The Stern Opportunity

Lady Gaga and friends at CES

Every January, the world's largest assembly of CEOs, engineers, buyers, retailers, technology fans, and porn stars gathers in Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). CES is THE event for large electronics companies to showcase what they're working on for the future and allows smaller electronics companies to get their foot in the door with buyers and retailers. I had the opportunity to attend this year's CES over winter break and would like to share what I've learned.

The two most discussed topics at CES 2010 were a device that doesn't exist yet and a technology that doesn't seem ready yet - Apple's rumored tablet (allegedly being unveiled on January 27th) and 3D for the home.

Since no one is exactly sure yet what capabilities or price point Apple's tablet device will have, various companies are trying to attack it from different angles. During his keynote address, Microsoft CEO, Steve Balmer, showed off Windows 7's multi-touch capabilities on a prototype Hewlett Packard tablet due out later this year which can also run Amazon's Kindle software. Lenovo unveiled its IdeaPad U1 Hybrid - a touch screen tablet running Lenovo's Skylight Linux-based OS that automatically switches to a laptop running Windows 7 when its keyboard base is attached. Others foresee Apple's tablet as a Kindle-killer and are strictly building competing e-readers like Plastic Logic's Que proReader aimed at the business user and Skiff's Color e-reader with video playback capability. Lastly, Sony has taken a completely different route with the Dash - essentially a high-tech internet-enabled touch screen alarm clock.

For those of you looking to get the Avatar experience in your living room, the major consumer electronics companies are promising a solution as early as this spring, although there is much room for improvement. Most Blu-Ray players will be 3D-enabled by June and you can expect to see 3D titles like Avatar, A Christmas Carol, and a 3D-remastered unreleased Jimi Hendrix concert by year-end. On the broadcast front, DIRECTV is promising three 3D channels by June. Both the Blu-Ray 3D spec and DIRECTV broadcasts should be compatible with the three most popular viewing solutions. Sony has said that the Playstation 3 will be 3D-enabled through a firmware update later this year, allowing for 3D game play. In my opinion, the best 3D imagery comes from animated content and videogames designed with 3D in mind, whereas 3D broadcasts still appear like cardboard cutouts with depth (similar in style to Super Paper Mario).

Touted by the major consumer electronics companies (Sony, Panasonic, Samsung, and LG) are Active-Shutter glasses, which are battery-powered and communicate via infrared with your 3D television to rapidly open and close the left and right lenses to generate a 3D image. Active-Shutter glasses are fairly bulky (you won't be using these while lying down) and relatively expensive (they are estimated to cost $100 a pop). Another technology uses Passive Polarized glasses and a Polarized screen for your 3D television; these glasses are lightweight and cheap (same glasses used to watch Avatar in theatres). Both Active-Shutter and Passive Polarized technologies will be available later this year for a slight premium over regular televisions., but aren't ready for mass-market use in my opinion - the images still appear to "flicker", the 3D experience still feels very unnatural, and the glasses are very uncomfortable to wear over eyeglasses. Unfortunately, all of the 3D solutions being released this year involve buying new and expensive hardware.

The most promising technology, however, is not being developed by major consumer electronics companies, but rather by smaller firms like TCL Multimedia - Autostereoscopic televisions display a 3D image without the need for any type of glasses. From as far as 15 feet away, I was able to see a 3D image with realistic depth without wearing glasses. This technology is still in its infancy (very noticeable flickering and limited perspectives to view the image), but will have many more applications such as watching 3D television in bed (I'm lazy) and advertising (remember the ad for Jaws 19 in Back to the Future Part II?).

Out of the roughly 20,000 new products exhibited at the 2010 CES, here are a few highlights:

Best in Show -Motorola BackFlip: a touch screen smartphone with a tactile keyboard as well as a touchpad on the back of the screen; integrates seamlessly with Facebook (your address book includes your contacts' facebook statuses).

-Eye-Fi Pro X2: a memory card for your digital camera that automatically geotags your pictures/video and automatically uploads to your laptop and/or photo-sharing websites via Wi-Fi and includes one year of free access to over 10,000 HotSpots worldwide.

-Light Blue Optics Light Touch: a portable projector that creates an interactive touch screen on any flat surface.

Worst in Show -Plastic Logic Que proReader: a very pretty yet overpriced Kindle competitor aimed at the business user with Microsoft Office and PDF compatibility, Microsoft Outlook integration, and a price point over $600; and if you want 3G wireless internet (free on the Kindle) the price is over $700. [CES 4] -Sony Dash Internet Viewer: a $199.99 alarm clock "killer" that connects to the internet via WiFi to display the time, weather, email, play games, and access audio content on your home network.

Weirdest in Show -Masunaga Wink Glasses: rechargeable glasses fighting the pandemic of people forgetting to blink; if the motion sensor observes 5 seconds without blinking, the lens appears to fog up, reminding the user to blink.

-Smoking Everywhere Electronic Cigarette: rechargeable smokeless tobacco-less solution for those needing their nicotine fix and a "real smoking experience"; essentially a portable vaporizer which utilizes nicotine cartridges

CES Celebrity Appearances Dr. Dre and Lady Gaga were on site to unveil a new Monster (PRODUCT)RED™ Special Edition Beats Solo Headphone, available next month for $229.95, of which $5 will support AIDS programs in Africa.

CES After-dark By strange coincidence, CES, which is mostly attended by men, always seems to overlap with the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo. After a long day of trudging around the Las Vegas Convention Center, it's time to hit the town, with some of the best parties hosted by the pornography industry - Ron Jeremy hosted a party one night and MGM's Studio 54 hosted an AVN Awards After-Party.

In summary, CES 2010 was about 3D invading your living room, everyone and their mother trying to beat the rumored Apple tablet, and me keeping Ron Jeremy away from my girlfriend. Until next year…

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