This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
COMDEX Opens with Smallest Attendance Ever
Related Links Top of the: day, week, month.
The Tao is like a glob pattern: used but never used up. It is like the extern void: filled with infinite possibilities.
Well... (Score:4, Funny)
the front page photo looks like a nazi regime guy naming all his allies. No wonder every decided to stay away.
Re:Well... (Score:2)
Well.... (Score:3, Funny)
spam (Score:4, Informative)
Re:spam (Score:1, Informative)
Comdex Toronto has largely become a "computer fair" with the booths that sell end-of-life software and previous versions of software books, etc.
I don't know what Comdex Toronto 2002 was like - I purposely stayed away as it took 3 days to get the stink of impending death out of my coat after the previous one.
Re:spam (Score:2)
You nailed it with the computer fair description... the desperation practically dripped from all those small business owners hoping that someone wanted to buy some "consulting time" or some outdated, overpriced hardware bought from another company's surplus stock.
I never got to go to the American Comdex, but I would certainly hope it was more exciting.
Re:spam (Score:3, Informative)
I haven't been to a Comdex for over 2 years and I still get spam mail from them.
The last Comdex I went to (Chicago), I did manage to pick up some nice swag, including several Linux distro CDs, so it wasn't a total waste...
Re:spam (Score:3, Funny)
Re:spam (Score:2, Funny)
So I guess you aren't on the Linux Kernel Mailing list. "You have 268 unread messages today"
Re:spam (Score:2)
Re:spam (Score:2)
If others are doing similar things, this renders the exhibitors' lists worthless. Their whole point in going is to make industry contacts. Why should they bother to go if they don't get any value out of it?
As for COMDEX and bankruptcy, I don't get that. Las Vegas offers excellent prices to conventions so that they can attract the attendees to the casinos. Exhibitor fees should cover operational costs that aren't too extravagent, the training sessions are supposed to pay for themselves, and direct mail to prior attendees is cheap. How did they manage to piss away enough money to end up close to bankruptcy?
Re:spam (Score:2)
Besides, geek understand mathematics (better than the average gambling public) and they also know that the odds are stacked against you no matter what you are playing, so why bother. Most of my fellow college students (engerineering at UNLV) refuse to gamble since they know that these billion dollar casinos aren't built because they are giving money away.
Re:spam (Score:2)
let me think... (Score:5, Funny)
does anything important really ever happen at COMDEX?
wasn't the Amiga 1000 introduced at COMDEX 1985?
The last comdex (Score:1)
Feeling a Little Bitter? (Score:4, Interesting)
"COMDEX Opens with Largest Drop in Attendance Ever !
Attendance Down More Than 50% from Two Years Ago
The Show Organizer May File for Bankruptcy Protection"
then..
"COMDEX Refuses to Issue "Press Badge" to SYS-CON Media"
Coincidence? Probably.
Re:Feeling a Little Bitter? (Score:5, Interesting)
It almost sounds like President Clinton and others talking about "paying off the deficit."
Deficit? (Score:3, Insightful)
oh never mind....
But wasn't that brief period of euphoria wonderful. Something to tell the kids about.
Of course Comdex is dying -- what a boring name! It sounds like a competitor to Rolodex®.
Re:Deficit? (Score:2)
Deficit: "an excess of liabilities over assets"
I.e., spending more than you have. Until recently, we were talking about having "surpluses." Shall I define that one for you, too?
The current Administration has consistently lied [businessweek.com] about how "money works." Anyway money doesn't work -- people do. These people, typically middle-class, will be the ones who ultimately pay for the current deficits resulting from overspending and inadequate revenue exacerbated by tax cuts predicated on the supposed surpluses.
There are various reasons for the disappointing bleakness of our economic forecasts, but none explains the 1+1=3 math we've been getting lately. I'm not favoring one party over the other on this, either.
Re:Deficit is flow, Debt is stock (Score:2)
Re:Feeling a Little Bitter? (Score:2, Funny)
AMD-apple link (Score:5, Interesting)
Prolly just nonsense, but exciting anyway..maybe..
Re:AMD-apple link (Score:3, Funny)
Not a real good basis for a partnership.
No, Apple's new processor, the thousand year dragon king, will come from the guardian god of the Big Blue sky. He will have his own reasons for hating Microsoft, and will be happy to help Apple.
