.

Please add to your favorite aggregator. RSS Feed – iTunes – Stitcher – TechPodcasts

Other Historical Events in Technology

• IBM introduces Giant Magnetoresistive (GMR) Heads
• The first Apple iPod is shipped
• Circuit City files for Chapter 11 protection

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 10:49 — 5.0MB)

I saw you back in Comdex in 83 – You were a exciting new technology – a marvel to me with a touchscreen.

Ohhhh, ohhh

But times have changed and you are now put to the side – the integration with the phone makes it real nice – and you get tossed in the scrap pile to die.

Ohhh, ohhh

I used your applications

ohhh, ohhh

And all your revelations….

---

I did have a PDA. I had a few of them. Palm, iPaq, Axim and a host of others. However, 2 years ago I got my first Smartphone. That pretty much put my last PDA to the side.

Earlier in the week I read the article “5 things the Smartphone Killed“. While I am not in total agreeance of the list just yet, I do agree on a lot of their items and I can see the Smartphone can totally engulf all the item replacements. Read the rest of this entry »