Consider the history of COMDEX. In it’s heyday, COMDEX rocked. There was excitement, drama, confusion. I attended my first COMDEX in 1991, my last in 2003. Fall COMDEX reigned supreme but I also have fond memories of Spring COMDEX in Atlanta. (Never made the Chicago show).

That last COMDEX was a week of the living dead. Sad. Like the last moments of an ailing pet.

COMDEX was a dealers expo. The conference tracks had more to do with channels than with end user training. It was a time of the backroom demo, of systems companies meeting with component suppliers, of mom and pop shops meeting with distributors. That time is past. Or, at least, has moved offshore.

MacWorld outlived COMDEX precisely because its focus, its purpose was different. Look at the conference tracks. MacWorld is less about refining the channel and reshaping manufacturing supply chains. Its more about the end user. And frankly, MacWorld is Apple’s big show, “Look at me.”

I felt MacWorld 2008–while interesting–was unnecessary. The Apple booth was packed but it was the SAME APPLE BOOTH. Adobe was noticeably scarce. Macromedia had been assimilated. Microsoft was promising big advances in Office 2008. Thankfully, the number of iPod skin vendors was down. It was a nice show. Like a nice visit with your favorite Aunt.

I would rather Apple bow out now at a pleasant MacWorld 2009 than drag out its inevitable death. I would have rather remembered COMDEX 1999 as the last hoorah than witness the emphysemic COMDEX 2003.

The world is changing. Computers are increasingly a commodity product. In the ’80s and ’90s, each year brought amazing new advancements to the relatively crude PC. The ’80s more so. I am lucky to have attended SOG in ‘87. That event wasn’t a show, wasn’t an expo. However, the people who attended were the living soul of personal computing… and the revolution. Everyone I talked to was a gift. Every conversation a revelation. The big shows never had that.

There will still be Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference. Microsoft has the Professional Developers Conference. Adobe has an analogous event for designers/developers with Adobe Max. Intel has Intel Developer Forum. But the PC pioneer days are over.

If you really, really have a need to join La Revolución, there’s still some life left in the penguinistas. But you better hurry. Even Linux World is changing. It’s now OpenSource World. Still, it’s not the same as a computer show. It’s more of a movement.

The era of big shows is past. The personal computer industry has grown up. We now have smaller developer-focused shows. It’s the times we live in. It’s just this way. For now. Who knows what 2020 will bring.

This is a busy week. Monday is a Memorial Day in the United States, ostensibly a holiday. These days, holiday is code for catching up on specification writing, of course.

But on Wednesday-Thursday I’m heading up to Google I/O. I’ll be in the social track. I didn’t see a single session in social track I want to skip. But one session stands apart as one I simply must see. ‘OpenSocial – Scaling and Analytics, Nuts & Bolts’ delivered by Nat Brown.

I’ll be at the conference both days. If you’re at the show, look me up. See you there!

I’m going to 360|Flex San Jose (August 18 – 20, 2008). This is my first Flex conference. I had long maligned Flex as expensive and unnecessary. I have changed my religion!

I saw Peter Armstrong (ruross.com) at the Ruby conference in San Jose. Here’s a guy who built a flex+rails app during his presentation. It wasn’t a slicky talk. No oily powerpoint slide deck. Just raw. Working with the actual tools. Fat finger typo’s in the terminal. There’s an honesty in that.

Something clicked near the end of his talk. My team at work has been dealing with a serious problem. If you look at the site, you’ll surmise the depths of our problems. I had an ‘ah ha!’ moment. I saw a new architecture. End-to-end. And Flex is a part of that vision.

See you in San Jose.

It’s true. Last year was the death of COMDEX. This year was the ‘viewing’. All that’s left is to toss dirt in the grave.

The entire show was in the main hall. North hall was closed. Of course, no Hilton hall.

The ENTIRE show was in the main hall. Nothing in the foyer separating the north from the main hall. To help fill space, registration was placed in the main hall.

A curtain cut down the length of the hall and over on one end creating a huge L-shape that was not used. It seemed that total floor space was less than a fourth of last year. And last year was down.

Even with greatly reduced floor space, the floor was not crowded.

There were a few parties. Not many.

I walked the entire floor in three hours. That included talking with several folks about Gwailo Joe.

The only real ‘news’ was Microsoft. They always have something. They are going to kick ass in enterprise. .Net will smoke Sun, Seybold, Oracle, SAP in selected areas. No doubt.

Personally, I believe if Apple doesn’t get on board with some kind of .net enterprise response (even ‘cooperating’ with Bill), they will continue to decline in global market share and can kiss any hope of gaining inroads into corporate mainstream good bye. My Mac brethren will rankle at my words but that’s how I see it.

Dell was there. I wanted to see the new Dell portable jukebox and PDA. Nope. Their booth was focused on channel development, not showing end users cool stuff. That’s wise on their part.

There was the expected ‘backroom suites’ stuff, but that was way down.

I really believe COMDEX should be fractured into component parts and sent to other, existing shows.

* CES for the consumer stuff
* Networld+interop for the networking stuff

The rest of COMDEX has already left for Asia.

COMDEX, you will be warmly remembered. Rest in Peace, old friend.