By Fabienne Fourquet
Director International Digital Media, AETN International
This was my first Consumer Electronic Show… After years of MIPs, NATPE, CASBAAs and other television conferences, it’s definitely a very different experience to attend a show about things, devices, gadgets, products, however you call them, ranging from 100-inch plasma TVs, small and foldable OLED screens, routers, wires, sticks, ports, games and toys, cell phones made out of recycled plastic bottles, car surround sound systems [with a huge hall dedicated to automotive technology], electronic music instruments and guitar hero demos everywhere, sounds systems hidden in halogen lamps, which I heard a fellow CES attendant say was ‘the best things I’ve seen at the conference this year’, and all that in the midst of Las Vegas smoky blackjack tables, non-ending hotels hallways, and with the close sight of many half-naked sexy women due to the concurrent Adult Entertainment Expo.
Both exciting and overwhelming…
So pardon me for not being exhaustive, as this place is too gigantic for any one person to do it all, see it all and say it all, but here is what stuck for me…
THE THEMES:
After years of CES buzzwords such as convergence, connectivity, HD, 3D, bigger, better, thinner screens, this was the year of, no surprise, poor global economy.
So less big product announcements, less giant screens, less people, and acknowledgements of sour economic times throughout every press release, product announcement and keynote speech. After all spending on electronic gadgets is expected to take a plunge this year…
That’s why this year’s CES is more down to earth. It still speaks about the convergence of more devices into one [especially the computer, phone and TV], but emphasizes the need for simple user interface, good design and useful functionality, so that people actually ‘buy’ the product and not the technology. It’s not about being the first, as Anne Sweeney from Disney said it, it’s about being the best.
Although Apple is not at CES as it’s leading its own Mac friendly CES called MacWorld one week earlier, the iPhone was all over the halls, the sessions and the keynotes as the electronic product that merged convergence, connectivity and amazing product design.
By the way, the CEA just announced that next year’s CES will host Apple-related manufacturers. No word from Apple on their attendance though…
So CES still speaks of convergence, but only if simple and well executed. CES also speaks of interconnectivity with all devices being wirelessly connected to the ‘cloud’. Most notably, Sir Howard Stringer from Sony showed off the latest Wifi enabled digital camera Sony DSC-G3 (which already won a CNET Best of CES Award) during the Sony keynote and Mr. John Chambers from Cisco demonstrated the new media hub which stores info from your PC, MAC, iPhone, camera, game console, TV, and allows users to access all their media libraries from all their devices.
CES is also adding a green component to its devices; or at least green walls to its booths! All major stands demonstrate how new screens spend less energy, how new computers are now eco-friendly. And there are loads of new solar powered products, energy efficient gadgets or alternative batteries, with my personal favorite, a personal energy generator called the PEG which should allow you to recharge your handheld devices while you… walk!
Also, last interesting trend is that devices are now more ‘human’. Instead of buttons and keypads, users now interact more and more through voice, motion sensing, touch screens, etc. See Steve Ballmer from Microsoft in his keynote or watch amazing gesture controlled TVs from Toshiba and Hitachi
THE TV (R)EVOLUTION
Last one and my biggest wow at this show was the joint effort from Yahoo , Toshiba, Samsung, Intel, Disney and CBS, announced through different keynotes and demonstrated at various stands, to start working on these so-called ‘web TVs’ through widgets.
This should finally enable the Internet TV convergence ‘revolution’ which has been announced since the dawn of the internet. Read these two articles from NYTimes and Videonuze , which will explain to you better than me what the new system is all about. Basically, you take a widget development kit developed by Yahoo, you put an Intel processor chip in all new TV screens or DVD or BluRay players from all major manufacturers, and you allow video content providers to create web content to overlays on top of shows, on selected channels, in selected geographical locations, to allow viewers to access more content, play games, read recipes, buy stuff, and eventually watch more ads.
It appears to me that this ‘technology’ [which is not even a technology but more like an ecosystem with an open source development platform similar to the recently very successful iPhone apps], if included in enough TV sets and used by enough content companies could become the right way to not only introduce ‘interactive applications to the TV as complements to popular shows (think Lost, Heroes or CSI), but also a way to bypass cable, satellite and IPTV operators to eventually propose ad-supported content to viewers, directly on their TV sets. No need for an AppleTV box, a Roku Netflix player or an Xbox either, you just need your TV and an internet connection… In these times of New Year, Nostradamus, and Armageddon, I predict that this is the new big thing to watch after CES 2009.
THE GADGETS
My [very personal] favorites
- The LG watch phone: or a geek’s dream
- Polaroid PoGo: instant digital camera: the new old school
- Prototype cell phone projector from LG : my next toy, imagine carrying your wall size TV at all times in your pocket
- iRiver Wave Home : or as CNET calls it, a sleeker Chumby
- The tiny Vaio Lifestyle PC: the middle kid, perfect between my blackberry and my MacBook.
The official best-of lists
- Wired Gadget Roundup
- CNET Best of CES Awards
- Last gadget standing list
ABOUT FABIENNE FOURQUET
Director, International Digital Media, AETN International
Fabienne Fourquet oversees international digital distribution strategy for A&E Television Networks (AETN) and its channel brands, including A&E Network, The History Channel, Crime & Investigation Network and BIO. Ms. Fourquet is charged with licensing AETN’s channel brands and content to digital media platforms outside the US, and with developing digital properties.
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January 12th, 2009 at 12:53 am
[...] Original post: CES 2009 Roundup:: Convergent, wirelessly connected, and GREEN [...]
January 12th, 2009 at 12:54 am
[...] the major CES stories to keep you in the loop. ( See Fabienne Fourquet’s personal analysis here [...]
January 12th, 2009 at 3:19 am
[...] unknown wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptThe LG watch phone: or a geek’s dream. Polaroid PoGo: instant digital camera: the new old school. Prototype cell phone projector from LG : my next toy, imagine carrying your wall size TV at all times in your pocket … [...]
January 14th, 2009 at 9:23 pm
[...] Fabienne Fourquet oversees international digital distribution strategy for A&E Television Networks (AETN) and its channel brands, including A&E Network, The History Channel, Crime & Investigation Network and BIO. Ms. Fourquet is charged …[Continue Reading] [...]
January 26th, 2009 at 6:46 pm
[...] CES 2009 Roundup by Fabienne Fourquet [...]