Industry gears up for Comdex

Leading IT show Comdex Fall opens today amid tight security following recent US events. Despite growing apathy in the UK channel about the effectiveness of broad-based IT shows, the industry will look to Comdex to regain confidence.

Analysts expect overall attendance at the five-day conference to be down, although some leading industry figures will appear.

Microsoft's Bill Gates was scheduled to deliver his keynote speech last night (Sunday), predicting renewed growth in the IT sector next year.

Other speakers this week will include Oracle chief Larry Ellison, Cisco chief executive John Chambers and the heads of Sony, Nokia, EDS, Openwave, Handspring, Novell and eBay.

"There are some exciting things coming out of Comdex this autumn. In more positive environments they would receive more attention," said Bruce Temkin, group director at analyst Forrester Research.

AMD and Intel will be showing off new chipsets, including the new Athlon XP processor and Intel's low-power processors for 'ultra dense' servers.