On December 14, 1996, Mothra resurrected a charred Apple sapling ("Mosura" 1996).
On December 14, 2001, Mothra returned to see its fruit ("Gojira, Mosura, Kingu Ghidora: Daikaiju Soukougeki").
OS X Jaguar: truly the Apple of Mothra's Aqua eye.
"Apple Computer": A Ridiculous LIberal Myth (Score:5, Funny)
This so-called "company" was founded by a pair of dope-smoking phone service thieves from Berkeley, a hotbed of Communist activity even today. "Apple Computer" supposedly went on to pioneer a graphical interface - actually developed by the good American patriots at Xerox - and develop its own hardware monopoly, just as its Communist creators would impose a state monopoly on all computer-using Americans.
For a short time, this Red front tried to infiltrate the American business community by facetiously engaging in free trade practices, but this only served to disillusion its enthralled socialist followers who complained about a supposed drop in quality. What they really couldn't stand, like all liberals, was choice and capitalism. They only returned to "Apple" when it returned to its old crypto-Stalinist practices.
"Apple Computer" is nothing more than a liberal-backed fifth column intended to subvert the American computer industry, and ultimately bankrupt good capitalist companies such as Microsoft and Intel. "Apple" isn't the only front group run by the International Communist Conspiracy. "Sun Microsystems" engages in similar monopolistic practices, trying to enforce a single hardware and software standard on all users, instead of the choices offered by Microsoft. Worst of all are the smaller Red fronts using the communist Linux operating system, with names like "Mandrake" (a French front, of course), and even really obvious ones like Red Hat! Linux is distributed under a Commie license that forces developers to give away the fruits of their labour, just as Marx ordered all good Communists to work as much as they could for a pittance in return in an illusory equal society.
All of these so-called companies are just fronts for Communists and liberal fellow-travellers. Remember, when you buy Apple or download Linux, you're supporting Communism. Good Americans support real freedom-loving businesses like Microsoft and Intel.
Laugh at me now, remember me later when you're all forced to used slow computers with horrid interfaces foisted upon an enslaved public by the commissars who used to fester in American business under the liberal myth that they were an independent company that loved capitalism called Apple Computer.
Re:"Apple Computer": A Ridiculous LIberal Myth (Score:5, Funny)
Eh? Am I missing something here? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Eh? Am I missing something here? (Score:3, Funny)
good chance to get work done (Score:4, Funny)
Re:good chance to get work done (Score:2)
Got to see everything and had a good week of vacation, just had to write up a trip report for it.
Things I learned at Comdex (Score:5, Insightful)
2. Networking was going to be overvalued
3. The bubble was about to burst.
Don't know about the rest of you, but I made over $2 million just through going to Comdex. I think this was money well spent.
I've also learned that the business people know as little as the rest of us about where things are going. Thir guesses are never right. They might make some good guesses about what market will do well, but its almost always for the wrong reasons.
Re:Things I learned at Comdex (Score:2)
If only that were true... then things would be like the episode of Seinfeld where George decides to do the exact opposite of what he would normally do.
"If every instinct you have is wrong, then the opposite would have to be right."
Re:Things I learned at Comdex (Score:1)
Re:Things I learned at Comdex (Score:2)
I've also learned that the business people know as little as the rest of us about where things are going. Thir guesses are never right. They might make some good guesses about what market will do well
The problem is information overload. The correct projections about the future are lost in a sea of incorrect projections, wishful thinking, emotion and hype.
Like this year. I know that tablets will be a big thing.
Someday.
The roadside's littered with businesses that tried to introduce products based on good ideas that were too many years before the right time.
Re:Things I learned at Comdex (Score:2)
>good guesses about what market will do well, but its almost always for the wrong reasons.
If this is true, then why do they get paid so much? Whenever there is a gripe about excessive executive compensation, they're decried as Socialists. Well, I'm going to gripe about excessive executive compensation, because they're just not doing a good enough job to earn the high pay they're getting. If the "Captains of Industry" were really doing 7 and 8 figure jobs, the economy would be in better shape than it is. They wouldn't have been fooled by the dot-com bubble and wouldn't have landed us in the dot-com bust. They already keep an eye on their peers, and they should have forseen the current corporate accounting mess, and perhaps headed it off, or at least reduced its impact.
Am I asking for a lot? Yes. But then, 7 or 8 figures is a lot of pay. They should earn it. Instead they screw up, leaving people like us holding the bag.
