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CES - smiling through the gloom

• Rory Cellan-Jones
• 8 Jan 09, 19:59 GMT

I knew something was wrong when I walked onto the vast plaza in front of the Las Vegas Convention Centre as I arrived at CES. In past years this area has been a tented city packed with the marquees of some of the major brands who have overflowed from the cavernous halls. This year the place was half deserted - Microsoft, of course had a giant tent, showing off their in-car software ventures, but other top names seemed to have retreated inside the hall. "A few weeks ago quite a few decided they could stay away this year," a passing CES employee told us.

It is clear that the global recession has taken its toll on this show - but the many who have still come don't appear to have trimmed their spending. In fact, as the show opens, the stands inside the hall look more lavish, more packed with shiny new gadgets than ever before. the night before the show opened, there was a seething throng getting a glimpse of everything from toy robots to laser television, while scoffing free hamburgers and knocking back cocktails. You'll be glad to know that I'm on a New Year detox, and abstained.

Sony had the most arresting product to be unveiled on the first day - with every kind of connectivity from 3g to wifi to GPS. It also has a startling $900 price-tag which certainly differentiates it from the more pared-down cheap and cheerful netbooks on the market.

Sony has a huge piece of CES real estate, where journalists packed into a pre-show press conference. To the bemusement of those not from the US, the presser began in the style of the popular quiz show Jeopardy, which is being broadcast from the Sony stand this week - it's a product of the firm's television division.

But Sony's US boss Stan Glasgow seemed to be aware that it was his industry that was in jeopardy - the words "global recession" fell from his lips within minutes. Of course, like every other big player here, Mr Glasgow is insisting that his business is better placed than its rivals to weather these stormy times. There are hordes of happy clappy electronics executives with fixed smiles, trying to keep cheerful.

But this is a city where house prices have fallen by a third over the last year, and where even the upscale hotels on the Strip are offering big discounts on rooms - at least once CES leaves town.

This is not a great time to be persuading consumers that they really need the latest laser television or top-of-the-range laptop. So while Sony's 8 inch Vaio looks very pretty, it may well be the rather less shiny but much cheaper netbooks we are seeing here that catch the eye of cautious consumers.