Nortel may be facing a huge task to survive, but that didn’t stop them from having a presence at the Consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas in early January.
Located with the Lenovo Computer exhibit, they showed off Web Alive, which was released last fall and offers the look of Second Life and the online communications business people would want.
Michael Cohen of Nortel said for the first time ever, CES welcomed the blogger community.
For example, Eric Ross a.k.a. PacManPolarBear, is based in Ottawa and writes for www.SarcasticGamer.com of Houston. He tells me it was an “incredible show, for a geek it was heaven.”
He writes about gaming and found that he had more access to games and company staff than he could have hoped for at this “blogger friendly event.”
Corel Software returned to the show. This year rather than a booth, they rented a meeting room on the show floor. Stephane Gayraud, head of Market Intelligence said attendance may have been down as much as 20 per cent, but it was a good show offering a unique gathering of the industry and people ready to do business. Greg Wood, Corel’s head of Digital Media marketing, said it was a chance to see the developing trends such as 3-D TV, and Netbooks.
QNX Software provides the software that drives a lot of the technology in cars from GPS to hands-free phones. They too booked a meeting room and found themselves overwhelmed with interest. In fact Andrew Polick of QNX told me it was an ideal show because it puts a huge emphasis on car electronics. He adds that the last quarter — despite economic gloom — was the best quarter in QNX’s history.
Research in Motion, maker of the Blackberry, had a very large and very busy booth, which was a testament to its place in consumer’s lives. Included at RIM was Unify4Life, a company with their marketing executive based in Ottawa. Dave Stubbs told me at the show that interest in their product was beyond expectations. They turn Blackberrys into a remote control unit capable of running your TV, cable box, DVD , garage door and thousands of other devices.
Website of the week: www.omgili.com
A search engine to track the subjects people are talking about online.
This Sunday:
One of the stories on Tech Now will be a look at the new way to fix and maintain computers … via the Internet. And don’t forget to check our website www.ctvottawa.ca.
– Be sure to watch Tech Now this Sunday as part of the CTV NEWS at 6 p.m.