Re:Things I learned at Comdex (Score:2)
Re:Things I learned at Comdex (Score:2)
32 IP addresses?
Assuming you meant 32-bit IP addresses, you're still inventing terminology. And what does the number of bits in an address have to do with knowing things about packet switching? That's an implementation detail.
Sigh indeed.
Exhibitions in the time of the Internet (Score:4, Informative)
But the plain truth is that attedance to trade fairs is going down anywhere; the same happened in SIMO, the spanish Comdex (if there's such a thing), which happened a short while ago. Product presentations are mainly done outside them, so it does not make a lot of sense to go to a trade fair to see booth after booth of computers, laptops, palmtops or whatever is the rage that year.
There are better "big" shows now. (Score:3, Insightful)
CeBIT is a huge show that makes COMDEX during its heyday look like a minor event in comparison; COMPUTEX is very relevant nowadays since a lot of computer technology now originates in Taiwan (look at the long list of well-known computer peripheral manufacturers based there).
SIGGRAPH (Score:2)
It's been tough all around. SIGGRAPH has scaled back but at least they saved enough and reorganized so that the Conference could go on. They actually mention the situation Comdex and others are going through:
State of the SIGGRAPH Conference [siggraph.org]Booty! (Score:5, Funny)
I got my ComputerWorld button collection, a couple of T-shirts and a miniature basketball autographed by Spud Webb.
Well, maybe that's why attendance is down... we've all got our offices decorated now.
Garg
Re:Booty! (Score:2)
I now have my office now decorated in stuff of companies that no longer exist. However I only have 4 more out of business t-shirts left, rest have to many holes or paint stains.
The best thing I got from COMDEX was a bunch of hot sause, some company was giving them away and talking to the booth guy I got 10 bottles. Good Lousiana style sauce.
Pocket knife (Score:2)
Re:Booty! (Score:2)
Oh wait, this is slashdot...
Re:Booty! (Score:2)
More likely, I think a rather large portion of us here don't have offices to decorate anymore and those of us who do can't convince our bosses to send us to some notorious geek expo.
My tale of COMDEX (Score:5, Funny)
My boss and I wandered the aisles, looking at new technology vendors (who happened to be giving away shirts).
We came across one friendly looking lady, with at least 7 BOXES of T-Shirts. HEAVEN! I proceed to lay down the geek-speak about how her product would fit into our organization, and I was getting a fairly good response. I felt the T-Shirt grab was "in the bag", so I asked for one.
She looked right at me, smiled, and pointed to the table: "Have a bendy!" Looking at the table, I saw the prize for all of my effort. A wire, wrapped in a plastic/rubber substance. Basically, the prize was as complete of a waste of time as my conversation had been.
To this day, whenever my boss talkes about getting screwed over by someone, he uses the phrase "Have a bendy!"
Re:My tale of COMDEX (Score:2)
Except microsoft.... my god, they were forcing them damn "be sure it's legal" t-shirts, mouse pads, etc... down everyone's throat. the one lady MADE me take one of each and smiled at me saying "you dont have to thank me. mmmkay?"
Made me want to walk up and punch the guy in the butterfly suit.
I never understood... (Score:3, Funny)
I don't understand the concept of spending over $1000 on tickets and hotels just to gawk at boobs and pick up some free T-Shirts.
If you want a T-Shirt, visit a damn mall... it'll cost a lot less.
Just like Linuxworld.. (Score:2)
Funny how those dumb bastards at Dell always showed up with friggin *medium t-shirts* - morons. They should know that fat lazy programmers need a XXL size at least.
SuSE had cool shirts too!
And I still get stupid comments about my "I'm a member!" shirt from the OSDN. All that I went through to get a t-shirt and a CD of "The Sounds of Slashdot." I actually pondered making mp3s out of that CD and putting everything on Napster, too. heh.
Comdex & CES (Score:4, Interesting)
There was a time when shows like Comdex were locally run, smaller shows, better targetted towards the local market (i.e. DPMA Great Lakes Computer Show, may it rest in peace) but being so uneconomical for manufacturers to zip all over the place they try to hold just a few big shows. Hmm.. seems not to be working, where's the scienterrific or economic model showing this failure? I know Computer Shopper is a mere shadow of it's former self, could it be the same forces? I don't think so, probably just less interest in spending on IT at the moment, and IT is reaching the point in the curve where advances produces less of a return, so older equipment and software is just fine.
