Technofile: Every year the world's gadget companies gather at the very large and very hyped Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. But, amid the hubbub, some very fundamental things appear to be happening in the new "industrial revolution" in technology and media.
To give you an idea of how big the event is, 2,500 exhibitors will occupy more than 140,000 sq m of exhibition space while 130,000 people are expected to attend. It's more of a travelling city than a trade show.
The event started yesterday and continues over this weekend. And it looks like this year's themes are going to be video and the "convergence" of entertainment and technology.
At one end of the video spectrum, it's all about size. Samsung is showing what it claims is the world's largest LCD television, measuring 82 inches across diagonally. This is significant, in that most big screens are plasma-based . Until recently, LCDs have been too expensive for larger screens.
Competitor Sharp will unveil the 65-inch Aquos flat screen as well. But this giant screen is merely an indicator that flat screen TVs are here to stay. Average LCD and plasma TV prices dropped by roughly 35 per cent in 2005, and are set to fall again this year to the extent that they will become commonplace in the home.
Watch out also for the new cutting edge SED flat-screen technology from Toshiba and Canon, said to offer better contrast and deeper colours than LCD or plasma.
Meanwhile, in small video, it's all about mobile. Apple got a lot of coverage late last year for its new video-capable iPod, but many other manufacturers plan to supercharge their video products. Zvue and iRiver make portable media players which will be heavily marketed.
While Apple has hooked up with US television stations to rebroadcast shows on the iPod, we'll start to see similar deals being signed between them and other players here in Europe this year.
Video on mobile phones is also a theme at the Las Vegas show. While much of the American press has been cooing over TV on mobile phones, here in Europe we've had similar products from operators like Three and Orange for more than six months.
On the PC front, Intel, Microsoft and the major PC makers are all interested in turning the PC into a digital entertainment hub for the home. To this end Intel is launching its new Viiv microprocessor, designed for media use.
More interestingly, not just Bill Gates, but Yahoo chief executive Terry Semel and Google co-founder Larry Page will speak at the show about entertainment devices and services. That signals just how important digital media is going to be to these leviathans of the web this year.
Gadget-wise, Kodak will show off its EasyShare V570 camera, which is less than an inch thick and has a wide angle and a 5x optical zoom lens. And Sanyo launches what it claims is the world's smallest and lightest high-definition digital media camera, dubbed the Xacti HD1 (pictured). This will record both high-definition video and 5.1 megapixel still images to a standard SD flash memory card. So you may as well think about throwing away that old video camera now.
It will be out in the US in March retailing at $800 (€675) but a European launch has not yet been announced.
Oh, and your phone is going to be affected by events at the show too. Skype, which pioneered free calls over the Internet, is making a play for the mainstream telephone market with new cordless phones enabling users to wander away from their PCs, and new adapters to switch between ordinary landline calls and Internet calls. Look out for new products from D-Link and Ipevo, which already makes several Skype-enabled handsets.
What can I say? Happy New Technology Year!
