CES 2009 preview: economic gloom raises the stakes for technology companies

In Las Vegas, a city famed for brash exhibitionism, fast living and long odds, consumer electronics manufacturers are about to make a very important throw of the dice.

Next week marks the start of the 42nd annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES), and thousands of tech companies, bloggers, journalists and industry analysts will converge on the famous Vegas strip to get a glimpse of the trends and gadgets that will dominate the technology landscape in the months to come. In years gone by, CES has given devices such as the video cassette recorder, CD player and plasma screen TV their world debut, but a little of the lustre has come off this year’s show.
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The current financial gloom is showing signs of impacting the consumer electronics market, usually one of the most buoyant sectors in an economic downturn as people decide to splash out on kit that will help to keep them occupied at home rather than going to the cinema or dining out.

Nonetheless, CES will be a smaller show this year than last, with just 130,000 attendees, down eight per cent on the previous year. Although exhibitor figures remain unchanged, with roughly 2,700 companies attending, the square footage of the vast show itself will be down five per cent, now covering about 1.7 million square feet.

The show is unlikely to feel the full impact of the economic slowdown until next year, as booths at CES are usually booked a year in advance. But the Consumer Electronics Association, which runs the event, is looking on the bright side, and believes the industry can weather the storm.

“Everybody is being hit by the economy, but we are stronger than almost every industry,” said Gary Shapiro, executive director of the Association. “The good thing for us is that the leisure business has dried up in Las Vegas and freed hotel rooms.”

The show must go on, it seems, and there have been a few tantalising early glimpses of what CES 2009 has in store for attendees. The battle to be bigger, smaller, thinner and better continues apace, with a slew of new high-tech, high-definition televisions expected. Korean manufacturer LG, for instance, will unveil the world’s slimmest LED-backlit television, measuring just under 25mm thick, boasting a 2,000,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio and a slick 240Hz refresh rate to reduce image flicker.

Expect 3D TV to feature heavily, too – last year, Philips showed off its prototype 3D television, which didn’t require the viewer to wear silly glasses, and this year Nvidia, Samsung, Viewsonic and IZ3D are expected to follow in Philips’ footsteps, driving the technology that may one day allow us to watch films and sporting events (the Olympics, perhaps?) in all their three-dimensional glory. We’ll also see more televisions that use OLED screens to deliver unbelievably high-definition images – Sony’s gorgeous 11in OLED screen was one of the stars of last year’s show, so expect to see other companies follow suit with this technology, offering larger screens for a similar price as the cost of the technology drops. And the day when the internet is delivered straight to our televisions will move a step closer, too, with the launch of more web-enabled TVs.

Keep your eyes peeled, too, for the next generation of “netbooks”, the small, cheap, ultraportable laptops that proved so popular with consumers last year. Rumour has it that Intel will unveil a swivelling, touch-screen version of its Classmate laptop, designed for children in developing nations, while Asus is also tipped to launch a touch-screen computer. Sony, too, is said to be launching a netbook, in the form of the Vaio Pocket PC, which will have an 8in “letterbox-style” screen, 1.33GHz processor, and run Windows Vista.

Mobile technology in general is, once again, going to be one of the main talking points at CES. LG has already taken the wraps off its wristwatch-cum-mobile phone, and Palm (remember them?) is expected to re-enter the smartphone fray with a new high-tech device and overhauled operating system, though whether it will be enough to compete with the likes of Apple and Nokia remains to be seen.

Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive, is giving the CES opening address. He takes over from the retired Bill Gates, who delivered the keynote presentation for the last 11 years. Ballmer is widely expected to announce details of a Microsoft mobile phone that could rival the iPhone, complete with built-in Zune technology, Microsoft’s answer to Apple’s iPod music player.

One of the big talking points at last year’s show was the apparent victory of Blu-ray as the de facto next-generation high-definition DVD format. Its competitor, HD-DVD, was dealt a fatal blow to its aspirations on the eve of CES, and Blu-ray swooped in to claim a decisive win. But if a week is a long time in politics, then a year is even longer in the world of gadgets.

While sales of Blu-ray discs are on the rise – British consumers bought 462,500 Blu-ray discs in November, according to the Blu-ray Disc Association, up 165 per cent on the previous month – other technologies threaten to overtake Blu-ray before it’s even had a chance to get a foothold. Dozens of companies are likely to demo new technologies that will allow consumers to stream high-definition films and television programmes from the web direct to their televisions. While such an evolution has been mooted for some time, all the crucial factors are beginning to slot into place, such as the roll-out of high-speed broadband services in the UK like Virgin Media’s 50 megabits per second package. This will also make wireless streaming of high-definition content around the home a real possibility, too.

Of course, for all the cutting-edge gadgetry on show at the event, CES wouldn’t be CES without a few weird and wonderful gadgets, such as skullcaps with built-in headphones, computers and video games that rely on gesture-recognition, sophisticated robots, and children’s toys with a high-tech flavour, such as teddy bear MP3 players.

Car manufacturers will be showing off the latest in-car entertainment and navigation devices, such as rear-seat DVD players that double as web browsers and satellite radio receivers, while Panasonic is unveiling a system that will allow owners of electric cars to monitor their vehicle’s charge cycle without having to leave the house and wander into the garage.

So, while the credit crunch might be starting to bite, and CES will be without Bill Gates for the first time in more than a decade, it's reassuring to know that some things don’t change.

There are going to be some great gadgets and new technologies on display; just don’t expect anything too revolutionary.

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BY Claudine Beaumont
Source：Telegraph