Economic Woes Hit the Consumer Electronics Show

The country’s largest trade show officially kicks off tomorrow in Las Vegas. 130,000 techies are now converging on Sin City for the 42nd annual Consumer Electronics Show. The event is always a headline-grabber. The VCR debuted there in 1970, Atari unveiled its game “Pong” at the show five years later, and the first CD players and DVD players were rolled out at C.E.S.
The current economy is putting a damper on some of the fun this year, though. Registration is down by 8 percent and producers realize that consumers might be more worried about hanging onto their jobs than buying the latest electronic doo-dads.


Dylan Tweney arrived in Las Vegas last night and joins us live on the show for a preview. Dylan covers gadgets for Wired.com, where he’s a senior editor.
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