Handheld tablet PCs, flashy phones and tricked-out TVs were center stage at last week’s International Consumer Electronics Show, the technology industry’s biggest yearly trade show and a big draw for Orange County companies.
The “three screens”—as they’re called by show producer Consumer Electronics Association—are set to spur growth of consumer electronics this year.
Global retail sales are projected to grow 10% in 2011 to $964 billion, according to a forecast by analysts from the Arlington, Va.-based trade group. Sales grew about 13% in 2010, coming off of an extremely bad year in 2009, when sales slumped 9%.
The projections would put sales near the trillion-dollar mark and be “a new industry high,” said Steve Koenig, director of industry analysis for the association.
Some 120,000 attendees added to the renewed optimism for the industry.
Tablets stole the show this year, as many industry watchers predicted.
Tablet king Apple Inc. wasn’t on hand. But the company’s blockbuster iPad cast a long shadow. Dozens of companies, including locals, announced their own versions of sleek, mobile PCs in a bid to challenge the dominant iPad.
“It’s a very nascent technology,” said Shawn DuBravac, chief economist for
the Consumer Electronics Association. “Wherever we see new technologies where user behaviors haven’t been completely defined, there will be a lot innovation and a lot experimentation remaining.”
Grabbing the most attention were Motorola Mobility Inc.’s Xoom, Blackberry-maker Research in Motion Ltd.’s Playbook, and Samsung Group’s Galaxy.
Others that jumped into the fray were Panasonic Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co., Sony Corp., Lenovo Group Ltd., Dell Inc. and Sharp Corp. Smaller names abounded.
Vizio, ViewSonic
Irvine-based Vizio Inc., a flat TV maker that’s diversifying into mobile devices, also rolled out its first tablet, dubbed Via.
And Walnut-based ViewSonic Corp., a maker of TVs, computer monitors and projectors, unveiled its ViewPad.
Television accessories and media boxes once again were big at CES, which wrapped up its five-day run on Sunday.
Irvine-based disk drive maker Western Digital Corp. showed off the latest generation of its media hub, a drive that sits atop a TV and allows consumers to view music, videos, photos and other files on their TVs.
This year, Western Digital boosted the hub’s storage capacity to 1 terabyte and added a specialized remote control and a handful of Internet applications.
“We are really pleasantly surprised with how it’s selling,” said Matt Bennion, national product marketing manager for Western Digital’s branded products division,
which also includes external storage drives for consumers.
Western Digital doesn’t break out sales for its consumer devices.
Fountain Valley-based D-Link Systems Inc., a maker of networking gear that’s part of Taiwan’s D-Link Corp., announced a TV companion device called MainStage that supports chipmaker Intel Corp.’s wireless display technology.
WiDi, as the technology is called, allows users to display a laptop’s screen on a big TV. It’s set to sell for “under $200” and will hit stores in the first half of the year, according to Dan Kelley, associate vice president of consumer marketing for D-Link.
D-Link also announced a partnership with Yahoo Inc. that allows consumers to view trivia, stocks, weather, polls and other content that’s related to what’s playing on their TVs.
Other CES themes returned from years past, including the idea of the connected home.
Irvine-based Broadcom Corp., a maker of chips for cell phones, computers and consumer electronics, displayed a variety of technologies for digital video, wireless and mobile gadgets.
It also announced a flurry of design wins at CES.
Broadcom said its chips are set to be used by South Korea’s LG Electronics Inc. in its wireless connected digital TVs and Blu-ray players. South Korea’s Samsung also picked Broadcom for its Wi-Fi enabled Blu-ray players, the company said.
Fountain Valley-based memory products maker Kingston Technology Co. laid out its product roadmap as the industry upgrades to the next generation of universal serial bus ports, which connect computers to electronics such as cameras, keyboards, external storage devices and flash drives.
USB 3.0, as the technology is called, is set to pick up steam this year.
“We will be seeing PC makers come out with USB 3.0 ports,” Kingston spokesman David Leong said. “Kingston will come out with USB 3.0 to try to drive adoption to the mainstream.”
Kingston announced its first USB 3.0 flash drive under the marketing brand name HyperX, which is set to hit stores in the second quarter.
Other Products
This year’s show seemed to venture farther afield in the electronics world with a variety of new and expanded categories such as fitness and personal health-related gadgets, “intelligent” household appliances and next-generation cars.
Some were a bit of a stretch.
Victorinox Swiss Army Inc. showed off a version of its namesake pocket knife that comes with a 32 gigabit memory stick alongside the traditional nail file, scissors and blade.
Massachusetts-based iRobot Corp., best known for its robotic vacuums, is set to show off a miniature floor-mopping robot that goes for a cool $300.
The major selling point of the Scooba 230, as the device is called, is that it can mop around the entire base of the toilet.
And Church & Dwight Co.’s Trojan Condoms even had a booth at a pre-show event with an “Area 51” theme—what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas, right?
