Consumer Electronics Take Center Stage
Music, gadgets, home entertainment, and PC enhancements highlight annual CES this week.PC World staff and IDG News Service
LAS VEGAS-- Some vendors familiar to PC users are appearing in a new role this week, touting tech entertainment products at the 2004 International Consumer Electronics Show here.
Big and flat TVs, technology you can wear, and new ways to wed your PC and home entertainment gear are among the highlights, along with assorted tiny storage devices and multimedia gadgets.
Entertainment Explodes
Trade shows around the world are coping with a drop-off in attendance and sponsors, but CES keeps adding exhibitors and floor space to accommodate the growing number of companies delving into consumer electronics.
They're eager for a share of the estimated $101 billion in consumer electronics sales projected for 2004. That's 5 percent higher than the 2003 figure, according to the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), which measures manufacturer-to-dealer sales of consumer electronics products and sponsors the annual show.
This year's show focuses on the ever-growing ways available to entertain yourself or your family digitally. Television, music, and digital photography are among the fast-growing technologies that the PC industry is exploring. Companies such as Dell, Hewlett-Packard, and Gateway share floor space with the likes of Sony, Matsushita (better known as Panasonic), and Philips Electronics.
The show runs from January 8 through January 11 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. More than 110,000 people are expected to attend, and a record 2300 exhibitors will occupy 1.35 million square feet of floor space, according to Brad Jones, the CEA's communications manager.
"From a PC perspective, looking at the consumer side, this is the place you need to be," says Stephen Baker, director of industry analysis for NPD Techworld. "The products you're selling and integrating with are going to be there, and you need to understand these trends as much as what's happening with things like Serial ATA," he says.
Baker expects to see products such as media adapters, wireless networking routers, and central hubs for home users.
PC Vendors Move In
Displays and digital televisions are expected to capture the attention of many attendees. Intel is expected to discuss its work in developing a chip for rear-projection digital televisions, and following the lead of PC rivals Gateway and Dell, HP is introducing its own line of digital televisions. Samsung Electronics will exhibit its enormous 57-inch LCD television, while ViewSonic touts its own 56-inch rear-projection television.
During chairman and CEO Carly Fiorina's keynote address on Thursday, HP is also expected to introduce new desktops and notebooks that cater to consumers.
The consumer electronics market needs gadgets, too. Microsoft chairman and chief software architect Bill Gates kicks off the show Wednesday evening, unveiling long-awaited wrist watches based on the company's Smart Personal Objects Technology (SPOT). The watches can access news, weather, and stock information, besides keeping time.
Other CES keynoters include Fumio Ohtsubo, president of Panasonic; Gary Forsee, Sprint chairman and CEO; Ivan Seidenberg, Verizon CEO; Intel president and COO Paul S. Otellini; Michael Dell, chairman and CEO of Dell; and Rob Glaser, founder, chairman, and CEO of RealNetworks.
PC and console gaming is another hot topic for CES, Jones says. The 2004 Digital Games Summit takes place simultaneously down the road from the Las Vegas Convention Center at the Riviera Convention Center. There, attendees can learn about what's on tap from companies such as Sony and Microsoft in the console gaming market and can talk to game designers. Advanced Micro Devices and ATI Technologies are hosting a gaming tournament that will attract about 3500 gamers, the companies say.
Newbies and Veterans
While much of CES focuses on technology companies, many different businesses will attend to learn about new products, Jones says. For example, representatives from major U.S. airlines are attending to learn about in-flight multimedia technologies. Similarly, CES is drawing medical industry professionals now that various mobile consumer electronics devices are being used to store patient records, he says.
Even gasoline suppliers are getting in on the show. Shell Oil will demonstrate a home networking system that lets homeowners control their heat and monitor their homes via a wireless camera.
Of course, the usual assortment of wireless headset vendors and USB storage devices that fit on a keychain will compete for attention. But unlike other trade shows, CES is pulling in large vendors, too, and making its case as one of the most important trade shows on the technology industry calendar.
The oldest veteran of CES may be HP, which claims that its HP 12c financial calculator is the oldest consumer electronic device still in production, selling continuously since its introduction in 1981. HP is showing its 12c (plus new models), and has challenged all comers to find a product in this category with greater longevity.
Innovators Recognized
A number of exhibitors are enjoying the recognition bestowed by CES Innovations Awards.
Auvi Technologies notes that its SA250 and SA1500 digital audio players received Design and Engineering Awards. Both devices are PC- and Mac-compatible and will support MP3 and WMA formats when released next quarter. The SA250 is a USB 2.0 digital audio player with flash-based memory, FM radio, voice recorder, and MP3/radio encoder. It will be available in 64MB, 128MB, and 256MB versions. Auvi Technologies claims that its SA1500 is the smallest and lightest MP3/WMA hard-drive digital jukebox, measuring 3.8 by 2.2 by 0.5 inches and weighing 41 ounces. Auvi's USB 2.0 player will come with at least 20GB of in memory and support 20 hours of playtime, the company says.
