SAN FRANCISCO, Jan 3, (AFP) : Sleeker, smarter mobile phones, tablets, and netbooks will be stars at next week’s premier Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, as firms bring out their latest gadgets to court the Internet crowd.
While this year’s CES will be smaller due to the global economic crisis, 110,000 people are registered to attend and the number of first-time exhibitors tops 330 for the first time.
A Google “Nexus One” smart phone based on Android software is likely to ignite CES buzz even though the device is to debut at the Internet giant’s headquarters in California two days before CES starts Thursday.
CES goers are eager to see whether the Google branded phone lives up to expectations in a scenario reminiscent of the Palm Pre launch at the annual electronics show last year.
“All eyes are on the Nexus One,” said analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group in Silicon Valley.
“The other thing of course is the tablets. A wave of Android tablets will be hitting at CES, and it looks like Apple’s is coming at the end of the month.”
A tablet computer to be launched at CES by India-based Notion Inc. is generating the most interest due to attributes such as paper-like screen graphics for easy reading outdoors and full-color resolution.
By waiting a few more weeks to launch a tablet, Apple will be able to assess how competitors position themselves in the market and adapt its strategy accordingly.
Electronic books, or e-books, will also be rolled out in abundance at CES.
Industry tracker Forrester Research predicts that six million e-readers will be sold in the United States alone in 2010, doubling the number bought in the country the prior year.
An eagerly-awaited QUE e-reader by Plastic Logic will premier Thursday in an invitation-only press conference slated prior to the opening of the show floor.
“We are going to be awash in e-books,” Enderle said. “The contrast between tablets and e-books is going to be pronounced.”
Lightweight, bare-bones laptops referred to as netbooks or “ultraportables” will also be a rage at CES as computer makers debut offerings tailored for a market that has boomed during hard times.
Making devices ranging from flat-screen televisions to cars or home thermostats “smart” with computer chips and links to the Internet will gain momentum at CES.
Tout
Powerhouses behind huge but ever-thinning televisions that are a hallmark of CES will tout online capabilities along with rich graphics prime for viewing films in high-definition or Blu-ray formats.
“You will see the TV set become more than just a simple TV set and the Blu-ray player more than a Blu-ray player,” predicted Dolby consumer technology marketing director Craig Eggers.
“Last year saw Yahoo! widgets on TV sets. More television makers are installing devices to stream YouTube, CinemaNow, and other online video on TV.”
Dolby, which is planning CES announcements of its own, is intent on making sure audio richness on devices does justice to eye-popping graphics.
Television screens with improved 3D capabilities will be “big stuff” at CES and there is a rumor that the first US 3D television station will launch during CES, according to Enderle.
Microsoft and Yahoo! are among Internet titans that will be announcing innovations or alliances at CES.
The Consumer Electronics Association has beefed up the size of a videogame gear zone and an iLounge devoted to software and accessories for Apple iPhones, iPods and Macintosh computers.
Speakers include Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer; Nokia head Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo; Ford president Alan Mulally; Intel leader Paul Otellini; Qualcomm boss Paul Jacobs, and Hisense chairman Zhou Houjian.
Analysts also expect the automotive zone at CES to hold intriguing innovations, with Internet networking and television being further integrated into cars and trucks.
“The final thing is that 4G is expected to start showing up hard at CES,” Enderle said, referring to the coming iteration of wireless broadband Internet technology.
“It is kind of the holy grail of next-generation wireless: more bandwidth, lower price and overall better experience.”
CES routinely includes surprise visits by celebrities as well as a chance for people in the industry to fire policy questions at the head of the US Federal Communications Commission.
Technology blog Gizmodo, citing leaked documents, said the Nexus One will cost 530 dollars “unlocked” — meaning it isn’t tied to a specific carrier — or 180 dollars with a two-year service agreement with T-Mobile, a subsidiary of Germany’s Deutsche Telekom AG.
Google has been coy about any plans to jump headfirst into the fast-growing smartphone market, dropping hints but not confirming its intentions outright.
Agence France-Presse and other media outlets have been invited to a press event on Tuesday at Google headquarters in Mountain View, California, billed only as an “Android press gathering.”
“With the launch of the first Android-powered device just over a year ago, we’ve seen how a powerful, open platform can spur mobile product innovation,” the invitation said. “And this is just the beginning of what’s possible.”
Google provided no further details about the event, whose timing appears to be an attempt to upstage the Consumer Electronics Show, the annual technology extravaganza which opens in Las Vegas on Jan 7.
Among the hints dropped by Google was a blog post last month in which the company said employees were testing a mobile product internally in an exercise known in the industry as “dogfooding.”
Google’s plunge into the smartphone market has drawn a mixed reaction.
“It looks like Google is moving to see if they can do the Apple thing,” said analyst Rob Enderle, of Enderle Group in Silicon Valley, in a reference to the iPhone, which has enjoyed phenomenal success since it was introduced in 2007.

