Live From CES

I had the opportunity to attend CES this year, along with about 110,000 other people.  I’ll say that it gives me a new appreciation for NTCA events where things are much more intimate.  The sea of people was overwhelming at times, and I heard a rumor that there was over 40 acres of booth space.

While there I got to see some great technology and some massive booths (Microsoft’s seemed larger than NTCA’s offices), but as the show draws to a close today, I must say that I will leave Las Vegas a little underwhelmed.  Sure there were some cool things, but nothing that was revolutionary in my opinion.  If you were there, please leave a comment telling of your experience.

While it is only my opinion that there weren’t any game changers, I’ll offer my thoughts on 5 things that may have an impact on our industry and let you be the judge.

3D TVs- These were probably the most hyped products at CES this year, so much so that even my dad asked what I thought of them.  I have to tell you they were pretty cool, but I don’t think they’ll have mass market appeal.  Why?  A couple of reasons.  First, many consumers that had tube TVs recently upgraded to the flat screen HDTV.  Will they be able to justify upgrading again in such a short time period?  I suppose it depends on what the price points are and how much content will be available.  But the biggest obstacle in my opinion are that you have to wear glasses to view the 3D content.  And not just any glasses- they have to have batteries.  Some use watch batteries (which could get very expensive), and some were rechargeable, but I found when testing some that the batteries had already run dead.  Wouldn’t that be fun in the middle of a game or movie to have to plug back in your glasses to recharge?  As much of an early adopter as I am (I loved my laserdisc), I just can’t see running out and buying one.

On the topic of TVs, the new ultra-thin models were pretty awesome.  LG had one that was around 1/4″ thick (or thin).  Those were much more interesting to me than the 3D models.  But nothing to be found on their website about it.

Internet TVs and Blu Ray Players- Of anything, these may be game changers for our industry.  I spent some time with the Samsung folks to learn about their TVs that can be connected to the Internet.  What is potentially game changing is that they have their own web interface and apps store.  Yes- think a TV iPhone.  Enabled out of the box are apps for Vudu, Blockbuster and Netflix, all of which really change the face of getting content, especially VoD content.  Then you can get apps for Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, among others.  Some apps will be free, some will cost money, but other than subscribers increasing their bandwidth, there’s not likely any money for service providers.  When I said that getting  a new TV may be a barrier, I was told that their Blu Ray player will have the same interface.  I guess the good news is that it won’t be replacing linear TV… yet.

Home Monitoring and Automation- Many manufacturers have devices that use the home network to allow consumers to monitor and automate various home functions.  Want to know when your kids come home?  Install a device on your door that will send you an SMS when it is opened.  Want to see what that noise was downstairs?  Flip open your netbook and look at the wireless camera.  Too cold or warm at night?  Adjust the thermostat from your cell phone.  I spent some time talking with D-Link about their products and they have a starter kit that includes the base station (which also has an audible alarm when the system is armed), key fob (for turning the system off and on), motion detector, a window/door monitor and it seems like a few other things- retailing for under $150.  Interestingly it is a self-monitoring system, so no recurring service charges.  I did ask about the technology and a service provider could monitor things from a central point, but we didn’t get into detail about what it would take to do that.  As your company looks to provide other products and services to your customers to increase stickiness, you need to give these a look.

Over the top video- Speaking of D-Link, they’ve partnered with the popular OTT software Boxee to create a box that allows you to enjoy the Boxee content on your TV (with the software, you could only use your computer, so it was cumbersome to put on your TV).  Boxee content includes TV shows, movies, music and sites from the Internet (like Facebook and Twitter), and also will allow you to share your music, video and picture library from your computer.  The remote is very cool.  On one side it is your traditional remote.  Flip it over and it is a mini keyboard for interacting with web applications.  Add them to the growing list of providers like Samsung (see above), SkitterTV and ZillionTV, among others, and it is apparent that OTT video isn’t going away anytime soon.

Digital frames- I spent some time with Kodak to learn about their next generation of digital frames.  Sure we’ve had digital frames for some time, and even those that can grab content wirelessly from your computer, but the next generation will allow you to remotely publish pictures to the frame.  How?  A customer can set up an account on Kodak’s site and invite people add pictures remotely.  So I could buy this frame for my parents and publish new photos of my daughter every day if I wanted to.  Additionally the frame will have an email address that can receive photo attachments.  So I could also take a snapshot with my phone and send it as an MMS to the frame.  Why should we care?  Add this to the growing list of devices your customers may want and need Internet access for.

There were some other cool little things, like the 1″ tall video camera, a handful of interesting cell phone concepts, Microsoft’s vehicle software, and the Parrot drone (because everyone needs a drone), but all in all it seemed like R&D budgets may have taken a hit last year.  But since it was my first time at CES, I found that I didn’t give myself enough time out here, so maybe I missed something.  That and I’ll be sure to bring a camera next year so you can see what I’m talking about!

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