News

Tens of thousands of conference-goers seeking a glimpse of the future left this desert city on Sunday with a picture of an industry that reflects the economic times.

The Consumer Electronics Show ended quietly Sunday, its primary venue, the Las Vegas Convention Center, a virtual ghost town barely an hour after the show floor closed. It was a stark contrast to recent years when the facility remained a hive of activity as attendees milled about, taking a last look at the gadgets and gear on display, struggling through thick crowds and long lines to depart on shuttle buses, taxis, cars and the monorail as the sun set.

By far, the biggest trend at the CES was the widespread adoption of touch and gesture-based interfaces for all manner of devices.

Palm, Inc. generated the biggest buzz of the show with its Pre smart phone, which could now be described as the most anticipated product of the year. Conversation after conversation with show-goers inevitably turned to the Pre and Palm's new WebOS, with people volunteering that they intended to dispose of their iPhone – produced by rival Apple, Inc. – when Palm's new device launches in the United States in the first half of this year.

Chief executive Ed Colligan would not discuss the Pre's pricing with The Globe and Mail, nor would any other executive, raising a question of whether the unbridled enthusiasm witnessed at CES would translate into a move away from the iPhone.

“It's not about taking share away from someone else,” said Pam Deziel, vice-president of software product marketing at Palm. “It's about getting people who are at the point when they are thinking about getting their next phone.”

Hitachi, Ltd. showed a Minority Report-style prototype control for a home entertainment system, which uses technology by GestureTek Inc. of Sunnyvale, Calif., – which has research and development and operations offices in Ottawa and Toronto – and Canesta Inc., also of Sunnyvale.

“It could be available – maybe in 2011,” Hitachi researcher Takashi Matsubara said.

Toshiba Dentsu Inc. demonstrated a similar gesture-based system at its booth.

Like many people paring back costs at home, focusing on finding ways to make do with what they have and managing their resources to address their needs, exhibitors at the 2009 CES are following suit.

Gone is the unspoken mantra of previous years: Bigger, better, more.

The phrase that sums up what consumers can expect in the year to come might be “Smaller, cheaper, good enough.” Improvements and refinements are the watchwords.

So-called “netbooks” – compact, reasonably powered computers that capably handle most computer users' needs – were everywhere at the CES in lieu of the high-performance, overclocked, liquid-cooled hot-rod PCs spotlighted in previous years. Sony Corp.'s Vaio P netbook was on the lips of show-goers, as was HP, Inc.'s offering, created with fashion designer Vivienne Tam.

Pocket digital video cameras were ubiquitous at electronics makers' booths, such as Creative Technology Ltd.'s recently-launched Vado device. The category was popularized by the runaway success of Pure Digital Technologies, Inc.'s Flip personal camcorder. Pure has sold more than 1.5 million units since they launched in 2007 for revenue growth of 44,667 per cent, according to business services firm Deloitte.

For the first time in years at the CES, there was no “mine's bigger” competition between television-makers. Instead, their showcases focused on prototypes and new technology that might become available over the next five years.

Thinner LCD displays that use LEDs and the broader introduction of organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology were staples for TV-makers, as were “3-D” displays that rely on stereoscopic video to achieve the effect.

Stereoscopic video presents two slightly different perspectives of an image to the viewer who typically wears a pair of LCD shutter glasses.

The LCD panel over each eye rapidly flips on and off to show the image to one eye at a time and the brain combines the visuals to complete the effect.

Graphics-card maker Nvidia had its own 3D Vision, which renders computer game graphics into a stereoscopic image for Mitshubishi's “3D-ready” line of high-definition DLP TVs.

And PDT Ltd. of Stafford, Britain, added some whimsy to the 3-D slate with its just-launched Minoru Web camera, which transforms incoming video into a red-and-blue image that requires familiar red-and-blue-lensed glasses.

But the innovations at CES all took a back seat to one subject everyone was talking about: The sparse attendance and speculation about how long the show could survive this economic downturn.

Early this morning, the Consumer Electronics Association, which stages the CES, issued a press release touting this year's show as a breakaway success.

“Despite a subdued economy, excitement exuded from the International CES show floor, with the sheer volume of innovative products,” the statement quoted CEA president and chief executive Gary Shapiro.

The statement goes on to say the “CES succeeded beyond all expectations and that CEA should strive to restrict future attendance to 2009 attendance levels,” which they estimate to be around 110,000 people, down from the 141,150 the CEA says attended in 2008.

Taxi drivers, service and hotel staff throughout the week said traffic was down some 40 to 50 per cent over the same period last year, and estimates placed show attendance to be a maximum of 70,000 people.