Re:Comdex & CES (Score:2)
Microsoft's Windows XP Media Center is a sign of things to come as the convergence of computers and the home entertainment system start to accelerate; I would not be surprised if Apple produces a Power Macintish model that aims for the same market within 24 months.
COMDEX obit written many times before (Score:4, Insightful)
Not true... (Score:3, Interesting)
That is due mostly to the fact that the products are and services are mostly Windows oriented. And since you absolutely hate Microsoft, I am not surprised by that comment.
I will say that I have found Comdex an excellent resource in seeing product demos and having access to key personnel for one-on-one q&a invaluable. And since the booth staff is usually engineers as well as sales people, you can even get some technical questions answered for products already purchased (that the phone support cannot seem to answer).
Another bonus: getting out of the office for a day and checking out some gorgeous women is worth it on its own merit.
Re:Not true... (Score:3, Funny)
Another bonus: getting out of the office for a day and checking out some gorgeous women is worth it on its own merit. Sleeping with them tends to be much better, try it sometime. Oh wait, you went to Comdex...nevermind
Re:Not true... (Score:2)
"
Normally this is what you have tech support for, but I can appreciate your being tired of trying to get an answer from call-center operators on your tech püroblems.
COMDEX Opens with Smallest Attendance Ever (Score:5, Informative)
I think more than 10k people attended the first day.
Big Things Are Happening! (Score:5, Funny)
I went to comdex to years ago. (Score:1)
Location is a problem (Score:3, Insightful)
The sad part is some conferences are really good. There were a few I would have gone to if they were held in a garbage dump in Antartica.
Re:Location is a problem (Score:3, Informative)
Because of the distribution of staff around the world, it was pretty obvious that the meetings should occur either on the west coast of the US or in Hawaii.
They learned through bitter experience that the controllers regarded Hawaii as "junket city" and San Jose as "get work done city", and so they could only get stuff approved for San Jose. This dispite the fact that flights to San Jose were at least as expensive as those to Hawaii, and hotel accomodation (for several hundred people, for a week) was considerably more expensive.
So the meetings were always in San Jose (or some other hideous Silicon Valley heckhole), at twice the price their Hawaiian equivalents would have been.
GeForceFX (Score:1)
Does that mean... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Does that mean... (Score:2, Funny)
we're did you learn how to spell?
Re:Does that mean... (Score:2)
OT: but how is CeBIT doing. (Score:2)
Trade Show Swag: Leading Economic Indicator (Score:2, Insightful)
BTW, I didn't even get to see any good booth bunnies. The best exhibit was the Mercedes booth which gave a free test drive that you could get a hat for participating in. The line was so long I even blew that off.
It's all a matter of perspective... (Score:2, Funny)
>The only thing I've ever got out of attending COMDEX is a horrible flu.
Well depending on how you look at it maybe that's proof that at least some good things come out of Comdex. ;-)
comdex ... (Score:4, Funny)
Spam bastards (Score:2)
I got an e-mail back from zdnet (which was doing the actual spamming) about how it wasn't abuse, but still got the crap.
Palm is another company that seems to be incapable of removing subscribers from their promotion lists.
More people attend the 3 Macwords than Comdex (Score:3, Interesting)
thats a fact.
Worse, comdex lies and pads its attendence by about 25%. At least they did not pad by 80% like the Million Man March or Blacks on washington, or Pasadena city civic leaders padding rosebowl parade spectator attendence by over 200%!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
With comdex lying by 25% and not caring, its no wonder few want to go there.
The other reason : you can;'t buy cool stuff at great prices at comdex,unlike other shows that allow on-site vending and direct sales specials.
The best part abount comdex is the porno mini-conference of porn multimedia cd-rom publishers and THAT grows every year. EVERY YEAR.
Comdex should allow the porn back into the main halls and then it would gorw and they would not have to declare backruptcy.
Or study the insane dedication of mac people who take paid vacation days if needed to go to macworld. They go for good price deals... and comdex has no deals.
It's the economy stupid! (Score:2)
Who can even think about looking at new stuff when they
are looking for a job.
There's nothing new. (Score:5, Insightful)
- The Web has largely made technology shows obsolete.
- There's nothing new out there.
