WEBVTT - TechStuff Classic: The Story of Comdex 0:00:04.440 --> 0:00:12.399 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey there, 0:00:12.400 --> 0:00:16.000 and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host Jonathan Strickland. 0:00:16.000 --> 0:00:19.760 I'm an executive producer with iHeartRadio and how the tech 0:00:19.840 --> 0:00:24.200 are you? It is time for a tech Stuff classic episode. 0:00:24.840 --> 0:00:29.600 This episode originally published March twenty second, twenty seventeen. It 0:00:29.640 --> 0:00:34.200 is titled the Story of Comdex. There are a few 0:00:36.040 --> 0:00:40.240 the tech related conferences and trade shows that have happened 0:00:40.280 --> 0:00:42.960 over the years. Comdex was a really important one for 0:00:43.000 --> 0:00:50.280 a while, and now we're going to learn more about it. Enjoy. 0:00:50.400 --> 0:00:54.000 This message is from Alex, and Alex said, I really 0:00:54.120 --> 0:00:58.520 enjoy listening to your episodes on CEES and also listening 0:00:58.520 --> 0:01:01.240 to the shows that you broadcast every year from CEES, 0:01:01.360 --> 0:01:04.440 and it got me to thinking about two decades ago, 0:01:04.520 --> 0:01:08.080 there was a popular trade show called Comdex, which is 0:01:08.080 --> 0:01:11.080 not around anymore. I've always wondered what happened to Comdex 0:01:11.120 --> 0:01:13.320 and why it failed as a trade show. I know 0:01:13.440 --> 0:01:16.480 that some famous things happen at Comdex. The blue screen 0:01:16.520 --> 0:01:18.800 of Death coming up on Bill Gates during a Windows 0:01:18.840 --> 0:01:22.160 ninety eight demonstration comes to mind. Thanks for making such 0:01:22.160 --> 0:01:25.199 a great show. Well, thank you, Alex for those kind 0:01:25.240 --> 0:01:29.000 words and for the suggestion. Guys, remember you can always 0:01:29.040 --> 0:01:32.240 write me to make suggestions for show topics or guests 0:01:32.280 --> 0:01:34.120 I should have on the show, or even if you 0:01:34.160 --> 0:01:36.440 just want to say hi. The email address you can 0:01:36.520 --> 0:01:39.520 use is tech stuff at houstuffworks dot com. I'll mention 0:01:39.600 --> 0:01:41.039 that again at the end of the show, but I 0:01:41.040 --> 0:01:42.920 know some of you tune out before I get to that, 0:01:43.040 --> 0:01:45.720 So that's what you can use as an email if 0:01:45.760 --> 0:01:48.040 you want to get in touch with me. Now, let's 0:01:48.080 --> 0:01:51.680 talk about Comdex and its impact on the tech industry. 0:01:53.040 --> 0:01:56.280 I can't just jump right onto condex though, I actually 0:01:56.360 --> 0:01:58.720 have to go back a little bit, and I also 0:01:58.760 --> 0:02:03.040 have to admit this was a surprisingly challenging topic. There's 0:02:03.240 --> 0:02:06.640 not a whole lot written about Comdex as a whole, 0:02:06.800 --> 0:02:10.000 apart from some articles in computer industry magazines from the 0:02:10.080 --> 0:02:14.200 time that usually focused on either an upcoming show, like 0:02:14.840 --> 0:02:17.320 you know, you might read an article in a magazine 0:02:17.320 --> 0:02:20.480 from nineteen eighty seven about Comdex eighty seven being around 0:02:20.520 --> 0:02:23.960 the corner, or you might see an article that is 0:02:24.000 --> 0:02:26.560 talking about just a show that just ended, kind of 0:02:26.560 --> 0:02:30.639 similar to how people cover cees. Right, that'll be an 0:02:30.720 --> 0:02:33.760 article that says, oh, hey, ces is over here what 0:02:33.840 --> 0:02:36.680 the big trends were. But you don't really find a 0:02:36.680 --> 0:02:39.760 whole lot of stuff about the life and death of 0:02:39.800 --> 0:02:42.000 the show as a whole. You have to find bits 0:02:42.040 --> 0:02:45.400 and pieces and then end up putting it all together 0:02:45.560 --> 0:02:50.440 and forming it into a meaningful narrative. So this episode 0:02:50.480 --> 0:02:53.560 is really the result of hours of research. I had 0:02:53.560 --> 0:02:58.360 to piece everything together myself. So typically for every hour 0:02:58.680 --> 0:03:02.200 of podcasts that I print, it takes about eight hours 0:03:02.200 --> 0:03:07.160 of research. That's typical. This one was way