Thursday 7 January 2010

CES trending

The Consumer Electronic Show (CES) opened its doors in Las Vegas today, and caused a me a little confusion at first as my initials have been a trending topic on Twitter all day. Every year I say I'm going to make it to the next one, and then forget until it comes round again. Next year, I really will try and be there!

There's lots of news coverage, and it's great watching some of the the things we've been predicting making it to the market - pico projectors for example. Some are small enough to fit into a mobile phone already but the quality doesn't look brilliant. The laser ones are much better quality, but still as big as the phone :



Still amazing though, and they will get smaller.

Other things I've seen of interest so far are huge 3D home TVs, and wireless chargers for mobiles. Both the BBC and the Guardian have got good short videos of some of the top stuff.

For those of us involved in technology, it is the consumer market which is the one to watch, where many new developments make their first appearance. Looking back over some past CES it's interesting to see when some things we now take for granted first appeared. The VCR in 1970, the CD in 1981, the DVD in 1996, the XBox and Plasma TVs in 2001, IPTV in 2005. And 2010? Well, apart from the above - eReaders with flexible screens and slates or tablets are there in force. There might also be an interesting announcement at the end of this month from Apple in this area!

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