Akihabara showcases
Richard Doherty
03/09/98
Electronic Engineering Times
Page 51
Copyright 1998 CMP Publications Inc.
A quick dash through Tokyo's Akihabara late last month shows that not all Asian economies are in the doldrums. The hottest TVs: new Sony Vega systems with NTSC DSP circuitry that doubles perceived vertical and horizontal resolution. Consumers were lined up three deep admiring-and buying-the latest in sub-4-pound notebook PCs. Digital still-image cameras are hot. Hotter still: Japan's newest digital delivery system: the new consolidated PerfecTv TV service
Nowhere else on Earth could one scrutinize Olympic imagery side by side on Hi Vision (high-definition analog), digital satellite, analog satellite, digitally enhanced NTSC and NTSC sets. If U.S. retailers can match this showcase this fall, when HDTV and digital-TV transmissions begin, then American consumers will be in for a wonderful buying season. Twenty-five million new TVs are bought each year and many will be digital TVs, 16:9 HDTVs and PC-based home-entertainment systems.
This month, many eyes will be focused on Microsoft's Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) in Orlando, Fla., where designers of desktops, servers, workstations and notebook PCs will find new company in the form of entertainment PCs, set-top PCs, palmtop PCs and car PCs. The first two will draw the majority of interest from hardware designers, silicon architects and the consumer-electronics arena.
With the ink still drying from a Windows CE set-top contract that could touch 10 million cable-homes in the near future, designers are eager to see what other features they can count on building in for Cable CE. Game-system designers, DVD drive makers and modem-system vendors (for cable plants that are not two-way and require a phone-line uplink) are eagerly awaiting the high sign from Microsoft that these boxes can be expanded into game systems, interactive transaction terminals, printers (for producing on-the-spot coupons and event tickets), DVD movie and DVD -ROM infotainment players and for peripherals we haven't even heard of yet.
WinHEC happens scant days before the TV broadcasters meet in Las Vegas, and a month before the National Cable TV show in Atlanta, where the full impact of Microsoft's CE platform contract win with TCI will be better known. Key questions remain, such as how will Sun's Java fit in? Which CE processors will be favored, and will these boxes handle forthcoming digital-TV signals?
-Richard Doherty directs technology market research at the Envisioneering Group. He can be reached at rdoherty@envisioneering.net. |
