CeBIT 2006: It's all about the stuff

As I pack my bags for CeBIT, I can't help wondering whether I'll manage to see as much technology as I'm taking. I've packed my laptop, of course; a digital SLR for photographing all the new products; a camcorder so we can show you the most exciting products in action; a digital voice recorder to record interviews for the podcast; and a microphone so you can hear what we're saying. Then there's the holy trinity of my day-to-day life: phone, handheld organiser and MP3 player (for all the time I'll be spending on planes, trains and automobiles). Already my rucksack is showing the strain, but I still need to find space for the cables that connect everything together, the battery chargers and power adaptors that keep it all working, the socket adaptors that let me plug in the power adaptors, and a miscellaneous heap of memory cards, USB drives, spare batteries and suchlike. And a yellow rubber duck, just in case.

Packing all these gadgets makes me nostalgic for the old days, when reporters dashed around town with press cards in their hatbands and notepads under their arms, free as air and fleet of foot... because their shoulders weren't sagging under the weight of half the world's silicon. The problem with this fantasy is that wishing away the technology we write with would wipe out the technology we write about. There's probably a market for reviews of notepads and pens -- even as I type this, some other journalist in some other space-time continuum might be scratching out a feature on the relative merits of spiral-bound and saddle-stitched pads. I doubt they're having as much fun as we will, though.

CeBIT is the world's largest information technology and communications trade show. It's also the world's largest trade show of any type, with over 6,000 exhibitors spread out over 300,000 square metres of exhibition halls and outdoor display areas. It takes place annually in Hanover, Germany, in the early spring -- adding the possibility of blizzards to the certainty of getting swamped by technology. It's a huge, sprawling, insanely busy showcase where major new products strut their stuff alongside obscure widgets from all around the world. We're expecting to see everything from Microsoft's new Origami device to giant LCD monitors with 8 million pixels, music phones with 8GB hard drives, keyboards that roll up and Webcams that change the colour of your skin.

We're here to look, to listen and most of all, to fondle the kit. We want to poke it and prod it, stroke its surfaces, press its buttons and try it our pockets (and then run off, if it's the least bit desirable). It's all about getting our hands on the stuff.

Last year Bill Gates told The Daily Princetonian that HD DVD and Blu-ray would be the last physical disc formats, because in the future "everything's going to be streamed directly or on a hard disk". He's wrong, in my opinion. Some people will live in white rooms furnished only with comfortable chairs, flat screens, big hard drives and superfast Internet connections, but most people like stuff. They like to have it and hold it, to collect it and display it, to possess it physically and tangibly. People love the look and the feel and the weight of their iPods, and not just the digital music within. Some people will be happy with on-demand access to a virtual library of movies, but some will still want to line up the discs on their shelves, in alphabetical order or by genre, or with the cover artwork on display. And if people want to buy stuff, companies are going to keep making it.

We fall in love with the kit, not the bits -- so when CeBIT 2016 rolls round, I'll still be complaining about the weight of my rucksack. The gear I'm currently carrying will get smaller, lighter, faster and better, but in ten year's time I'll need six other devices to get through the day. Maybe we'll have less stuff in 100 year's time, but I'm not betting on it.

See our CeBIT 2006 Special Report for all the latest news, product announcements, photos and videos from CeBIT.