Everything’s Digital at Germany’s Consumer Electronics Show - Major Themes
(Page 2 of 4 )
Trying to take in that much information from that many exhibitors without some way of keeping it all organized would be enough to make most people want to pull out their hair in frustration from the overload. Fortunately, the event’s organizers divided the show into six categories: television and entertainment; personal computing and games; sound and car media; digital imaging and digital music; personal communication; and SNC satellite, networks and cable. These divisions aren’t as neat as they may appear at first, however, because so many devices and other consumer electronics items (such as television) have become multifunctional, reflecting the general “convergence” we hear so much about in the industry.
Television was a major source of information and entertainment for the vast majority of people in the developed world before the introduction of the Internet; indeed, it still is for many people. TV manufacturers are striving to change with the times and latch onto convergence as a way to regain any lost prominence. This point was strongly reflected in the keynote speech delivered by Fumio Ohtsubo, president of Panasonic. It was clear from the speech that his company wants television to be, once again, the center of people’s digital lives.
The idea behind Panasonic’s pitch is to use your TV as a graphical user interface for controlling the rest of the technologies in your life. This includes watching movies, listening to music, surfing the Internet, video conferencing, and even monitoring your home’s energy consumption. “We want television to be the single, but complete, window on…the lives of all consumers. We have a vision of the TV at the heart of the consumer experience,” said Ohtsubo. He punctuated his point with a 65” plasma screen, set up to run a variety of applications and on display at the show.
Personal computing and games is a category near and dear to many hearts at Dev Hardware. Here again we found the issue of convergence, with IFA’s own show material asking “Will the PC turn into a TV – or vice versa?” In this area, analysts are predicting that notebook computers will overtake traditional desktop computers in the market for the first time in 2005. Okay, so many gamers would never care to play games on a notebook – but what about Sony’s PSP? Multifunction and multimedia devices were also out in force at the show, with PDAs gaining new capabilities to work on regaining ground lost to smartphones.
Next: Product Highlights >>
More Opinions Articles
More By Terri Wells