more than that. 0:03:07.440 --> 0:03:09.640 It had to be at least twenty hours of research, 0:03:09.720 --> 0:03:12.000 maybe more in order to get all of this. But 0:03:12.600 --> 0:03:17.680 that's enough stalling. Let's talk about comdex. So back in 0:03:17.840 --> 0:03:21.840 nineteen seventy, which is, by the way, many years before 0:03:22.040 --> 0:03:26.640 comdex actually officially began, there was a group of entrepreneurs 0:03:27.280 --> 0:03:31.920 based out of Needham, Massachusetts, and they included Robert Bob 0:03:32.200 --> 0:03:37.080 Lively and Milton Burns, and they created a magazine covering 0:03:37.080 --> 0:03:40.160 the world of computers and data communications. And the name 0:03:40.200 --> 0:03:44.000 of that publication was The Data comm User, and datacom 0:03:44.560 --> 0:03:47.320 was one word and two ms at the end of comm. 0:03:48.360 --> 0:03:51.720 This was before the era of the personal computer. It 0:03:51.760 --> 0:03:53.640 was even before the era that you would be able 0:03:53.880 --> 0:03:56.840 to purchase a kit and make your own personal computer. 0:03:57.320 --> 0:04:01.040 This was the era of many computers and micro computers 0:04:01.320 --> 0:04:04.200 that were only meant for business or research purposes, so 0:04:04.240 --> 0:04:08.200 you didn't really see them in the home, but they 0:04:08.240 --> 0:04:10.760 were able to create a successful magazine. In two years 0:04:10.800 --> 0:04:15.240 after they launched it, the publishers partnered with a different person, 0:04:15.280 --> 0:04:21.000 a future casino magnate Sheldon Gary Adelson, to launch a 0:04:21.040 --> 0:04:24.839 new trade show that they were calling the Interface Conference 0:04:24.920 --> 0:04:31.640 and Exposition. Now Edelson is or Adelson is an interesting person, 0:04:31.839 --> 0:04:36.440 someone of great influence both in Las Vegas and in politics. 0:04:37.320 --> 0:04:39.279 He would eventually go on to build one of the 0:04:39.320 --> 0:04:43.520 premium casinos on the Strip, the Venetian. Anyway, after several 0:04:43.520 --> 0:04:47.440 successful years of running the Interface Conference and Exposition, the 0:04:47.480 --> 0:04:54.000 group saw another opportunity. So it's nineteen seventy nine. The 0:04:54.000 --> 0:04:57.080 computer industry was starting to gain some traction, with the 0:04:57.120 --> 0:05:01.320 home PC market mostly stuck in the world of hobbyists 0:05:01.360 --> 0:05:04.400 and early adopters. By seventy nine, it was starting to 0:05:04.520 --> 0:05:08.640 slowly emerge from that market, but it wasn't yet to 0:05:08.680 --> 0:05:12.840 the point where computers were becoming household objects. It was 0:05:12.880 --> 0:05:15.920 fairly rare to run into homes that had won. They 0:05:15.920 --> 0:05:18.919 were expensive, and there just weren't a whole lot out there. 0:05:19.440 --> 0:05:23.320 You're talking about early Apple computers, you're talking about the 0:05:23.320 --> 0:05:28.720 Commodore sixty four, the Tandy, that kind of stuff. More companies, though, 0:05:28.800 --> 0:05:33.840 were really looking into incorporating computers into the workplace. So 0:05:33.880 --> 0:05:37.599 the Interface Group organized a new event, and this was 0:05:37.640 --> 0:05:42.000 called the Computer Dealer's Exhibition, which was later shortened to 0:05:42.080 --> 0:05:46.800 the name Comdex. Now, that nineteen seventy nine show was 0:05:47.120 --> 0:05:51.960 modest by later standards, and modest is kind of overstating it. 0:05:51.960 --> 0:05:55.440 It was tiny compared to the show when it reached 0:05:55.440 --> 0:05:59.360 its peak. It took place in the MGM Grand in 0:05:59.480 --> 0:06:03.920 Las Veigs, I guess, and that was the MGM Grand 0:06:03.920 --> 0:06:06.600 at the time. The MGM Grand of today is not 0:06:06.760 --> 0:06:09.440 the same building as the one from nineteen seventy nine, 0:06:09.480 --> 0:06:14.960 two totally different places. Approximately four thousand people attended the show, 0:06:15.080 --> 0:06:18.520 with about one hundred and fifty seven exhibitors present. Now, 0:06:18.520 --> 0:06:22.719 in those days only industry representatives could attend, so you 0:06:22.839 --> 0:06:27.000 had to be inside