It's Time for CES! The 2012 Consumer Electronic Show
| [.jpg)](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ea/CP-plus(an_annual_camera_trade_show_in_Japan).jpg) |
| It's not CES but it's a tradeshow. Via wiki comons. |
What's so exciting?
Next to games and computer parts, I have a fond interest on consumer electronics (think iPods and TVs). I love to see what's new hardware and software wise. It's great to see what might be the next "big thing". You can also see a lot of trends in the tech industry. Generally speaking, devices shown at CES are the new things you'll see throughout the year.
Focus on Software and Applications
One of the very exciting trends the past year or so has been the push on software. We already obviously had applications before but the ecosystem, ease of development and great products containing iOS, Android (and the likes) have made it easier to create and distribute new "apps".
Think about it. Did you ever think a TV could be used for Skype calls or viewing YouTube videos? Maybe not. Mid to higher-end TVs can now do so. A lot of consumer devices can now have "apps" which is really cool as devices can be used even more than what they were intended for.
What to look out for
Ultrabooks - Netbooks and tablets represent consumers need for a very portable device for light office work and for consuming media. Netbooks were too slow, tablets are a bit hard to use long term for light office work. Ultrabooks are what you would get when you use a rolling pin on a laptop. A powerful device that's "ultra" thin. They have the battery life and portability of tablets with the... (what was netbook useful for again?) whatever netbooks were good for.
Tablets - It's interesting to see what's new for tablets this year. Would it simply be hardware updates? Will we have something unique this year? We'll see.
**TVs - *After LCD technology and HD media, there wasn't anything too revolutionary in this area. We now have "apps" and can surf the net on our TVs but I'm not sure if that has clicked yet. We have things like Apple and Google TV (not actual TVs) where in you can watch movies or tv episodes anytime you like. They have not gained as mass popularity yet. I hope they soon will be because this is the next feature I want: Watching TV without sticking to a "schedule".
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Blackberry - A lot of people might not know it but RIM (makers of Blackberry) have seen a horrendous year. Stock prices are way down and they have seen a lot of trouble this year (servers going down,etc). The primary problem (in this writer's opinion) is the lack of an answer to Apple's iOS or Google's Anroid. Market share has seen a huge nosedive for blackberry. Their new handsets and it's tablet has not sold particularly well in the US & Canada. Will they turn it around this year with a new phone? We'll see.
*It's interesting to note that Blackberry is starting to trend in the Philippines right when Blackberry in North America is slowing down.
**Nokia - **read above. They have made a good move in having new phones ship with Windows Phone 7. These phones are just now starting to arrive in the market.
Smartphones - The smartphone market in the past two years has been tremendous. Smart phones are no longer for people with more unique needs (businessmen for example). The growth of mobile internet and more advanced mobile OS has made smartphones more in demand. Smart phones have not reached a "limit" yet though. There are still new features yet to be seen like connecting your phone to your TV and using it as a media player, wireless displays and other's that I can't remember right now. It's exciting to see what will pop up this year.
*Playing videos on your TV and DLNA (wireless streaming) are features already available but sadly it's only on a few select handsets (not sure about DLNA). One cool feature in one Android phone was the ability for the phone to be docked and turn it into a laptop of sorts.
Final Thoughts
I'll probably blog about some of the interesting stuff to come out of CES so hopefully I get to share that information to you dear reader.