'Convergence' Dominates Consumer Electronics Show
By Nicole Ridgway
January 9, 2007
The annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas is 1.7 million square feet of pure heaven for technology fans. Almost 3,000 exhibitors and more than 100,000 attendees, including yours truly, are converging from around the globe to experience this year's event. What we're seeing while we're here are gadgets of all shapes and sizes, from "intelligent" cars and robots to technologies that aren't so far off into the future like next-generation cellphones and home-entertainment devices. Over the next few days, Techsmart will offer a peek at some of the coolest new gizmos, decipher the announcements from industry bigwigs and determine what to expect in 2007 — as well as in 2027. Check back daily for updates.
It's Official
The CES show officially opened with a speech by Gary Shapiro, head of the Consumer Electronics Association. The event's host spoke fondly of the concept of convergence, a prominent theme that permeates this year's gathering of the best minds in the technology business. "For years we talked about converging products," Shapiro said on Monday. "What defines the 2007 International CES is that it is about the new convergence of content, services and products."
Shapiro couldn't have been more on the money. As I roamed the vast football field-sized rooms of the Las Vegas Convention Center it became clear that a lot of attention is being focused on ways to more seamlessly enable and connect all of the media applications consumers love. Whether by transporting our personal music and video collections from one device to another or finding ways to get it to us faster without having to deal with those rascally wires, it's clear that 2007 will bring lots of devices — and choices — to consumers that they haven't had before.
In his keynote speech, Motorola (MOT1) Chief Executive Ed Zander made a slew of announcements that served to further bolster Shapiro's declaration of convergence. Zander introduced what he called the "MOTOMUSIC Experience," a push to get more music-focused content and devices into mobile phones. The handset maker is teaming up with Warner Music Group (WMG2), Yahoo (YHOO3) and Microsoft (MSFT4) to offer all sorts of music listening and downloading options. He also unveiled two rather sleek-looking mobile music phones: The MOTORIZR Z65 and the MOTOMING EDGE6. I'll have more on Motorola's new phones later this week after I put them through the paces.
WiMax to the Max
It may be as soon as next year that Motorola's music fans will be able to do even more with their phones using the high-speed wireless Internet service WiMax7. Motorola announced that Chicago will be one of the first major cities to be graced with a Motorola-backed WiMax wireless broadband network. In partnership with Sprint Nextel (S8) — another huge WiMax proponent — Motorola will help build the infrastructure necessary to get the high-speed wireless network up and running. A commercial rollout is expected in early 2008.
Intel (INTC9) dedicated a section of its real estate on the floor of the convention center to WiMax as well. The chip maker is betting hundreds of millions of dollars that WiMax will become a reality. Using a technology similar to WiMax called WiBro, a wireless broadband service that's currently in use in South Korea, Intel demonstrated just how fast these wireless Internet speeds are able to go. A download of the animated film "Monster House," for example, barely skipped a beat. Intel says it will start doing market trials of WiMax late this year and expects to have 100 million users by the end of 2008.
Desktop to Go
With all of the talk of convergence of memory-hungry applications like video, photo and gaming, we're going to need some super power storage and backup. Storage giant Seagate Technology (STX10) seems to have seen that writing on the wall. For the first time in the company's 27-year history, it's selling a line of storage products aimed directly at the consumer. The lineup looks pretty impressive.
I met with Seagate's chief sales and marketing officer, Brian Dexheimer, and the head of product line management, Jon van Bronkhorst, who walked me through the company's brand new FreeAgent line of storage devices11. One of the coolest and perhaps most marketable of Seagate's new product line is the 12-gig FreeAgent Go Small, which sells for $139.99. This sleek and simple device is roughly three inches by three inches and has a USB serial port that you can plug into your computer. Beyond just storing your stuff, this little guy also remembers which applications you had running last and all of your settings (such as your favorite home page on the Internet) so when you plug it into a different computer you're basically looking at a replica of your own desktop.
The larger, but by no means big, FreeAgent Go device may not be as portable and cute as its smaller brethren, but it can store an impressive 80 to 160 gigs and has all of the same capabilities. That's a good chunk of memory ranging from $129.99 to $189.99. Seagate is also offering FreeAgent Pro for data hogs. The highest-end device holds up to a whopping 750 gigs and will cost $419.99.
Seagate is also tapping into the trend in hip and simple packaging for consumer devices (for example, the packaging for Apple's (AAPL12) iPod and Microsoft's Zune music players). Looking at the simple white box for Seagate's FreeAgent products, one would think it was an MP3 player or something hipper than a storage device. Instead of all sorts of technical data that may confuse consumers, there are cute sayings inside and outside of the box. Inside the packaging for the Free Agent Go Small, for example, the first flap says "it loves me," the next flap says "it loves me not," and the final flap states "it loves me and wants to go everywhere I go." We can expect a major advertising push when the devices are released in February.
SanDisk Plays It Cool
SanDisk (SNDK13) is jumping on Microsoft's Vista operating system train with a USB plug-in flash memory device called Ready Boost that can be used to add some extra punch to your PC. Ready Boost allows you to more quickly access data on your computer without waiting for the long boot-up.
On the MP3 player side, SanDisk unveiled two pretty neat devices. The Sansa Express14 is the company's answer to the iPod Shuffle. The device is about the size of a cigarette lighter and has a USB connection so you don't need to use any cables to connect it to your computer while downloading music. Not only does it play digital music, but it also serves as a voice recorder and FM radio. The Sansa Express, which will be released in March, holds up to 15 hours of battery life when fully charged and will cost $59.
For people who want a little more out of their music players, SanDisk has the new WiFi-enabled Sansa Connect. The $249 device allows you to wirelessly download songs and listen to more than 150 Internet radio stations. You can zap music to friends or check out what they're listening to.
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