the computer industry in order to 0:06:28.080 --> 0:06:33.120 be considered for attendance. So general public was not allowed 0:06:33.200 --> 0:06:35.840 to go into the show. It's very similar to the 0:06:35.880 --> 0:06:39.400 way CEES is run, and for many years E three 0:06:39.839 --> 0:06:43.720 ran that way. Although E three twenty seventeen, which is 0:06:43.720 --> 0:06:46.720 you know, I'm recording this in twenty seventeen. E three 0:06:46.800 --> 0:06:49.359 twenty seventeen is the first time in several years that 0:06:49.400 --> 0:06:51.440 the show is going to be open to the general public, 0:06:52.320 --> 0:06:55.440 assuming that you were able to get a badge in time. 0:06:56.160 --> 0:06:58.200 I'm going to be at E three this year, so 0:06:58.360 --> 0:07:00.440 that will be interesting. I can't wait to see how 0:07:00.480 --> 0:07:04.239 it's different from the years past that I have attended 0:07:04.240 --> 0:07:08.200 when it was industry only anyway, Condex when it started 0:07:09.000 --> 0:07:12.800 only allowed industry members and and it really didn't look 0:07:12.840 --> 0:07:15.239 at any of the personal computer stuff at all, because 0:07:15.280 --> 0:07:18.400 again that was such a young market. It was really 0:07:18.440 --> 0:07:23.920 looking at the business applications for computers. So if you 0:07:24.040 --> 0:07:26.760 visit Las Vegas and you go to the MGM Grand, 0:07:27.000 --> 0:07:29.720 like I said, that's not the same casino as the 0:07:29.760 --> 0:07:33.160 one that hosted the first Comdex. If you want to 0:07:33.240 --> 0:07:36.320 visit the building where the first Comdex took place, you 0:07:36.400 --> 0:07:39.840 actually have to go to Bally's because that's what the 0:07:39.960 --> 0:07:44.320 old MGM Grand turned into. So a walk through Bally's 0:07:44.320 --> 0:07:48.080 Casino is also a walk through computer history in a way, 0:07:49.360 --> 0:07:52.160 and they really did focus on many computers, which were 0:07:52.760 --> 0:07:58.120 named Many, but were honestly pretty huge machines to be fair, 0:07:58.680 --> 0:08:00.920 the original computers that came out, those were the ones 0:08:00.960 --> 0:08:04.640 that took up like an entire room or sometimes the 0:08:04.720 --> 0:08:07.960 floor of a building like. They were huge, huge machines. 0:08:08.000 --> 0:08:11.400 Those first computers, the ones that date all the way 0:08:11.400 --> 0:08:14.600 back to like the forties and fifties, but the mini 0:08:14.640 --> 0:08:18.400 computers of the seventies were still pretty massive machines. And 0:08:18.480 --> 0:08:23.280 again they were meant for corporate use or manufacturing or 0:08:23.320 --> 0:08:26.160 things like that. They weren't meant to be on your 0:08:26.200 --> 0:08:31.800 table at home, so they're industrial computers. Almost all the 0:08:31.960 --> 0:08:36.520 interactions at Comdex were all about business to business, with 0:08:36.600 --> 0:08:41.640 computer manufacturers courting big corporations like insurance companies and law firms. 0:08:42.120 --> 0:08:48.240 So really, if you might represent a computer manufacturer, and 0:08:48.400 --> 0:08:51.680 what you're trying to do is get that representative from 0:08:51.679 --> 0:08:54.800 that big insurance company to come see your stuff and say, yeah, 0:08:54.800 --> 0:08:56.280 you know what, I'm going to put in an order 0:08:56.800 --> 0:08:59.719 for X number of machines for us to use at 0:08:59.760 --> 0:09:03.599 our corporate office. That was kind of the purpose for Comdex, 0:09:05.800 --> 0:09:07.800 So it wasn't the sort of convention that the average 0:09:07.840 --> 0:09:11.560 computer junkie would even want to attend that first comdex. 0:09:11.640 --> 0:09:14.880 If you are a big computer nerd, you probably still 0:09:14.880 --> 0:09:18.720 would not be too keen on that first Comdex because 0:09:18.720 --> 0:09:22.040 it just it was geared toward a different type of person. 