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INTRODUCTION
As the press frenzy of the International Consumer Electronics Show CES 2008 winds down, it is time to review what I saw during those few days, and write up my thoughts and opinions of my first visit. I tried to see a bit of everything and will report on more than Windows Mobile. It was quite a week, so much to see and so little time with 140,000 of my closest friends ...I was definitely on information overload but in the end I concluded that all of the technology on display was evolutionary and there was nothing revolutionary, that said there were areas of the shows that were very interesting. I have whittled the interesting technologies into the following areas:
- GPS devices and associated applications
- Touch and Gesture user interface paradigm
- HD DVD and Blu-ray
- Wireless audio and video component connectivity
- Bluetooth
- Smartphones
GPS DEVICES
The number of handheld GPS devices is staggering. The leaders are clearly Garmin and Tom Tom, however it was interesting to see that Panasonic, Sony, Samsung, Philips, HP and LG had devices. The field is becoming very crowded and players are looking for differentiation. Garmin has added MSN Direct to provides real time data updates like traffic, weather, gas prices and movie schedules. Tom Tom has added Map Share, an innovative feature which allows users to update maps. Map Share allows users to make basic modifications to map and point of interest information which can then be shared with all Tom Tom users. A relatively new entrant, Navigon is providing a 3D view which includes street signs and point of information reviews from Zagat. It is clear that one dimensional maps are no longer enough to attract new buyers, and the move to three dimensional views is a foot. One of the two leading map providers, Tele Atlas is leading the efforts to map city scapes with their specially equipped Toyota vans.
The Tele Atlas specially outfitted digital mapping van at CES.
This is a video demo of Tele Atlas' 3D city scapes.
In addition to the devices there is also great interest in applications which use GPS information. Tele Atlas was holding their annual LBS Innovators Series, where CES 2008 attendees could vote on one of the three finalists.
JotYou
: a location-based messaging system for mobile phones that allows users to send messages to friends at specific locations and times, set geo-reminders, and manage geo-games, road rallies, scavenger hunts and more using mapping and tracking. JotYou can run directly on many types of mobile phones, and is also available on the WHERE™ platform; it can use either GPS, or WiFi location technology from Skyhook Wireless.Smarter Agent
: a service that combines mobile location technology, such as GPS, with information about real estate, neighborhoods and interesting places around a given location.Socialight
: a location-based social media platform, supported by Autodesk® LocationLogic™ and Skyhook Wireless platforms, that lets mobile phone users access and share local information, personal experiences and media from any source, including the community around them.
All of these applications run on Windows Mobile devices, provide innovative uses of mapping and GPS data. I found Socialight to be the most interesting. I am trying it out and will report on my use later. The winner should be announced later this week.
TOUCH AND GESTURE USER INTERFACE PARADIGM
The success of the iPhone's user interface is forcing vendors into high gear to produce the next great user interface. Every major vendor is discussing touch and gesture based user interfaces. All of the mobile phone manufacturers now produce a smartphone with a touch user interfaces and most accept gestures. Windows Mobile 7 will have gesture built into it and cannot come soon enough. Beyond the smartphone Microsoft last year announced the Surface and Bill Gates' demonstrated it during his keynote. Panasonic is discussed its vision of an interactive Life Wall which would allow you to customize your room's decor, post pictures, watch TV and videos, and respond to gestures. The demo was pretty much pie in the sky although they claim to have the technology. Over the next year I think we will see this paradigm start to gel from mobile platforms to televisions.
Bill Gates' snow board designed on Surface.
HD-DVD and Blu-Ray
The announcement that Warner Bro's. Entertainment had chosen Blu-ray over HD-DVD two days before the start of CES 2008, took the wind out of any announcement the HD-DVD consortium was planning to make. They cancelled their press conference and everyone feared them dead. Not so fast, they still have a vast number of companies behind them, not the least Microsoft. The only hope at this point for consumers is a dual mode player. Currently LG and Samsung have combo players although they are quite expensive. The hope is that by the next holiday season, we will see reasonably priced combo players opening the door to a wider acceptance of the HD format on DVDs.