Pointing to Google’s 750-million-dollar acquisition of mobile advertising company AdMob in November, a number of analysts said Google hopes to replicate its Web advertising success in the mobile space.
Not all are convinced by the wisdom of the move. “For Google to go into the business of selling phones just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense,” Gartner analyst Van Baker said.
“Just coming out with a high-end phone really doesn’t buy you much,” Baker said. “You’d be hard pressed to come up with enough revenue from pushing ads to pay for the phone service.”
Ovum research fellow Jonathan Yarmis said Google will have to walk a fine line between marketing its own smartphone and being a supportive partner for the growing number of firms making their own handsets based on Android.
Although Android’s share of the US smartphone market is relatively small, it has doubled in the past year to 3.5 percent in October, according to comScore, and Gartner predicts Android-based smartphones will capture 14 percent of the global market by the year 2012.

Decline
Gadget makers are in a much better mood than they were a year ago, when they were shocked by a 27 percent decline in holiday sales of electronics and appliances.
In the month leading up to the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show, exhibitors were cancelling because they were concerned about the economy, said Jason Oxman, senior vice-president at the Consumer Electronic Association, the trade association that organizes CES.
In contrast, in the just-ended shopping season, revenue from electronics sales in the US between Nov 1 and Dec 24 rose 5.9 percent from the same period of 2007, according to an estimate by MasterCard Advisors’ SpendingPulse, which tyracks all forms of payment, including cash.
The analysts don’t give a dollar figure. And this time CES exhibitors were adding themselves to the lineup in the week before the show.

“There’’s a great deal of enthusiasm leading into 2010 that just wasn’t there in the 2009 ashow,” Oxman said.
CES, which behan in 1967, was originally focused on home entertainment gear.
But with the demise of large computer trade shows in the United States, CES is now the main venue not just for such audio and video giants as Panasonic, but also such pillars of the computing world as Hewlett-Packard, Dell, and Cisco Systems.
The manufacturers have been fortunate that the US is still in what is considered a TV upgrade cycle, with households replacing their old tube sets with flat panels. That trend hasn’t even slowed in the recession. Research firm iSuppli estimates that 33.8 million flat-panel sets were shipped in the US in 2009, up 17 percent from 2008.

The challenge for manufacturers is to keep flat panels hot. In 2010, technologies already available now are likely to be enough to drive sales. But to keep the excitement going, manufacturers will be rolling out 3-D TV sets later in the year, and that will be a major topic at CES.
In keeping with the times, 3-D TVs won’t be much more expensive than today’s high-end sets. The difference between 3-D sets and comparable 2-D TVs will likely be less than $200. A 3-D capable Blu-ray player, however, would then add a few hundred dollars to the set-up.
Laptops have also continued to sell well during the recession, though some of the most popular ones have beenb small “netbooks” that cost about $300. At CES, there will be plenty of slightly larger laptops featuring new,power-thrifty chips and higher prices.