0:09:23.040 --> 0:09:29.760 It's more for business now. Exhibitors also attended shows like 0:09:29.800 --> 0:09:34.080 Comdex for another reason, not just to connect with potential customers, 0:09:34.559 --> 0:09:37.440 They also wanted to see what the competition was up to. 0:09:38.720 --> 0:09:42.200 Keep in mind, these trade shows allowed companies to show 0:09:42.240 --> 0:09:44.760 off stuff that was in development, stuff that had not 0:09:45.040 --> 0:09:48.360 yet hit the market. That meant that if you were 0:09:48.360 --> 0:09:51.040 a competitor, you might get a look at someone's products 0:09:51.080 --> 0:09:55.600 before they actually hit store shelves, and if you are able, 0:09:55.880 --> 0:09:59.120 you might be able to suss out how those products 0:09:59.120 --> 0:10:01.760 are working and figure out your own version of that 0:10:01.880 --> 0:10:05.679 same product. It's not quite the same thing as copying 0:10:05.760 --> 0:10:09.160 someone else. It might involve some reverse engineering, not a 0:10:09.200 --> 0:10:12.319 little ethically questionable, but it certainly was something that happened 0:10:12.360 --> 0:10:15.520 all the time. If a competitor's computers incorporated a new 0:10:15.559 --> 0:10:20.360 feature that you saw, customers were really finding to be compelling. 0:10:21.160 --> 0:10:23.000 You might go back to your team and say, hey, 0:10:24.000 --> 0:10:27.400 competitor X has this new peripheral and people are going 0:10:27.480 --> 0:10:31.120 gaga over it. We've got to create something equal to 0:10:31.360 --> 0:10:35.360 or better than that for our products. So it's really 0:10:35.440 --> 0:10:39.520 just a fuel for competition. And just like CEES gives 0:10:39.600 --> 0:10:43.280 rise to certain trends each year, so did comdex. So 0:10:43.440 --> 0:10:46.000 another reason why companies would attend is to see what 0:10:46.200 --> 0:10:49.280 trends are starting to come up and should there be 0:10:50.840 --> 0:10:53.240 some that the company needs to get involved in, they 0:10:53.240 --> 0:10:56.560 could end up dedicating some resources to it and then 0:10:57.080 --> 0:11:00.160 become a player in that space. The worst thing in 0:11:00.160 --> 0:11:02.559 the world would be to be left behind and become 0:11:02.600 --> 0:11:06.439 obsolete and see your company's business failed because you weren't 0:11:06.440 --> 0:11:10.280 able to capitalize on an emerging trend. So some companies 0:11:10.320 --> 0:11:12.400 would send people out there just to see, all right, well, 0:11:12.400 --> 0:11:14.600 what's big this year and what do we need to 0:11:14.600 --> 0:11:20.600 pay attention to, So it really was all about business now. 0:11:20.760 --> 0:11:24.880 The event was a success, and the group planned a 0:11:25.000 --> 0:11:28.600 second event for nineteen eighty and this one took place 0:11:28.640 --> 0:11:32.040 in the Las Vegas Convention Center. It had outgrown the 0:11:32.160 --> 0:11:36.160 MGM Grand but a few attendees were staying at the 0:11:36.280 --> 0:11:39.520 MGM Grand. That's just that was the place where they 0:11:39.559 --> 0:11:43.079 had booked a room, but the show had already outgrown 0:11:43.120 --> 0:11:46.680 the conference rooms there. The new venue boasted twenty five 0:11:46.720 --> 0:11:49.760 thousand square feet of exhibition space, and more than seven 0:11:49.880 --> 0:11:54.640 thousand people attended the show, so they nearly doubled in size. Now, 0:11:54.679 --> 0:11:57.200 that was the first year for the show to use 0:11:57.280 --> 0:12:00.800 Comdex as a name, and it was also a tragic year. 0:12:01.640 --> 0:12:06.920 Something really disastrous happened that year. On the very last 0:12:07.040 --> 0:12:11.400 day of the Comdex conference, a fire broke out in 0:12:11.480 --> 0:12:15.000 the MGM Grand overnight, and it was a serious fire, 0:12:15.520 --> 0:12:18.720 and more than eighty people died, most of them from 0:12:18.760 --> 0:12:22.360 smoke inhalation because the smoke went up into the rooms 0:12:22.360 --> 0:12:24.280 and a lot of people were asleep and they never 0:12:24.320 --> 0:12:27.680 woke up. Out of those eighty people, eight of them 0:12:27.720 --> 0:12:31.720 were attending Comdex, and the tragedy marks the worst disaster 0:12:31.800 --> 0:12:35.080 in Nevada history and the third worst hotel fire in 0:12:35.240 --> 0:12:39.679 US history. The cause of the fire was ultimately traced 0:12:39.760 --> 0:12:43.000 to an electrical ground fault in a wall socket. They 0:12:43.000 --> 0:12:46.160 had a nearby cooling unit for a pastry display case 0:12:46.679 --> 0:12:50.520 that had a pair of copper pipes that were exposed. 