CES Report

CES 2010: Some highlights from 3 days of gadget overload and Las Vegas mania.

CES 2010 let flood gates open for  apps of any sort: After 2009 announcements of new app stores from Google, Nokia, Blackberry , etc., the CES focus was on Netbook  apps (as for ex Intel App Up) and, primarily, widget-TVs. In the TV market, web connectivity seem to be at the top of the hype list.  TV-set manufacturers such as Samsung, LG, Sony, Panasonic, Sharp, and Toshiba all focused on web-enabled TVs. So, will consumers be app fanatics or will they suffer app store fatigue?  Toshiba claims that of all the consumers able to connect to RSS services using their internet-connected TVs, 25% connected. Consumers want to reach out beyond the limited cable-TV offer to the endless opportunities on the web. It will be fascinating to follow new content launches on the web as new user needs will arise when consumers transform to a "lean back" web mode on their couches. To start with, main enablers will be Yahoo with its Widget Channel Framework and YouTube.

The spam of CES must have been the e-readers. There were so many and so similar. It was a repetitive walk down the isles of the e-reader section, full of me-too copies (one was even branded "Ditto"). The success of the Kindle has surely triggered a lot of OEM entrepreneurship, but a copycat entrepreneurship indicates a price pressure to come. But there were some innovative ideas within the e-reader space, most impressive of them being the Pixel Qi, the Qualcomm Mirasol, and Skiff. Most attractive tablet netbook was the Lenovo, and with the PixelQi screen technology, tablet netbooks may become excellent e-readers.

And e-reading WILL be an interesting niche in the coming years. Sales of e-reader devices is, according to Forrester, predicted to grow beyond 6 million in the US in 2010, bringing cumulative sales to 10 million by year-end 2010. Fast Company just published a report on the daily data usage among Americans. 1.1 hrs /day still used for reading (compared to 2 hrs of computing). Some of these minutes most likely to be taking place in e-readers soon. And the talk of Vegas was, of course, what Steve will bring to the game.

Another interesting category of consumer tablets is the kitchen tablet PC. A future hub for internet of things? Cutest of them all was the cooking tablet My Demo.

The longest lines at the CES were close to 3DTV trailer shows. Suddenly glasses mixing the skiing fashion of the 80s and welding working style are the new it-thing. And yes, the 3D experience is impressive. Especially for (animated) adventure movies. But for many other pieces of content, it could still feel more like a roller coaster experience, creating motion sickness.

There were a lot of talk about the portable projectors, as the Microvision's SHOWWX laser pico projector. Yet another must-have gadget for all consultants travelling across the globe, but maybe no true game-changer.

More cutting-edge is the new see-through organic LED display from Samsung's research and development team. The transparent screen allow viewers to see what's behind the display and we will have more social open offices as it is impossible to hide behind the screen:)

And, not to forget, CES kicked off with the Steve Ballmer talk about Natural User Interface (NUI). Ballmer believes that 2010 will be the year when we expand beyond the mouse and keyboard to control and manipulate computers. Instead, we will start to incorporate more natural forms of interaction such as touch, speech, gestures, handwriting, and vision. The large number of touch screens and voice-controlled devices featured at CES  leave room for NUI creativity. Natural User Interface and Gesture Design is also much discussed by our new Bonnier R&D friends at Kickerstudio.

3 things that would have made CES even more exciting:

There were a lot of buzz about green as the new black  at CES but the Greentech and Sustainable Planet sections at CES were disappointing, lacking creativity and new innovative solutions. Maybe less portable projectors and more ecofriendly solutions next year, dear CE manufacturers?

And what about less iPhone crap? Yes, we do love our iPhones, but we don't need one major section of cheap toys and bling bling to just ruin the beautiful design and functionality of the core product:)

Finally, just because it would be fantastic to get to see the real thing at CES: the 570-megapixel Fermilab intergalactic camera (one of the biggest ever conceived) built to map some 300 million galaxies and solve the mysteries of dark energy.