If there was a year that really seems dated from the perspective of late 2019, it is 2009. Many trends that were hot then are essentially gone. There was a major shift in several tech areas that were just getting a toehold in the future at that 2009 CES show. Just for fun, let’s see what was hot then and is it missed?

The top consumer electronics company on the planet was GE … yep, that’s changed for today. Apple which was eleventh then, is #1 now. Samsung is still second, but LG has actually given up 3rd to Amazon.

Circuit City was still around and looking for a buyer while it closed even more stores.

In top TV’s, plasmas still ruled with an iron hand. The Pioneer Elite Kuro Pro-111FD made even the best LCD sets look primitive. However, at $5000, it only appealed to the videophile that had deep pockets. Remarkably, it was less money than many of the top-of-the-line LCD sets. I saw it in person and to this day I’d absolutely love to have one … it was that good … so good in fact, that I have a hard time seeing how it can be surpassed.  And coming from a hardcore OLED fan, that’s quite a compliment. Sadly, it cost too much to build and the mass market wanted ever thinner & cheaper sets, so only a few were produced. I had an earlier professional version (before the Kuro name) in 2003 ($8000+) and to this day I miss it.

The developer of the VHS video tape system, JVC, stopped production of their machines.

McIntosh was confused and assumed that we needed an $18,000 video projector from a company that didn’t actually make it, and that excited fans would snap it up solely based on the famous name … ah, nope, didn’t happen.

There were still TONS of iPod accessories … even after over 8 years of production.

There was lot of talk about streaming, but there wasn’t anyone that had a good grasp of just how big it would become or how to implement it.

This definitely was the year of transition for over-the-air TV folks … conventional analog TV was going the way of the dinosaur in just a few months and there were endless adapters for the handful of people that actually used “rabbit ears” for their TV’s.

Digital picture frames really were being hotly hyped (and improved), but this, like the iPod trend, was “one foot out the door” … but the manufacturers had no idea. Consequently, when you hear this is the “year of the … etc.”, take it with a grain of salt as only a few years later in perspective will give you a clear picture.

The porn industry had its awards and trade show at the same time as CES again and your CES badge will get you a $25 discount … dropping to $107. After seeing a few of the “stars” walking around actually in CES, clearly this wasn’t so much of a good deal. That $107 would have gone a long way in buying some Apple stock … It’d be worth over $1100 today.

Now that’s some real bang for the buck!