0:12:51.000 --> 0:12:53.880 The insulation had worn down. The copper pipes had been 0:12:54.360 --> 0:12:59.040 vibrating at times, and that vibration had caused the pipes 0:12:59.080 --> 0:13:02.800 to rub together. The insulation protecting the pipes worn away, 0:13:03.520 --> 0:13:07.080 which meant that they could rub against each other, and 0:13:07.160 --> 0:13:10.840 this eventually caused the short, the electrical short, which then 0:13:11.600 --> 0:13:14.920 caused a fire. The fire spread very quickly and it 0:13:14.960 --> 0:13:17.600 was a huge story both in Las Vegas and in 0:13:17.640 --> 0:13:22.960 the computer industry. Now, despite this tragedy, the conference continued 0:13:23.000 --> 0:13:26.400 and grew. It was on that last day of the conference. 0:13:26.440 --> 0:13:29.440 The following year it was even bigger. You would actually 0:13:29.480 --> 0:13:33.400 see Comdex expand to two shows in that year. So 0:13:33.920 --> 0:13:38.880 in the springtime, the organization launched a Comdex show in 0:13:38.920 --> 0:13:44.520 New York. The fall show stayed in Las Vegas. So 0:13:44.559 --> 0:13:48.320 they were splitting up to two shows a year, with 0:13:48.400 --> 0:13:50.520 one on the East Coast and one in Las Vegas. 0:13:51.280 --> 0:13:55.520 The New York show was a big success. It was 0:13:55.640 --> 0:13:58.400 more than twice as big as the first Comdex show 0:13:58.440 --> 0:14:01.319 in Vegas. It had eleven thousand attendees and two hundred 0:14:01.320 --> 0:14:05.360 and thirty seven exhibitors. That Vegas show happened in the fall, 0:14:05.480 --> 0:14:09.840 and this was huge business, not just for the exhibitors 0:14:09.960 --> 0:14:13.679 and the attending professionals, but also for the organizers themselves. 0:14:13.720 --> 0:14:17.320 They were making a huge amount of profit. At its peak, 0:14:18.360 --> 0:14:22.560 Condex could command fifty nine dollars per square foot of 0:14:22.640 --> 0:14:25.920 exhibit space, and when it was the biggest trade show around, 0:14:26.000 --> 0:14:30.600 there was more than one point three million square feet available, 0:14:31.080 --> 0:14:37.400 and Comdex staffers were really really pushing for companies to 0:14:38.320 --> 0:14:42.160 end up leasing that space, so they were making bookoos 0:14:42.400 --> 0:14:46.960 of dollars serious cash just so they a company can 0:14:47.000 --> 0:14:52.280 rent some carpeted floor. Yeah, if you want to read 0:14:52.480 --> 0:14:57.400 some vitriol about Condex, just do some searches about how 0:14:57.480 --> 0:15:00.600 much money the organizers were making back in these days, 0:15:00.640 --> 0:15:04.040 and how a lot of the exhibitors felt that they 0:15:04.080 --> 0:15:09.520 were being almost like extorted in order to rent larger 0:15:09.560 --> 0:15:12.600 and larger spaces year over year, like they were being 0:15:12.640 --> 0:15:17.400 pressured by staffers who were acting like salesmen to rent 0:15:17.480 --> 0:15:23.160 more space each successful year. It's one of the reasons 0:15:23.160 --> 0:15:26.920 why some companies said that they ultimately abandoned the show. 0:15:27.800 --> 0:15:31.120 Well back in nineteen eighty one, the show was still growing, 0:15:31.360 --> 0:15:34.480 just as the computer industry was growing and holding two 0:15:34.480 --> 0:15:36.640 shows ended up working out with the Spring Show in 0:15:36.640 --> 0:15:38.880 New York and the Fall Show in Las Vegas. So 0:15:38.920 --> 0:15:41.960 in nineteen eighty two they expanded again, and this time 0:15:42.000 --> 0:15:46.040 there were three shows. The Spring event occurred in Atlantic 0:15:46.120 --> 0:15:49.840 City aka the Las Vegas of the East Coast, and 0:15:49.880 --> 0:15:52.960 the Fall Show happened in Las Vegas. But there was 0:15:53.000 --> 0:15:55.520 a third show that happened in Europe and it took 0:15:55.520 --> 0:15:59.280 place in Amsterdam. That marked the beginning of Condex expanding 0:15:59.320 --> 0:16:02.720 beyond the United Stas States. Now that trend would continue 0:16:02.760 --> 0:16:05.840 