News and Reviews....

CES 2008.....January 2008

Robert Lieto

    This years' Consumer Electronics Show was one of GREEN TECHNOLOGY, LARGE SCREEN TVs and a convergence in the automobile and consumer electronics industry. Not much in the way of the WOW factor except on the showing of the world's largest Plasma TV by Panasonic at 150" Diagonal (see below). This relates to a six (6) foot high by almost eleven (11) feet wide picture. The unit was not priced and release date not specified for those of us craving the biggest and bawdiest. Last years largest by LG which was on the market, was a 71" plasma TV, starting at $75K and selling for $69K has been taken off the availability list from our suppliers recently. Maybe a sign of something bigger in their future lineup? The installation of a mammoth plasma takes special consideration. The wall supports and installation procedure is controlled and dictated by the manufacture.

Pioneer displayed a 50" display with a 9mm thickness. To give that some dimension, put three credit cards together. Their KUROs plasma piece has to be the best looking Plasma on the market to date whether consumer or professional model. Hitachi released a LCD with a 3/4" thickness and SONY came away with the OLED, 11" Diagonal at 1/8" (3mm) thickness at a $2500 price tag. I expect larger OLED screens to follow but believe the size will remain in the 30" and under area for a long time. 

Blue Ray Hi-DEF and HD DVD Hi-Def discs continue to be at an impasse without one clear winner. The Blue-Ray camp continues to blow out of proportion to the media any significant hint of a lead over HD while I believe the jury is still out on the winner of the Hi-Def dual. Remember that HD-DVD is less expensive to manufacture and is backwards compatible with standard DVDs, a big Plus, they also have an Ethernet Port for software upgrades, Blue Ray players aren't there yet. There are five vs. two major studios in the Blue-Ray camp. I still believe the jury is out.

Dish Network / Echospere announced a $39.99 Digital to Analog Converter which goes hand in hand with the $40 dollar coupon being offered by the government set top box program. Others have the box at approximately $60. Comcast and Panasonic announced that they will market a digital cable product that will work with any cable network based on the "tru2way" technology. Panasonic said it will start to incorporate the "tru2way" technology into their plasma TVs so that customers can get video on demand and interactive features with out a digital cable box.

Whirlpool the white goods company showed a refrigerator with a Digital Photo Frame,  i-POD speaker system and WiFi Touch Screen tablet computer built-in to the door at a $2000 price point. There are other models that hook into a homes' network and will automatically generate a shopping list based on the food supplies used as well as forward the list to the local grocer for delivery.

Polaroid Corporation plans to update its portable printer format so that it can accept images directly from Cell Phones and Digital Cameras with a thermal printing technology from ZINK Imaging, Inc. It is an inkless technology which allows the printer to reduce down to the size of a deck of cards and connect by way of Bluetooth or USB and goes on sale in September of 2008.

The show was attended by over 2700 vendors, covered over a combined 1.8 million square feet of floor space in the Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas Hilton, Sands Exposition Center and Venetian Hotel &Casino. Approximately 140,000 attendees, down slightly from last year. Overall outlook from the experts expect a 6% rise in sales to 171.6 billion, a slower increase then 2007.

Comment .....  Are we in transition yet ? YES. This year will be a slow start and then a race to be ready for the Analog to Digital world of TV and attachment products.