I can hear the breath of CES 2011 right around my back, which is going to rouse the hard cold of the New Year's days next month. Tech addicts would always look forward to annually January for the biggest event of technology and electronic devices display: Consumer Electronics Show (CES) that covers the whole gamut of technology devices and vendors in a number of fields. This is the place where the industry meets, does business and - most importantly for you - launches new kit. After enjoying chocolates, candy and presents from Santa Clause, cheering in the New Year holiday, the faithful of technology will express their love with enjoying this exclusive show a week after in Las Vegas, which help consumers and experts envision about technology market and the upcoming trend and patterns of next year.
Tablet PC - the future ruler
When the giant Apple introduced their Ipad about 1 year ago, specialists raised predictions about Tablet PC's absolute domination in several years. This forecast seems to come into reality. CES 2011 is just a few weeks away. And the main concept at the event, is expected to be tablet computers, and maybe smarter smartphones.
Gartner, the prestige technology research and analysis board released a report in which it made predictions about sales of the tablet PC next period. Particularly, this number can be sold up to 54.8 million items in the following year and reach the "incredible" is 208 million units in 2014. This impressive numbers raise the high likelihood that Tablet PC stores in CES will draw the most attention and make the full coverage this time. It must be all about Ipad or at least it used to be, Apple would be the one. Google rocket their Android trend as the most dangerous and vital competitors of Apple which cannot be caught before since Samsung Tab or Dell Streak time. Of course we can let out the BlackBerry lovers, Research In Motion (RIM) can stand outside the game. Their honey PlayBook debut will appear at CES to send a warning to Apple and Google. Besides, Microsoft don't let those have all fun when publish models like View Pad and HP's Slate. With huge achievements in PC Operating System, Mr Gate's own son is definitely a promisingly giant in Tablets market. Anyway, there are rumors that Microsoft has been building a series of tablets for this event. They will obviously have multi-touch support touch screens. But the new thing is, these will have a physical full QWERTY slide-out keyboards and HTML5 support. So what do you think? Will you go for such a tablet, or other vendors or mr Apple? Please count down to the day.
Incoming 3D OLED television
At CES 2010, flat and LED screens with Internet connection have relative coverage but not so plentifully. However, what a difference a year makes. OLED TV would be the undisputed star of this year's show, backed by some of the biggest names in the consumer electronics business. Traditional LCD will seem like old technology at CES 2011 - it'll be LED all the way. Movement on the next-gen OLED tech has been slow so far, with only Sony, Samsung and LG really demonstrating anything of worth.
For the last year or so, OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) televisions have been on the minds of home theater lovers everywhere. With amazingly high contrast ratios and a thickness measuring in the millimeters, OLED TVs certainly look like the future of home theater.
In marketing plan, Samsung plans to commercialize this technology by 2013 and introduce rollable OLED TVs to consumers. I'll believe that when I see it. There have been so many OLED TV announcements over the past couple of years that it's hard to get much enthusiasm going when almost all the announcements by all the OLED manufacturers turn out to be nothing. While Samsung seems a tad wishy-washy about exactly when they'll be producing OLED TVs, LG has set out a clear date. It's 2011 apparently: Though they'll be investing in next-gen LCD production lines too, the plan is to have volume production of 32-inch OLED screens within three years.
While new technology always comes with a heavy price tag, some are expecting the price of OLED lighting to come down some time in 2011. Active OLED lighting will become mainstream in two years, and its revenue will surpass that of passive LED lighting sometime around 2018. However, price is a major hurdle for the technology to overcome.
Besides, 3D TV was very much in the novelty 'concept' stage and was the main theme alongside every single company talking about the environment last year. This is a slightly odd thing to hear in Vegas, which is possibly the least environmentally friendly location known to man. Expect those companies who haven't yet gone big on 3D - such as Sharp - to go fully 3D this time around. We'll also see plenty of universal glasses available - specs you can use with various 3D TVs, not just those from one manufacturer. And expect a lot more hype behind 3D Blu-ray.
Age of Smartphone
Since the day Android was born, iOS was not the object of monolatry in the mobile OS market. Months later, Microsoft published new operating system Window Mobile 7. ?The race is on, Android and Window sales are catching up with iPhone, and we all know a race implies a winner. Android is an operating system used by multiple vendors, so we need to consider Apple's iOS eco-system and what these respective products bring to the market. Android is a remarkable product, and if it weren't for the iPhone, it would be far ahead of anything else in its field, but the iPhone and iOS mobile platform arrived first. However, if you are a cell phone maker looking for a low cost licensable OS, Android is a clear winner. If you're a cell phone carrier looking to offer a family of attractive "smart phones" you can customize to add "carrier value", again Android is a winner. Meanwhile, Windows Phone 7 is Microsoft's latest attempt at making a mobile OS that somebody might actually want to use. And this time around, Microsoft seems to have been extremely successful. Windows Phone 7 is a sleek, sophisticated operating system with all the power that one would expect from any version of iOS. This is the takeaway from the hands-on with various Windows Phone 7 devices.
In fact, Smartphones have recently transformed to a shining star at CES and the superstar this time might be the one from Google. Google has introduced their latest version of the Android platform, Gingerbread, and unveil the next Android device from the Nexus line of mobile products-Nexus S. And for developers, the Gingerbread SDK/NDK is now available as well. It's the first Android device to ship with the new version of the Android platform. Google co-developed this product with Samsung-ensuring tight integration of hardware and software to highlight the latest advancements of the Android platform. As part of the Nexus brand, Nexus S delivers "what people call a "pure Google" experience: unlocked, unfiltered access to the best Google mobile services and the latest and greatest Android releases and updates", according to Google informer. Together with Google, other familiar vendors also join for the cake like Samsung, LG, Nokie, Sony. And the major focus of embedded platform would be BlackBerry, Iphone, Android, Symbian and Windows which have been playing for long.
Join in January for the very best CES 2011 coverage you'll find.
Michael Doan is working for a company that provides IT outsourcing services including application development and software outsourcing. If you want to know more about his work, visit the website software outsourcing to see how he can optimize your business.
