What I Expect to See at the CES

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It is hard to believe that this time next week I’ll be on the way to Sin City to attend the Consumer Electronic Show (CES) 2010. It’s hard to guess what attendance will be like this year given the economy, but one thing for certain there will be gadgets everywhere. I believe there will be several hot mobile tech areas this year, and I note them here in no particular order.

Smartbooks. We saw a few smartbooks at the show last year, but it was clear they were not ready to take center stage. That will not be the case this year as I believe the smartbook will be the big mobile gadget at the show. We will see major OEMs launching smartbooks, and it is the space to keep an eye on while wandering the show aisles. We will likely see smartbooks of all shapes and sizes, and many will be ready for immediate sale. I expect to see at least 20 different models at the show, with each vying for attention. Smartbooks will be the netbook of 2010.

Phones. Android will be the focus in the phone world, which is not surprising. We should see Android phones with 2.x everywhere, and Android apps will be well represented at the show, too. We will see Android begin to spill over into other gadget forms, like tablets and notebooks. The processors that will drive the smartbook into the mainstream will be used to turn smartphones into little powerhouses, and we will see quite a few phones with sizzling capability at the show.

Netbooks. There will certainly be netbooks at the CES, but they will largely be more of the same as we’ve seen before. We will see some with better graphic-handling ability, but that will come at a price. I do believe we will see a few convertible netbooks with multitouch screens. Even the major OEMs are going to get into the swivel screen game, in an attempt to kindle excitement in this now old-school genre. I’m not sure if consumers will be willing to pay the extra price for touch on the otherwise cheap netbook.

e-Book Readers. This will be the second big area at the show. We will see readers all over the place, with single screens, double screens, e-Ink, Pixel QI, and other features I can only guess. They will be accompanied by announcements for content deals, as readers without books are just dead weight. We may see some readers announced by players that are surprising, as e-books are now hot items and this attracts new blood to the table.

Handheld Computers. I think we will see quite a few little computers of all shapes and sizes. There will be clamshell forms as small as 5-inches, and slates as large as 9 or 10. There will be gadgets that are Windows-based, and Android will be onboard others. Linux will be well represented on some of the gadgets, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we see someone who has shoe-horned the developer version of the Google Chrome OS on one or two of them.

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