Another early winner is Roku, which received CES Innovations Awards for its products as well. Two devices from Roku are debuting at CES, though a third--the HD1000, a $499 high-definition digital media player--is already shipping. It comes with slots for CompactFlash, MultiMediaCard, SD, Memory Stick, and SmartMedia cards and can display photos, recorded TV shows, and other content on a high-definition TV.
Another winner on display is the PS1500 All-in-One desktop PC from British PC manufacturer Pelham Sloane, which received a CEA Innovations award for computer hardware. The PS1500 All-in-One is intended as a stylish alternative to the typical bulky combination of a desktop PC and CRT. It integrates a PC behind a flat-panel monitor, just 2.75 inches in depth. It can be mounted on a wall or arm, so only the mouse and keyboard sit on the desk. Pricing depends on configuration.
CorAccess Systems is unveiling its Amego Companion home remote, which received a CES Innovations Award. The Amego is the newest in a suite of Companion digital touch controllers for the home, intended to make it easier for people to manage home theaters, audio devices, and other electronic gear from a single control. The Amego handheld runs on the Intel Xscale 400-MHz processor and uses Wi-Fi.
Yet another award winner, Lenmar is offering show-goers a chance to try out its fast battery charge. The Charging Station will be available at the company's CES booth, and attendees can use it to recharge device batteries in as little as 30 minutes.
Another type of speedy battery charger is the Ultra Fast Rapid Charger from DigiPower/Mizco. This universal digital camera charger fits any electrical socket, requires no cords or wires, and fits most digital cameras. You plug the battery directly into the unit, which then plugs directly into the wall.
Can Storage Get More Portable?
Storage devices continue to grow in capacity and shrink in size. A number of vendors are touting smaller, lighter devices that are suitable for carrying your desktop PC's data in your pocket or for powering your portable audio player.
PQI is showing off the Intelligent Stick, which it claims is the smallest, lightest USB flash memory drive on the market. The size of two pennies, it contains up to 512MB of storage.
Meanwhile, Iomega is offering a sneak peak at its highly anticipated, 1.5GB removable-storage product line based on digital capture technology. It's designed for use with numerous digital entertainment products, from audio players to smart handheld devices to portable multimedia recorders of all sorts. DCT media is about the size of a 50-cent piece, according to Iomega. The company positions it as an inexpensive, easy-to-use bridge between new consumer electronic products and the PC.
Iomega is also unveiling two new DVD drives in its popular All Format Super DVD line, as well as a new Micro Mini USB Drive. The new Micro Mini, which is smaller than its Mini USB drive sibling, comes with snap-on caps in three colors, along with keychain ring and dogtag lanyard accessories.
Other New Products
For its part, Fujitsu is releasing the 12-inch Stylistic ST5000 Tablet PC, a slate-style tablet that runs Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC Edition. The device uses a 1-GHz Intel Pentium M processor and has a Smart Card slot plus MemoryStick/SD media slot. It comes with Gigabit Ethernet LAN support and has several WLAN options. According to Fujitsu, the ST5000's larger-than-standard battery supports up to 5 hours of operation; an even bigger high-capacity battery that runs for up to 8 hours is available as an option. Pricing starts at $2049.
Digital projector aficionados eagerly await the first public showing of the H30 projector from Optoma Technology. The company says that the H30 incorporates DLP line-doubling technology from Texas Instruments and is the first in its class to be priced at around $1400.
The H30 has SVGA (800 by 600) resolution and is specifically designed for home theater, not business use. The company claims that the projector has 800 lumens of light output and a noise rating of 32 db, specs that would make it very competitive with projectors that cost several hundred dollars more.
The CEA's estimates of leading consumer product sales offer a hint of what other products will dominate CES.
Sales of consumer PC and mobile phones still lead the consumer electronics category, with PC sales accounting for $12.5 billion of the total $96.3 billion market in 2003. Mobile phone sales rose 20 percent to 70.5 million units, at a value of almost $9.2 billion.
But new product types are growing fast. Among the leading categories is digital television, which increased last year in units sold by 56 percent. New display technologies such as plasma and LCD pushed those products to $6.1 billion in sales last year, according to the CEA.
Closely following are sales of stand-alone DVD players, which rose by 25 percent to $3 billion. Digital camera sales rose by 22 percent in 2003, to 12.5 million units; the CEA estimates that one-third of U.S. households now own at least one digital camera. And factory-to-dealer shipments of MP3 players reached 3.8 million units in 2003, more than double 2002's figure. The CEA expects shipments to rise by 34 percent in 2004 to more than 5.1 million units, with a market value of $706 million.
Anne McDonald, Michael S. Lasky, Ramon G. McLeod, and Peggy Watt of PC World and David Legard and Tom Krazit of the IDG News Service contributed to this report.
See PC World's ongoing CES coverage.