Their best bets
For Bay State companies with new products to promote, the annual Consumer Electronics Show is a must-go event - even if the chips are down for the economy
LAS VEGAS - Last week's Consumer Electronics Show was more pleasant than the 2008 edition, if you like plenty of elbow room. Though a final headcount is weeks away, executives of Massachusetts companies that participated said attendance was down substantially.
"The economy's not doing well. Money is tight," said Jonathan Huberman, president of the consumer and small business division at EMC Corp., the Hopkinton data-storage company. But, he added, "we have to be here."
And so did retailers and distributors from around the world, in search of new products to put on their shelves, despite the recession. EMC was one of several Massachusetts companies with new offerings.
Hard-drive maker Iomega Corp. hadn't hosted a booth at CES since 2005. But EMC bought Iomega last year, in a bid to expand beyond giant storage arrays for big businesses into the consumer market. Now, Iomega is introducing low-cost data-storage gear beefed up with EMC's corporate-grade data-management software.
Iomega's new $160 Home Media Network Hard Drive uses software developed by EMC to store and organize digital music, videos, and photos. The StorCenter ix2, for homes and small businesses, can handle up to two terabytes of data for $480, and contains software that lets it also act as a cheap video-surveillance system.
Huberman, Iomega's chief executive before the EMC acquisition, said the deal has provided Iomega with engineering know-how and marketing power it could never have matched as an independent firm. "Being part of a company with $8 billion on its balance sheet is a very big advantage," he said.
Avid Technology Inc., of Tewksbury, is another Massachusetts company that made its name serving big business. Its audio- and video-editing software is used by major movie, television, and music producers worldwide. But at CES, Avid touted its consumer-grade editing products: Pinnacle for video production and M-Audio for sound.
Avid's chief executive, Gary Greenfield, was especially proud of Groovy, a new $39.95 software product that lets children compose tunes, with little or no musical training. Groovy features on-screen icons that represent a variety of sounds. A child can create compositions by dragging and dropping the icons. Once the piece is complete, Groovy displays the melody in standard musical notation, so the user can learn how to read music.
Greenfield said the economic slowdown has affected Avid, but it should be in good shape, nonetheless. "The transition to new media is creating a new demand for consumer-generated video, consumer-generated audio," he said. "That creates opportunity for Avid."
Kenneth Kokinakis, president of Myvu Corp. in Westwood, said he hopes a lot of this new media is viewed through his company's 3-D video eyeglasses. Myvu made its debut at CES last year, and Kokinakis said that since then his company has sold "tens of thousands" of its $130 glasses, with sales growing by 400 percent, year over year.
But when asked about visits to his booth at this year's show, Kokinakis smirked and jerked his thumb toward the floor. "I'm sorry to say it's much lighter than last year," he said. "I think a lot of people cut back." Still, he remains modestly optimistic about 2009. "I think this year's OK for us," he said, "but I'm cautious."
IRobot Corp., the Bedford maker of home-cleaning robots, brought an upgraded version of its Looj gutter-cleaning robot to Las Vegas. The new model is still radio-controlled, but it uses an internal antenna that won't get snagged on gutter parts.
Lenbrook America rented a suite at the Venetian Hotel to show off high-end audio products, including WiFi Internet radios from Tivoli Audio LLC in Boston. Lenbrook's marketing manager, Mark Stone, said it's the first time in three years that the Sharon company has participated in CES.
"Certainly the economy is a strong challenge to every brand in the industry," Stone said. But he added that he was seeing lots of visiting buyers and significant interest in his company's products. "We're actually kind of bullish about 2009," he said.
The booth hosted by Zoom Technologies Inc. had a forlorn, empty look, in keeping with the company's recent losses and a stock price of 77 cents a share. But Terry Manning, Zoom's vice president of sales and marketing, said the Boston maker of telephone and DSL data modems is preparing for a comeback. Zoom's newest DSL modem features a built-in WiFi data router and Internet-based telephone service. And the company plans products that will let several people with 3G broadband data service share one connection.
"Obviously, there are lots of challenges," Manning said. But "Zoom has reinvented itself three or four times now, and we're in the process of reinventing ourselves again."
Hiawatha Bray can be reached at bray@globe.com. 