CES 2010: What’s next?
Posted in This Just In... on January 5th, 2010 by gkrakow
It’s that time of year again.
Just after the Christmas and New Year holiday season each year it’s time to get on a super-crowded jet and fly to Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show.
Industry folks and journalists from all over the planet converge on “Sin City” to see what’s new – and what items buyers won’t be able to live without (hopefully) a few months from now.
But this year, the two biggest products getting all the buzz aren’t being announced at this show: the first Android phone to be marketed by Google and a possible tablet computer from Apple.
The Google phone, dubbed theNexus One, was announced, this morning in Mountain View, California. The handset, made by HTC (they make many Android-based phones, Windows Mobile phones and more) will be sold unlocked for $530 – or with a two-year T-Mobile service contract for $180. It was also announced that Verizon will also have their own Nexus One model in a few months.
This smartphone is special because it will have the latest, greatest version of the Android operating system (2.1) and will also be one of the first smartphones in the U.S. to sport Qualcomm’s speedy 1.0GHz Snapdragon processor. We’re talking super-fast here.
There will be phones announced here in Vegas too. The biggest introduction is expected from Verizon who are supposed to get their own versions of Palm’s Pre and Pixi phones. We’ll let you know what else is coming as soon as we find out.
As for Apple’s tablet, the best (and loudest) rumors say the device will have a touch-screen somewhere in the 10-to-11-inch range – will be introduced in the next few weeks – and will ship in early spring. Think in terms of a jumbo iPod touch. Price is rumored to be in the $1,000 range.
Here in Vegas Lenovo has already announced their own tablet – actually a netbook tablet (the S-10 Netbook Tablet) with a capacitive multi-touch screen (that means finger tip touch instead of pressure touch).
I’m expecting to hear about a lot more about other tablet computer announcements here. Although I’m not a fan of the genre and I know that in the past tablets have not been a very successful niche. But, if and when Apple begins generating interest in tablets then consumer approval may shift in the other direction. We’ll see.
Finally, 3DTV. That’s the other “big thing” we’re being promised here at CES. A number of firms say they’ve perfected they’ve perfected three-dimensional television and they’re hoping that will be a way to get viewers interested again. We’ll let you know what we see and if 3DTV is worth waiting for.
Press previews here are just about every hour on the hour. The actual CES, 2010 edition actually opens Thursday morning and runs through Sunday.