and snowball over the following years. So you start looking 0:16:05.880 --> 0:16:08.880 at the number of shows Condex was holding year over year, 0:16:09.800 --> 0:16:13.360 and it kept on increasing. In two thousand and two, 0:16:13.440 --> 0:16:19.480 there were eighteen Condex shows scheduled throughout that year, eighteen 0:16:19.800 --> 0:16:23.800 different events across the globe in two thousand and two. Now, 0:16:24.840 --> 0:16:27.760 one of those, the one that was scheduled for Mexico City, 0:16:28.240 --> 0:16:32.000 ended up getting canceled, but that still means there were 0:16:32.080 --> 0:16:34.760 seventeen shows in two thousand and two. I mean, that's 0:16:35.320 --> 0:16:38.280 think about how many resources you would have to dedicate 0:16:38.320 --> 0:16:42.200 to hold that many events around the world. All right, 0:16:42.360 --> 0:16:45.880 But back to the nineteen eighties, So after those first 0:16:45.960 --> 0:16:49.280 few years when everyone was concentrating on many computers and 0:16:49.360 --> 0:16:52.440 business to business type stuff, personal computers began to play 0:16:52.480 --> 0:16:56.120 a role in shows because they were starting to take off. 0:16:56.160 --> 0:16:59.840 People were starting to purchase personal computers at a larger rate, 0:17:00.120 --> 0:17:03.200 was going beyond the hobbyist and beyond the early adopter, 0:17:03.920 --> 0:17:07.359 and so it became part of comdex history. He started 0:17:07.359 --> 0:17:10.240 seeing computers like the Apple two E and the first 0:17:10.280 --> 0:17:15.040 IBM compatible computers. First you saw the IBM computers, and 0:17:15.080 --> 0:17:18.439 then shortly after that you saw the IBM clones that 0:17:18.520 --> 0:17:20.320 were making their way to market. And you also had 0:17:20.359 --> 0:17:23.240 other computers like the Commodore sixty four, the Tandy computer, 0:17:23.520 --> 0:17:27.560 and the Amiga line of computers which originally came from 0:17:27.640 --> 0:17:30.040 Commodore as well. And one of these days I'm gonna 0:17:30.040 --> 0:17:32.160 have to do a full show about Tandy, I think, 0:17:32.400 --> 0:17:34.639 because it's hard to believe that a company that started 0:17:34.680 --> 0:17:37.280 off as a leather goods company got into the personal 0:17:37.280 --> 0:17:40.680 computer business. And for that matter, I should probably talk 0:17:40.720 --> 0:17:44.680 about IBM compatibles and clones too, as that was a big, 0:17:44.760 --> 0:17:47.840 big deal early on in the personal computer age and 0:17:47.880 --> 0:17:49.960 one of the reasons why IBM got out of the 0:17:50.440 --> 0:17:55.840 consumer computer market. Entirely for many years. But the important thing, 0:17:57.080 --> 0:17:58.600 the important thing to remember in this part of the 0:17:58.600 --> 0:18:01.520 Comdex story is that these companies were becoming important enough 0:18:01.520 --> 0:18:06.359 to warrant a spot on the show floor. By nineteen 0:18:06.400 --> 0:18:10.159 eighty three, Condex started holding a show in Atlanta, that 0:18:10.280 --> 0:18:13.480 is the city where I am in. I'm from Atlanta, Georgia, 0:18:13.560 --> 0:18:16.960 so I remember Condex being talked about. I was a 0:18:17.040 --> 0:18:21.240 kid in the eighties and I never attended a Comdex, 0:18:21.280 --> 0:18:24.280 but I remember people talking about them, and the show 0:18:24.359 --> 0:18:29.000 in Atlanta would continue yearly until nineteen ninety six, and 0:18:29.040 --> 0:18:32.800 at that point Condex began to alternate between Atlanta and 0:18:32.880 --> 0:18:37.320 Chicago every year. So I probably would have been pretty 0:18:37.359 --> 0:18:39.359 bored if I had gone to one of the comdexes 0:18:39.359 --> 0:18:42.560 in Atlanta. I mean, these shows were huge, and there 0:18:42.560 --> 0:18:45.760 were lots of booths and everything, but again it was 0:18:45.800 --> 0:18:49.200 mostly about like productivity machines and software, and not really 0:18:49.240 --> 0:18:51.040 the kind of stuff I was interested in, which was 0:18:51.240 --> 0:18:54.120 namely computer games. You didn't really see a whole lot 0:18:54.119 --> 0:18:56.080 of that Condex because that's just not what the focus 0:18:56.160 --> 