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Here we are in 2009, a milestone for me and E-Gear magazine because this year we celebrate E-Gear’s 10th anniversary. In fact, it was a January meeting among the company’s publishers and editors that launched E-Gear, as well as my career here.
My first day on the job with North American Publishing Company was spent on a flight to Las Vegas for the annual International Consumer Electronics Show (CES). So it’s fitting that we begin our anniversary year in January, with me again at CES to check out the newest innovations from manufacturers around the world.
In 1999 the electronics landscape was much different. Cell phone ownership was at about 48 percent. It’s now 85 percent. High Definition CRT TVs and standard definition plasma TVs were shown as the latest thing while there was nearly nothing to watch on them. DVD players cost several hundred dollars. Boom boxes still proliferated and Napster was being created by a college student in Boston. The iPod, let alone iTunes, hadn’t yet been dreamed up, but the Diamond Rio 300 with 32MBs of memory was selling for $200 and stirring the RIAA into action.
I went back recently to our first issue (August 1999) which featured model Niki Taylor holding a chrome Nokia cell phone. In that issue we also did a primer on the coming digital television transition–which finally comes to fruition this February 17 (when broadcasters shut off their analog signals). We weren’t doing reviews at that time–that wouldn’t come until the 2000 issues.
A lot has changed in the consumer electronics world in ten short years. Digital cameras no longer use floppy drives. People access the Web as often through their cell phones as through their computers, and digital TV isn’t an option, it’s a mandate. Changes like this excite us as I know they excite you, that’s why we’ll continue to bring you the newest and most interesting home, portable and mobile technology and help you use it. Hopefully we’ll be doing it for another 10 years. Anyone care to guess what will have changed by then?
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