CES 2008: Understanding Industry Trends

Conferences and Booths

Keynotes tell us where the biggest of the big are going, but that's only one piece of the puzzle. Because of the limited time and the tremendous effort to organise such a presentation, there are only a handful each year. That means that many parts of the market go unrepresented.

For instance, Intel represents almost the entire hardware sector with Otellini's keynote. However, that completely disregards the fact that all Intel makes is microprocessors - storage and networking, the other key components to any mobile system, are completely disregarded. As well, Panasonic represented the consumer electronic angle this year...but Panasonic does not tread into one of the biggest sectors of consumer devices - gaming.

In order to better understand the facets of each sector, there are several square miles of show floor to walk. So, let's get started, shall we?

Sony

No company currently has more of a love/hate relationship with its users than Sony. In fact, the company's opinion has fallen so far that it came out and apologised for its poor communications.

Of course, that's far from all the company did. It also released a tremendous amount of new products, including a huge update to Bravia TVs designed to increase their...you guessed it...interoperability. The new link modes are there to let the TV connect wirelessly with devices like camcorders or cameras, as well as bring you limited internet connectivity, upgradeable firmwares, and other handy features.

The phone line has also had a compatibility push with flash-enabled browsers on the Ericsson phone lineup, which now will also support 3G technology. The Walkman capability (which, let's face it, is MP3 ability) has also been greatly improved, making the phone much more useful as an all-around device. On top of that, Sony has expanded its Milo handheld devices to compete more with the Asus Eee PC – that also includes using Intel processors.

However, the true news of the day came from the gaming sector. The PSP will now support both Skype and GPS when connected to the Internet via WiFi, making it a rather powerful handheld device. The PS3 compatibility is also going to be improved, including a hint at the Blu-ray conference that some licensing allowance will be made for downloading BR discs to the hard drive and further condensing down to the PSP for on-the-go movies.

Seagate

Intel may be the leader in hardware overall, but the guys over at Seagate are the industry's leader in storage innovations. Since the acquisition of Maxtor back at the end of 2005, Seagate has been at the front of the pack for both the home and business storage sector. With such success has come the ability to spend significant investment in research and development, and it shows.

This year, Seagate's biggest news came in three ways. The first was a press for secure portability with the release of the "BlackArmor" series of external drives, featuring a Momentus FDE 2.5" 160GB hard drive that is hardware encrypted for professionals on the go. Due to technical concerns on interoperability, the drive only supports Windows as a non-booting partition, but the idea of secure data anywhere is a great step.

Another focus was sharing data, and Seagate has revamped the Maxtor line with the Maxtor Share series of NAS products. With another push for interoperability, these NAS boxes are designed to make it simple to share data with anyone in the world while not needing to worry about how to configure your firewall or router. Just press a button on the web-based interface, enter in the name and email of the person you want to share with, and you're done. User access is simple and effective, as is access control.

But probably the biggest step forward is in the release of D.A.V.E. (which stands for Digital Audio Video Experience), a portable hard drive featuring both WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity. Its principle idea is both brilliant and open - allow devices you want to connect to D.A.V.E., and use it as your portable data repository. Your phone, your music, and even the pictures you take (as you take them!) from your digital camera can automatically transfer to the drive, ready to be accessed by any and all devices that you want. Walk through the door to your home and D.A.V.E. could upload the contents to your network, or even online.