0:18:59.680 of the show was about. Also, in nineteen eighty three, 0:18:59.720 --> 0:19:03.600 I love this Bill Gates gave his first speech at 0:19:03.600 --> 0:19:06.720 a Comdex in nineteen eighty three, and that would become 0:19:06.760 --> 0:19:10.119 a regular event over future shows, and Gates would end 0:19:10.240 --> 0:19:13.680 up getting larger audiences every year. He would command a 0:19:13.720 --> 0:19:16.880 bigger room every year. It obviously became a much more 0:19:16.920 --> 0:19:20.640 important event in future comdexes, but back in nineteen eighty 0:19:20.640 --> 0:19:24.040 three it was rather modest in comparison, so much so 0:19:24.200 --> 0:19:29.439 that the projectionist for Bill Gates's presentation was his own father. 0:19:30.240 --> 0:19:32.200 I just think that's kind of a charming little bit 0:19:32.240 --> 0:19:35.679 of information. Well, I've got more to say about what 0:19:35.840 --> 0:19:38.399 happened to Comdex in the nineteen eighties, but before I 0:19:38.440 --> 0:19:41.440 get into that, let's take a quick break to thank 0:19:41.480 --> 0:19:53.639 our sponsor. All right, So a couple of big events 0:19:53.680 --> 0:19:57.480 happened in the early nineteen eighties that rippled through Comdex. 0:19:58.320 --> 0:20:01.800 For one thing, the Macintosh debuted in nineteen eighty four, 0:20:02.119 --> 0:20:05.919 and that's when the graphics user interface, or GUY, became 0:20:06.040 --> 0:20:11.240 big in home personal computers. The Windows system Microsoft Windows 0:20:11.320 --> 0:20:14.119 also made a big splash around that same time, and 0:20:14.520 --> 0:20:17.919 Microsoft and Apple had worked together developing a GUY. It 0:20:18.000 --> 0:20:21.440 wasn't exactly you might hear stories about, Oh well, Windows 0:20:21.560 --> 0:20:25.240 was just copying the mac os. It's not entirely true. Actually, 0:20:25.600 --> 0:20:28.159 the two companies were working together to develop Guy's and 0:20:28.240 --> 0:20:32.000 to be fair, the graphic user interface wasn't developed out 0:20:32.000 --> 0:20:36.120 of Apple or Microsoft. The graphic user Interface originated as 0:20:36.160 --> 0:20:40.119 a project out of Xerox Park, But that's another story 0:20:40.119 --> 0:20:45.560 for another time. The graphics user Interface, however, was changing 0:20:45.680 --> 0:20:49.400 computers because it was seen as a much more intuitive, 0:20:49.920 --> 0:20:56.119 easy to understand system than command line systems. So in 0:20:56.160 --> 0:20:58.480 the old days, if you wanted to run a program 0:20:58.520 --> 0:21:01.800 on your computer, you had to type in run in 0:21:01.840 --> 0:21:04.639 the program name, and then the computer would know to 0:21:04.760 --> 0:21:08.720 execute that command and start that program. You might have 0:21:08.960 --> 0:21:12.280 some programs that had an auto startup based upon the 0:21:12.400 --> 0:21:15.520 disc that you were using, and that would make things 0:21:15.560 --> 0:21:19.640 a little more smooth. But until the graphics user interface 0:21:19.680 --> 0:21:21.840 came along, you couldn't just click on an icon and 0:21:21.960 --> 0:21:25.720 have something start. You actually had to type stuff in, 0:21:25.920 --> 0:21:28.920 and it wasn't exactly user friendly for people who weren't 0:21:28.960 --> 0:21:32.439 already interested in computers, so it was sort of a 0:21:32.440 --> 0:21:36.240 barrier to entry. The graphic user interface lowered that barrier, 0:21:36.320 --> 0:21:39.760 and that's really when we started seeing personal computers take off, 0:21:40.520 --> 0:21:43.520 not just for homes, but in schools and all sorts 0:21:43.560 --> 0:21:48.960 of places. So the Macintosh and the Windows system were 0:21:49.040 --> 0:21:52.080 really important, and they dominated the show floor. By nineteen 0:21:52.119 --> 0:21:55.480 eighty five, everyone was talking about Windows based systems and 0:21:55.520 --> 0:21:59.560 graphic user interfaces. And it's funny because if you look 0:21:59.600 --> 0:22:02.959 back on these early comdex shows, you can see the 0:22:03.000 --> 0:22:05.960 debut of stuff that we all take for granted now, 0:22:06.040 --> 0:22:08.680 stuff that you know well of course