CES 2008 isn't just about the big brands and stuff headed to Best Buy's shelves. It's also crammed with countless vendors from the far east and elsewhere, which lurk behind the industry's well-known names, actually producing the high-tech components that end up as finished products. Here, for your delectation, is Chia Peng Electronics' lineup of headphone speakers, in the raw.
Few stop at such booths, and even those guys are most likely corporate buyers. But it's easy to imagine that these quiet firms are the CE industry's real power brokers. We typically imagine western companies designing the little wonders and "going to bid" in the far east, but can that picture be inverted? How many well-known brands are, in reality, just outsourced design and marketing departments for real innovators we've barely heard of?
