2011 Consumer Electronics Show Swarmed With Tablets
Touch-Screens Abound In Las Vegas
For four days each January, Las Vegas is transformed from Sin City to Tech City, as the annual Consumer Electronics Show takes over the town. The massive tech showcase, the largest in the world, draws over 120,000 industry insiders from every major (and minor) tech company across the globe. CES offers the entire industry a chance to showcase merging technology in computers, gaming, home theater, high-end audio, mobile communications, and more.
We’ll follow the latest trends in tech as they emerge, but so far it looks like 2011 is going to be the year of the tablet computer. (See below for an embedded digital video transfer about Toshiba’s new tablet.) Dozens of manufacturers, including many familiar names in the computer industry such as Dell, Samsung, Toshiba, and Asus, are unveiling over 80 new tablet computers, most running either Windows software or some version of Google’s Android operating system. Other tech manufacturers, such as Motorola, LG, and BlackBerry maker RIM, are expanding their smartphone offerings and entering the computing race with tablet offerings as well.
This blurring of lines between computing and telecommunications is at least partially a response to Apple Inc.’s hugely successful iPad, which came about as a synthesis of Apple’s computing prowess and the mobile operating system the company developed for the iPhone. Market analysts believe that the tablet computer will soon become a ubiquitous household gadget, perhaps replacing laptops in non-office settings such as kitchens and living rooms. TV-maker Vizio is banking on a seamless tablet experience in the living room and home theater. The company has just announced its first-ever computing product, a tablet computer called the Via (see the digital video transfer below).
The news industry is also pushing the tablet computer as a possible savior for the dying business of print media. As newspaper print revenue continues to decline, some publishers, such as Tribune Co., are hoping that readers will be willing to pay for digital subscriptions on their portable devices. In 2011, Tribune is launching an interactive news-reading app called Mosaic, which creates a set of touchable photographs that, when tapped, link to headlines associated with the photos. According to Tribune’s co-president Eddy Hartenstein, the program can be used to read several Tribune papers, including the Los Angeles Times.
Last month, the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) completely took over the city of Las Vegas. The whole city feels the transformation, and while it can hardly be said that the city’s ordinary dazzle goes out, it definitely pales in comparison to the bustle of CES. Each year, the show draws over a hundred thousand industry insiders to Sin City, for a massive show-and-tell of their newest creations. During CES, it feels like there are more Samsung reps than chorus girls crowding the casino floors.
