Leader: Comdex reflects harsh IT realities

Much has been made about the changed priorities of the ‘new’ Comdex trade show in Las Vegas this year, with the digital camera booths making way for business-focused IT products that will help IT buyers achieve competitive advantage for their organisations.

But if Comdex is supposed to be any kind of bellwether as to the health of the IT industry then talk of the good times returning is still a little premature. Maybe the US-bias of the conference reflects the more serious economic situation there but in any case there were no real major product announcements from the big players.

Bill Gates merely revisited his 'digital decade' vision of the previous year and hinted that we may have to wait a while longer yet for the much touted Longhorn next generation of Windows. Sun probably pulled off the biggest announcement of the show with its groundbreaking million desktop Linux deal with the Chinese government.

Yet it was the rest of Sun CEO Scott McNealy's keynote on 'attacking complexity' that summed up current IT priorities for CIOs. Consolidation - and cutting costs - is still king, a view also echoed by Hewlett Packard with its new multi-function high-end printing products and strategy.

Incidentally, in what must be a worrying trend for Comdex organisers, HP was one of several vendors to hold court with invited customers and partners away from the Las Vegas Convention Centre at hotels on the Strip. One vendor opined that Comdex visitors are only interested in wandering by the booths collecting the free gifts.

Elsewhere Siebel chairman and CEO Thomas Siebel stumbled through a heavily auto-cued, hour-long PowerPoint on how much money his company makes, without really addressing just why so many businesses still struggle to realise the much-touted potential of costly customer relationship management systems.

The one bright spot of the week, however, has been wireless and portable computing with promising developments from the likes of Microsoft and PalmSource around smart phones, PDAs and portable devices for business users.

So while IT budgets may have hit the bottom, the indications from Comdex 2003 are that the hype around a new wave of technology investment is premature and that using IT to drive down costs is still the key priority for IT executives.