My friends, if for any reason you needed more evidence of how soft our little computer industry has become you would have to look no further than our favorite product parade, Fall 2002, that concluded last month in Las Vegas. From a high of 2,300+ exhibitors in 2000, the show hit a reported low of 1,000. After walking the floor for three days, and talking with attending vendors, it appears to me that 1,000 would be quite a stretch. Even using the official numbers, Comdex is now 40% of its former size. Its owner, Key3 Media, is rumored to be discussing bankruptcy protection even as this article is being written. One alarming sight; in the Eastern side of the Main Hall, a huge area was taken up by hucksters with "scalp tinglers", "shiatsu massage chairs", and electric massagers. It looked less like the Comdex of old and more like a State Fair in the farm belt. This area had to be three rows deep and 4 aisles wide, and would otherwise have had vibrant displays from at least 50 small companies. About 35% of the North Hall seemed to be screened off, and about 20% of the Main Hall. The South Hall was full for the last CES in January, but completely closed for Comdex. As an aside, there was lots of buzz at the show about how CES will replace Comdex as the biggie here in Vegas.
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With the marketing strength of Microsoft and the support of tier one vendors, the Tablet PC has become a mainstream reality. Tablet PCs have floated around the periphery of the PC market place for some time, utilizing for the most part overpriced proprietary designs, targeted for exclusive vertical markets. Windows XP-Tablet OS changes all that, creating a common platform from which vendors can work from, allowing for flexibility to create several new an innovative designs.
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NEWS

MARK YOUR CALENDAR!

Achieve measurable results in just 3 days at the co-located System Builder Summit(TM) and VARVision® Spring 2003 Event, March 16-19, at the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress, Orlando, Florida. Grow your business in existing markets and expand into new ones. System Builder Summit and VARVision bring Vendors together with the premier System Builders and VARs that serve the government, education, healthcare, consumer, wholesaler, and SMB markets.
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NEWS

Q&A with Dan Freeman, Zones Inc.

Q. How are things going at Zones?

A. A lot of great things are going on. Zones always used to be known as that Mac reseller up in Seattle that took inbound catalog calls. Our Mac business is still as strong as ever, but now the majority of our sales come from PC products via outbound sales. This has happened because Zones made the decision a couple of years ago to go after the SMB market. It was a daunting task, but now the strategy is really paying off. We're strengthening our outbound sales force and operationally we're the most efficient we've ever been. Zones is growing and profitable which is proof that our business model is working.
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ACP - There's $$$ For You in Refurbished Products
Since 1976 Advanced Computer Products (ACP) has created new markets for excess, class B-goods and refurbished inventory. ACP has the ability to remarket your products into 3rd tier and offshore markets thereby protecting the integrity of your present distribution channels.
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Small and Midsize Businesses Face New Server Choices
By Gartner

Abstract: Small and midsize businesses face many choices when considering server technology. Server trends, such as Internet connectivity and computing appliances, have changed the available options.
By Jim Browning

Key Issues

What are the market size and forecast for applications, infrastructure and services within the SMB market?
What are the key selection criteria among SMBs in choosing applications, infrastructure and services?
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FROM THE COMMUNITY

Changing Channels: More about the "Channels" Approach
By Steve Cross

How many of you take a "channels" approach to problems? A lot of you, I'll bet. I frequently use the channels perspective to analyze business issues, business models, and business problems.

I was recently asked to look at a software company selling a $400,000 application suite. Senior management was oh-so-very-pleased with themselves for landing what they supposed were multi-million-dollar contracts with two huge companies. These contracts took months of negotiations, and much jockeying from all parties involved. Unfortunately, after over a year, neither contract had produced any results. Zip.
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FROM THE COMMUNITY

The Current State of Recordable DVD Media Formats
By Tim Clatterbuck, Verbatim Corporation

CD-R and RW continue to be the most widely used removable storage technology because of the extremely low cost of drives, players and media. However, with prices for DVD hardware and media dropping, the DVD recordable formats are rapidly gaining acceptance for use in document, video, audio and personal/professional storage.
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