CES Review

Contributed by Scott Burns

Over the holidays I had a discussion with a wonderful college professor who reckoned our love of digital media was due to the “lustful nature of our eyes.” At CES 2008 in Las Vegas, I discovered what she was referring to.

Entering each hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center, LED, LCD & plasma arrays flickered like stars in the sky. From big guys (Sony) to little guys (iriver), there was no lack of things to draw your eyes.

The press did a fine job highlighting the “big” attractions at CES, like Panasonic’s 150″ plasma array. But all in all, it was fairly unimpressive. Granted, we weren’t fortunate enough to engage every gadget, but the amount of “me too” technology was disappointing.

TRENDS & HIGHLIGHTS
Thinner is Better: Every major television manufacturer displayed a prototype monitor no thicker than a pain of glass. Often floor mounted, these LCD monitors were stunning, and will make everyone who just purchased a 1″-wide monitor begin plans for an upgrade.

Less is More: It’s obvious that moving forward, we will be managing all our digital content on fewer devices, to the point where we’ll have one mobile device that interacts with a singular at-home device, managing everything we need on a single system (including Microsoft’s push for at-home servers).

HD DVD vs. Blue Ray: The battle is on…and I’m not sure who wins…nor does anyone seem to really care.

HD Camcorders: I do know that anyone who just purchased a digital camcorder will be have tech-envey as Sony is launching a number of affordable ($999) HD Handheld Cams that are simply amazing.

The Token “Green” Message: While the overall conference was anything but green…and as Piers argued, the gadget masturbation in our society isn’t slowing down, there were a few companies touting their energy saving ways. Panasonic pointed out to their new televisions, needing 53% less energy. Sanyo touted their “Think GAIA” campaign, even highlighting their new, “greener” manufacturing plant.

Mobile Broadband: In keeping up with the Jones’, everyone highlighted mobile broadband devices that included all the bells and whistles you’d expect (GPS, music, phone, camera, etc.). LG, Samsung & iriver stood out…

Sex it Up: Because so much of the technology was the same, CES has become as much a design conference as a technology conference. Form now requires fashion. Microsoft had an interesting display including the HP Blackbird 002, Ego Signature and Hairer Notebook VM.

Samsung also had several devices designed in conjunction with Ban & Olufsen, like the Serenata and Serene.

Not Your Old Man’s 3-D: No less than three companies introduced “The World’s First 3-D HD Monitor” (LG, Samsung, Microsoft). Microsoft’s message was totally focused on gaming (123D), while Samsung and a few others requred special glassware to see the effects. Only LG’s was a pure, 3-D monitor. For my money, this is one of those things to wait a few years on…

PSFK FAVORITES FROM CES 2008:
1. DLP - Ultimate Desktop Display
- curved matrix display, 2880 x 900 resolution, ultimate for simulator gaming and desktop management (could see these all over Wall Street)

2. LG - WiMax SmartPhone

3. LG - Viewty

4. Samsung - Q1 Ultra Premium UMPC

5. Motorola - T505, MotoRokr & Moto Q

6. Microsoft - Surface Technology
- not new, but still one of the coolest displays, with more possibilities than most of the technology displayed

The NEXT Big Thing: iriver (these guys had some amazing things to show, and totally flew under the radar)