Panasonic CEO left CES to see Jobs introduce iPhone
As if Apple's spotlight isn't large enough lately, it appears they stole some of CES's 15 minutes with the announcement of the iPhone. Forbes is reporting that Yoshi Yamada, CEO of Panasonic, left CES on Tuesday and traveled 600 miles to see Steve Jobs' iPhone-unveiling keynote (perhaps he knew he was going to get his money's worth?). Even though CES is filled to the brim with gadgets and gizmos, Apple's fanatically-anticipated iPhone may have upstaged most of them: as Yahoo's Christopher Null told Forbes, "[It] is unfortunate that people are trying to get the word out about their products, and they're one-upped by Steve Jobs."
Maybe CES will have better luck in 2008; we hear the CEA and IDG finally stopped playing phone tag and agreed on separate weeks for their respective festivals.