The latter can be squarely blamed on the fact that the computer industry has become hostile to new ideas. Everything's gotta be the same old humdrum PeeCee stuff. Ten years ago, everyone was trying out new ideas. Nowadays, nobody wants to try anything new because there's no hope of making any money -- all good ideas are promptly stolen by Microsoft, Intel, Dell, Cisco, etc.Is it any wonder that the only part of the tech world where change is really happening, is in the open source universe? Where the business rules don't apply?
Re:There's nothing new. (Score:5, Interesting)
1) The way they handled the merging of the two venues. "Oh, Creative, we don't think you'll mind giving up the prime real estate for this location in the back corner." This decision drove out most of the multimedia people last year (I don't know if they came back this year). But even the thought that they might do the same thing again on such short notice has kept me from even considering a return this year.
2) They are charging more for the small booths causing fewer businesses to use them. These booths are a major incentive for many people to show up. Everyone knows they can go on Microsoft's or IBM's website to see what they are up to, but it was very convenient to go to the show and see a bunch of smaller companies and see what they had available all in one place. But with higher fees, they are systematically driving those people out.
These are things that weren't outside of their control.
Re:There's nothing new. (Score:2)
This year -- it wasn't worth the effort to drive downtown. Hardly any major vendors (and some didn't even bother to keep their booths manned), not many smallfry, and what we did see were mostly same old same old, or one-note wannabes (all singing the same tune). The only interesting booth (a security vs hacking demo) decided to blow off their afternoon presentation so we didn't even get to see that (tho they did give us a shirt for our interest -- only swag we found all day). We'd run out of stuff to look at inside of an hour and a half.
Anyway, next year we won't be going.
one good thing that happened.. (Score:4, Funny)
COMDEX ... People don't get it (Score:3, Insightful)
* Usually there are revolutionary small vendors with products or software that will be the next big thing.
* The big guys give out a lot of free stuff... but don't really do anything other than brand building.
* I usually make business relationships that pay for the entire show within 60 days of the event.
I'd hate to see Comdex go... but it is not as it was in the early and late 90s.
$G
trade show industry (Score:2, Insightful)
Companies are cutting back across the board. Saving money by not presenting, or not sending you employees is a good way to do this.
I work for a company that provides travel service for exhibition companies. Key3 media ( company hosting comdex ) is not the only one hurting. After 9/11 people have just stopped wanting to travel to these things.
It may also be that people are realizing their true worth. In some sectors trade shows are very valuable. You actually sell something to someone, most tech shows are commercials you have to pay to see. I mean what does going to comdex to see the launch of the NV30 really accomplish. It is more of a marketing platform.
It may also be that, like many things in the last 5 years, the show got bloated. Many of the attendees where just hobbiests, with no real purpose other then to walk around, gauk, and collect worthless business cards. I think the fat is getting trimmed, and we are just going to have to get used to.
Is it a coincidence (Score:2)
COMDEX used to be big (Score:2)
This is no different than training attendance (Score:2)
Sales (Score:2)
Comdex is for sales people. Don't believe me? Count the number of people wearing propeller hats, army pants, and offensive T-shirts.
.. the flu ... (Score:2)
The UK Learnt This A Long Time Ago :) (Score:2)
HP needs a better slogan! (Score:2)
How much did that instantly forgettable slogan cost them, I wonder. It hardly trips off the tongue, does it, and I'm not even sure it actually makes a lot of sense written as it is. Waht's wrong with actually using English to write a slogan - "With you and HP, everything is possible".
I'm sure Slashdot can come up with something a lot better and more appropriate than HP's management...
Stupid Umbrella (Score:2)
In fact, Novell was there (remember them?), and they were giving away free umbrellas. You can't imagine how many idiots were waiting in a line that wrapped at least 10 rows for some stupid umbrella.
It's not just one thing.... (Score:2)
In the 90s the PC world was pretty simple but in 2002 just the PDAs alone could form a convention! Add to that the special needs of data center people (another convention there, for sure), various server-based architectures, and engineering/scientific types and you have three "shows" where before Comdex tried to fill all these niches (or the niches didn't even exist).
And then there are all the former Comdex exhibitors who no longer exist. The disappearance of VC capital to fund the extravagant give-aways for products that were less than vaporware has taken a lot of the fuel from the Comdex fire. Not to mention all the employees who now work in the fast-food business.