that exists. Sometimes 0:22:08.680 --> 0:22:11.760 we're looking at debuts from stuff that's completely obsolete at 0:22:11.760 --> 0:22:15.399 this point. So if you are able to find videos 0:22:15.720 --> 0:22:20.159 from that era and you watch them, it's almost comical 0:22:20.520 --> 0:22:25.240 to see them debut because it's ancient history now in 0:22:25.680 --> 0:22:28.880 the computer world. One of the resources I used when 0:22:28.920 --> 0:22:32.800 researching this show was an episode of The Computer Chronicles 0:22:32.880 --> 0:22:36.840 from nineteen eighty six. So at the beginning of that episode, 0:22:36.960 --> 0:22:40.800 the CEO of Digital Research talked about how applications had 0:22:40.840 --> 0:22:44.439 suddenly become important, So he was referring to programs like 0:22:44.520 --> 0:22:49.600 desktop publishing software or spreadsheet management programs, things like that, 0:22:50.400 --> 0:22:52.680 and that they were taking center stage because they were 0:22:52.680 --> 0:22:56.600 taking advantage of this graphic user interface. It's really similar 0:22:56.640 --> 0:22:59.639 in a way to how smartphone apps have become a 0:22:59.640 --> 0:23:03.080 major focus in the tech industry. Today. The hardware is 0:23:03.080 --> 0:23:05.639 still important, but a lot more attention is going towards 0:23:05.680 --> 0:23:11.120 the software running on top of the hardware. Well. Condex 0:23:11.240 --> 0:23:13.960 was also where companies could show off new products like 0:23:14.359 --> 0:23:18.640 laser printers, which in the eighties were super super new 0:23:18.680 --> 0:23:23.359 and exciting, or computer peripherals, or computer systems and software packages. 0:23:23.640 --> 0:23:25.879 And because the industry was heating up, the show just 0:23:25.960 --> 0:23:29.080 kept getting larger and more grandiose every year. And it 0:23:29.119 --> 0:23:33.560 wasn't long before companies began employing young women to entice 0:23:33.600 --> 0:23:38.399 people into booths. And I saw one journalist's account of 0:23:38.440 --> 0:23:42.480 an early nineteen eighties Condex that dismissively referred to these 0:23:42.480 --> 0:23:48.760 women as demo dollies. Now at cees, you tend to 0:23:48.800 --> 0:23:53.040 hear these women being referred to as booth babes, and 0:23:53.160 --> 0:23:55.080 I just like to take a moment to address this 0:23:55.280 --> 0:24:00.280 because it bugs me. So as I get older, I 0:24:00.320 --> 0:24:04.080 get more uncomfortable with these terms. And that's because they 0:24:04.119 --> 0:24:08.359 ignore the fact that these women are human beings. Many 0:24:08.400 --> 0:24:11.639 of them may be hired because of their appearance. You know. 0:24:11.680 --> 0:24:14.639 It might be that they have a modeling agency and 0:24:14.680 --> 0:24:17.679 a company hires them because of their profile and the 0:24:17.720 --> 0:24:21.360 modeling agency, and so it's completely based on their appearance. 0:24:21.400 --> 0:24:23.520 But it doesn't change the fact that we're talking about 0:24:23.560 --> 0:24:27.880 actual people here. I'm not a fan of companies using 0:24:27.920 --> 0:24:30.680 sex appeal to get people to pay attention to their stuff, 0:24:31.119 --> 0:24:33.639 particularly if we're talking about products that have nothing to 0:24:33.680 --> 0:24:36.840 do with being sexy in the first place. But the 0:24:36.880 --> 0:24:41.320 women and men too, because we see male models also 0:24:41.359 --> 0:24:44.320 being pulled in for this duty, especially for things like 0:24:45.160 --> 0:24:50.680 wearables and sports type of technology. At places like ces, 0:24:50.720 --> 0:24:53.280 we see both women and men who are you know, 0:24:53.560 --> 0:24:57.120 chiseled from marble showing these off. But that makes sense, 0:24:57.280 --> 0:25:01.320 you understand, right, all right, This person is fit and 0:25:01.400 --> 0:25:04.560 the product is promising to help you get fit, so 0:25:04.920 --> 0:25:07.480 you see the connection there. It's a little more tough 0:25:07.520 --> 0:25:12.000 if you're like, this is a case for a smartphone 0:25:12.400 --> 0:25:15.520 and this woman wearing barely anything is holding the case. 0:25:16.359 --> 0:25:20.359