Fighting Reputation of Waste, Electronics Show Goes Green

The deal-making aspect of CES underscores how important partnerships have become in the technology world. The show increasingly caters not only to device manufacturers but also content creators and distributors who want to ensure digital photos, streaming music and high-definition movies are delivered to consumers.

Netflix was one of the first companies to drum up publicity by partnering with LG Electronics to market a device that will stream online movies to digital TVs. Similar announcements are expected to come next week as firms try to find an audience for Internet video.

Media companies that have traditionally targeted television are searching for ways to get their shows on laptops and mobile devices. Sony Pictures, for example, has for the first time reserved space on the show floor and plans to have comedians Jerry Seinfeld and Drew Carey perform. NBC Universal will produce a live broadcast for its nightly news show. Broadcasting executives hope to meet with handset manufacturers to get local broadcasts on cellphones.

"It's no good to buy a great flat-panel TV if you don't spend the extra fifteen bucks a month to get high-definition cable service," said Stephen Baker, an analyst with the NPD Group who has made the trip from Washington every year for more than a decade.

G. Richard Wagoner Jr., chairman and chief executive of General Motors, will deliver one of the keynote speeches -- a first for a car manufacturer. The auto industry has always had a presence at the show, but forging relationships with tech companies is even more important now that navigation and wireless devices and satellite radios are common features in new cars.

CES has been the launching pad for best-sellers, total flops and technologies that aren't quite ready for mass adoption. In 2004, Bill Gates talked up a Spot Watch, wristwatch that would let wearers access weather updates, their calendar and sports scores. It has not taken off. Last year, the iPhone stole the show's thunder, even though it was unveiled at Apple's Macworld Conference and Expo in San Francisco.

Some products can take years to get to market. High-definition movies made their CES debut several years ago but became widely available only this past holiday season.

The growth of mobile devices and the demand for super-fast speeds to connect them has helped wireless technologies take center stage at CES the past few years. This year, Intel, Clearwire, Motorola and Sprint Nextel will tout WiMax as the new wireless technology that could link digital cameras, car navigation systems, laptops and cellphones.

TV makers like Sony and Toshiba are introducing wireless high-definition TVs that can connect to cameras, cable boxes and DVD players.

How to make money, not just on sales but through new advertising tactics, is also a hot topic in the industry, especially as more companies try to figure out their Web-based strategies.

Yahoo chief executive Jerry Yang will give his second CES keynote speech. Google, which made a splash two years ago by attending the show for the first time, will be largely absent this year.

Other companies, however, may make announcements, including partnerships with Google, said Google spokeswoman Erin Fors.

Google not only dominates online advertising, its reach now extends to the media, cellphones and business software, making it a threat to many of the other companies attending CES.

"I think Google has to lay low because they're in this massive battle ground over how the Internet is used," American Technology Research's Lin said. "Even though they're taking a pro-consumer approach, the consumer electronics industry may not be so pro-Google because their way of doing business may threaten the status quo."