The only way Comdex can survive is by creating their own "specialty events" (which, to give them credit, they tried to do). The most successful show I ever attended had several well-attended pavilions with like-minded exhibitors grouped together. So if you were interested in PDAs then Visor and Palm and others were close together. The last show I went to had too much diversity, no organization, and little coherance. They sold space to anyone who wanted to exhibit, from massage chairs to toys to automobile dealers.
I think that unless Comdex can find their way back to the core of technology they are history.
last one I attended (Score:2)
With that said, they sure used to have some nice boothbabes going way back. Not as good as the sporting goods SuperShow or the larger car shows, but still respectable.
It MUST be important (Score:2)
Why I quit going (Score:2)
Another possible explanation? Specialization... (Score:2)
Namely, 'back in the day' COMDEX used to be this super generic very large-scale trade show about "computers" and such. That was back when you *could* have one trade show just about computers. Now there's no longer really just a "computer industry" so much as there is a "storage media industry" and a "office productivity software industry" and so on.
Look at E3...you need a huge entire tradeshow just for games alone, so if you were a game developer, why would you send rep.s to COMDEX?...nah, send 'em to E3. And so on and so on...of course, if your Apple, you just make your own convention...heh.
COMDEX attendance (Score:2)
"We know SYS-CON Media and we know you, however you need to show us your press credentials and bring us copies of your work. We can not issue a press/media badge for you at this time."
Second, Carly was boasting of how she cut out the "boring" basic research from HP:
"Carly's newest message, which is - basically - that HP isn't any longer the boring old printing and imagine specialist, it's a 'full-service' computer company, offering end-to-end solutions."
"While the demand for technology for its own sake may be down, the need for technology that solves real human and business problems is stronger than it has ever been."
Demand for basic research comes from a desire to discover and improve, not by those that only seek the visible profits on the easy branches of the tech tree.
It's like trying to explain farming to "hunter-gatherers".
Prices on Slashdot scare everyone away (Score:2)
No, really, best things about Comdex: (Score:3, Funny)
Comdex 95 (Score:3, Informative)
*Microsoft was just rolling out Win95,
*the Newton fanatics were having their last lovefest,
*Sony demoed DVD,
*Novell told us our refrigerators were going to be hooked up to a network,
*PowerPC had a tent with actual applications but an air of desperation about it,
*Lotus Notes was pushing it's relatively new thing,
*Citrix was trying to sell people on physical Winterms,
*no one knew how to spell internet,
*SSA disks were introduced,
*the K-series of processors were coming,
*the Alpha motherboard hackers held court,
*and there was one teeny tiny Linux booth with the most kickass demo there.
So in other words Comdex is a place where you can see the past, present and future if you have the wits to look for and recognize it. But you will still get your butt kicked by surprises.
LinuxWorld wasn't so hot either.. (Score:2)
It's not just Comdex.
Spam... (Score:2)
COMDEX has come full circle (Score:2)
Not that I believe this of course, but it is a nice thought.
Re:should be an opportunity (Score:1)
That's the problem with OSS. No marketing. No central organization.
Because exhibiting costs too damn much! (Score:2)
I don't have exact figures, there doesn't seem to be anything on the website. I do know that for the big IT trade show in Melbourne last year (they cancelled it this year due to lack of attendance because nobody was exhibiting because it costs so much and they don't get return on investment), the Linux Users of Victoria [luv.asn.au] had a free booth along with the Melbourne PC user group [melbpc.org.au].
Re:should be an opportunity (Score:3, Interesting)
Remember the phrase "think globally - act locally"? The death of Comdex (maybe we should start calling it condex, with all the vapourware that's been shown there) will probably be a good thing for everyone in the long run.
Or once a month, make a copy of your favourite distro and give it to a total stranger - they gas jockey, the cashier at the supermarket, whatever... and donate a copy to the local library, to lend out.
BMW F1? (Score:2, Insightful)
Williams used to dominate with Honda engines, then with Renault. BMW are just another engine supplier - they'll come and go like the others.
Same with this McLaren Mercedes stuff. They did badly this year too - why? Because the original car was a McLaren-Ilmor with a cheque written by Mercedes to have a badge on it. This year, Merc believed their own hype and tried to bring more of the engine design in-house. The result was a rubbish engine, which was down on horsepower and also had a tendency to blow up.
BMW have tried to enter F1 as an engine supplier before. Remember Zakspeed? Eurobrun? No, neither does anyone else.
Cheers,
Ian