With every last square inch of the Las Vegas Convention Center complex completely filled, along with all of the adjacent Las Vegas Hilton’s conference space, plus hotel suites and meeting rooms in large quantities there and at the Venetian, as well as activities at many other hotels around town, it has become such a massive event.
Extravagant Exhibitors
Apparently more than 80 tablets were introduced at the show, many of which were running Google’s Android operating system. Certainly, electric cars and associated technology were featured, including a new all-electric vehicle announced by Ford. Intel launched a major new class of CPUs intended for the low end of the market. 3D products were everywhere, including introduction of consumer-class 3D camcorders. Google TV was being shown, regardless of announcements in the weeks before the show. And, TV makers such as Samsung were stressing the new technology features that are going into their LCD displays to improve the quality even more.
Samsung, Sony, Panasonic, Intel, and Microsoft had huge areas. (Microsoft actually built a two-story building with drop ceiling tiles, lighting, ventilation, and office space). General Motors was giving electric car rides in a parking lot. Chinese computer maker Lenovo took over a nightclub and turned it into a showroom.
Technology showcase
The coolest technologies at the show had to be a tie between Motorola, KDDI, and Cyberdyne (not that one but close). Motorola introduced a family of cell phones with accessories that turn them into a full notebook computer, while KDDI was showing an early technology demonstration that could eventually allow a virtual camera to be placed anywhere the director wants on an athletic field. Cyberdyne tries to live up to its name with an actual exoskeleton permitting paraplegics to stand and walk (currently being leased for $2000 a month to patients at several Japanese rehabilitation clinics). Special mention to Samsung’s new 10.5-inch Galaxy Tab with a pull-out full-sized keyboard.
As for tablets, Motorola’s Xoom was easily Best of Show, being the most impressive looking tablet among a sea of Android tablets at CES while RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook looks to be a strong contender as well. AOC, the Taiwanese LCD display and TV maker, will shortly introduce an entry-level tablet under $200 (and maybe under $185), with no contract required. StreamTV Network’s eLocity will have models with a huge amount of storage – 256GB. Finally, Toshiba appears to have well-thought-out all the ports that would help you connect to various accessories, such as HDMI and USB.
For the TV fan, the size of the displays is growing again – 60 or 70-inch diagonals (and perhaps even a few larger ones). Quality continues to improve, with various technical features being added to make the picture look great. I would have thought that standing up close to a giant display would look grainy, but was in fact impressed by how handsome the picture appeared on these giant TVs. Plus, multiple types of IPTV (sending television over the Internet), including Google TV, were being shown by companies large and small.
Looking Ahead
The high-tech community, voting with their product introductions, is bullish on the U.S. and world economy. Everyone is optimistically looking toward expanding markets in new as well as current categories of devices, and is expecting improving consumer demand. With many of the new introductions said to be coming in the next few months rather than at the end of this year (as was more common in the past years), we will all see a large growth in the tech available to the public. Looks like fun!
Greg Weinstein has published two books and numerous other feature and news reports in the field, currently serving as News Editor and Producer on Future Talk. He can be reached at greg@futuretalk.net.
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