HDTV and Mobile Gear to Steal CES 2009 Spotlight

The tech world's focus shifts to Las Vegas this week as the 2009 International Consumer Electronics Show kicks off. Over the next week you can expect a parade of shiny, tiny and wireless gadgets from CES exhibitors -- including a third-generation watch phone from LG Electronics, a wafer-thin Samsung TV that's 6.5 millimeters thick, and an emphasis on emerging fields such as environmentally friendly green technologies and Wi-Tricity, a technology that allows wire-free power charging of small devices.

 

Despite the slumping economy, CES is forecast to have 2,700 exhibitors, the same number as last year, says Gary Shapiro, executive director of the Consumer Electronics Association. Attendance is forecast to be down 8 percent (130,000 attendees) compared with 2008, and the show floor is 5 percent smaller, with 1.7 million square feet to wander between the Las Vegas Convention Center and the Sands Expo Center, according to Shapiro. That's still enough to tire our feet just as much as last year.

CES officially starts Jan. 8 and runs through Jan. 11, but companies will be announcing products all this week -- with major announcements expected from Cisco, Sony, Toshiba, and other companies that are holding press conferences today.

A major trend at CES this year is the merging of content delivery and hardware. LG will be showing off several LCD and plasma TVs with the built-in ability to stream Netflix online movies -- no PC required. Yahoo and Intel will be showing prototype TVs with "widgets" that stream video from Hulu and YouTube, and display pictures from Flickr. Samsung will show a model with Yahoo widgets; we're still waiting to hear from Samsung on whether the TV will support Hulu and YouTube streaming.

Mobile gear at CES will steal a lot of the limelight this year.

Palm is expected to unveil its Nova smartphone operating system on new hardware, a project three years in the making. We've also heard that some new handsets (including a smartphone) from an unnamed but up-and-coming manufacturer, as well several from Motorola and Samsung, will debut.