Consumer Electronic Show

Las Vegas
January, 2010

Select Mobile & Wireless Trends

We spent a few days at Consumer Electronics Show last week. By now, you have probably seen mass media's coverage of the event. Beyond the hype and the noise, here are some specific themes in mobile and wireless that we found intriguing:

1. CE industry Recovering? The hustle and bustle of the show, cellular and WiFi networks failing because of being pushed beyond their capacity, extra-long taxi lines, and long commutes, were indications that the consumer electronics industry is showing more excitement than in 2009.

2. 3D Even in UI: Of course,3D was everywhere, from television sets to computer monitors to all kinds of content. The most fascinating 3D usage we saw was the 3D user interface technology embedded in a set-top box from Motorola. Using the remote control, you could flip through TV listings, much like the way you flip through your music albums on iPhone, except that they were in 3D. The UI was on a separate plane than the actual TV content and thus was not obstructing it. Very cool! However, the technology comes from Motorola R&D and there are no planned products.

3. TouchScreen 2.0 and Natural User Interfaces: Touch screen and natural user interfaces are continuing to evolve. We saw it not only in mobile devices but also in PC screens and booth exhibits. 3M demonstrated a 22-inch multi-touch display connected to a PC with which you could use 10 simultaneous touches. This could be useful when collaborating with others. Using smart surface technology, several booths set up a smart table where visitors could place products on them, obtain information about the product on the surface, and then interact with their touch. This was a big step toward creating customized interactive marketing for visitors at the booth. It would have been even better if the tables were set up to enable visitors to put their badges on the table and get stuff sent to them, etc.

4. Plenty of New Mobile Phones: From a design perspective, the most innovative phone we saw was Motorola Backflip. It has a touchscreen and a keyboard. The keyboard can be folded back behind the screen which turns the phone into a mini tablet. There is also a touch pad at the back of the screen that one can use to navigate without blocking the screen. However, the phone runs Android 1.5 not the latest 2.1 version (upgradable to 2 at some point). AT&T will probably be the carrier although that has yet to be formally announced. HTC's HD2 for T-Mobile was the most interesting of the WinMo devices, larger display (4.3") and 1GHz Qualcomm SnapDragon chip with 5MP camera. It runs WinMo 6.5.

5. Computing Devices Galore - Netbooks, eReaders, and Slates: All kinds of new computing gadgets were on display. From the looks of it, we saw quite a healthy ecosystem around Windows 7. There were rows upon rows of laptops and netbooks in the Microsoft booth. One notebook, Kohjinshu DZ series came with dual screens. It can be used in single screen mode or you can slide out the two 10.1" displays for side by side use. Unique design!

6. Mobile OS Platforms: The latest version of Android (2.1) is only found on Nexus One phones at this point. It is rumored that WinMo 7 will be demonstrated at Mobile World Congress next month But Microsoft folks were not saying anything publicly.

7. A Touch of Augmented Reality Gaming: We had a chance to play with an iPhone remote-controlled toy helicopter ('AR.Drone') from the wireless accessory company, Parrot. The 'AR.Drone' creates its own WiFi network and can be controlled with an iPhone or an iPod Touch. It houses many interesting components along with two cameras: one downward facing and one front facing. The front camera streams to iPhone/iPod Touch screen so that you can see what the 'AR.Drone' sees. This can be mixed in with a video game running on iPhone. More interestingly, Parrot has created a platform and an SDK on which developers can create innovative applications. 'AR.Drone' is scheduled to be out sometime in 2010.