• CES 2003 • Leslie Walker's .com • Video From CES

Photos and text by Leslie Walker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 16, 2003

LAS VEGAS -- The consumer electronics industry is in search of a spark to reignite growth, but there was little evidence of that here at the industry's 2003 trade show.

Philips' Gottfried Dutine shows off the company's iPronto, a $1,700 "smart display" tablet that shows how electronics manufacturers think people will take control of digital entertainment at home. The iPronto has a 6.4-inch touch screen LDC displaying menus for controlling the TV, surfing the Web, playing MP3s on a home stereo and wirelessly controlling lights and security cameras.

Gary Shapiro, chairman of the Consumer Electronics Association, tried to put a positive spin on his projection that consumer electronics product sales in the United States would reach $99.5 billion this year, up 3.5 percent over 2002. But such growth looks anemic, considering sales last year were up only 3.7 percent over 2001 -- a far cry from the techno-boom of the 1990s.

The reality is consumer technology remains in massive flux as the industry churns out new digital contraptions faster than manufacturers and vendors can agree on common standards that would let them talk to each other. Gear makers are trying so hard to take control of imagined future markets for digital media devices that they don't seem able -- or willing -- to join forces behind common development platforms needed to create those markets.

Consumers likely will grow increasingly wary of buying digital appliances once they realize most are fancy electronic islands that quickly become obsolete.

The fierce rivalry between the makers of computers and traditional electronics was apparent in contrasting speeches by Microsoft chairman Bill Gates and Sony president Kunitaki Ando. Gates said Microsoft is extending the PC's reach beyond the den into the living room and kitchen, with software allowing it to control what's shown on TVs, refrigerator doors, even video phones.

Bill Gates joked that the anti-spam blocking features in MSN 8 Internet software might have kept him from getting the legal help he needed to defend against antitrust lawsuits.

But Sony's president insisted that televisions, not computers, would seize control of digital homes, thanks to their superior displays and new set-top mini-computers with networking capabilities. "TV, the champion of the non-PC world, is about to be reborn as the center of broadband entertainment," Ando declared.

Ando said his company recently teamed with Panasonic, Samsung and Philips to create a Linux-based operating system for electronics gear, one that would be more open than Microsoft's proprietary Windows. Already, Linux powers Sony's new personal video recorder.

Identity makeovers were everywhere at the show, where 2,000 exhibitors presented new gadgets. The devices reflected whole categories of familiar products morphing into something else as part of the long-hyped convergence of computers and communication devices.

Four areas where the transformation could be seen kicking into overdrive were home entertainment hubs that link TVs, computers and stereo equipment with other home gear; new multimedia systems for cars featuring separate video and audio controls for every passenger; portable media players that record and play back video and music; and handheld personal communicators, chiefly cell phones with built-in cameras and computers.

Jabro's Thomas Hanson shows off the company's "Freespeak" wireless headset, which sells for $179 and connects to cell phones via Bluetooth networking.

The attempt to create a super-hub or gateway to control all media in the home spawned a slew of new systems this year. Sony offered a wireless networking system called Room Link, Hewlett-Packard offered something it called the Digital Media Receiver. Pioneer rolled out its Digital Library, while Microsoft showed off a half-dozen versions of a new computer with a special version of Windows under the cumbersome name of Windows XP Media Center Edition.

All are designed to let people display video from their computers on large TVs or other display panels around the home, as well as pipe music from a PC or portable MP3 player through souped-up home stereos. Many also contain personal video recorders allowing storage of TV shows on a hard drive for easy playback or fast-forwarding through ads.

Digeo's latest Moxi Media Center, an evolved version of a contraption announced last year, came equipped with a cable TV receiver, 80 gigabyte hard drive and Wi-Fi adapter for wireless transmission of data around the home. SonicBlue showed off a networked, $250 DVD player called GoVideo that lets people send a wireless signal from a DVD player to different TVs in the house.

A GMC sport utility vehicle displayed at the Consumer Eelctronics show had an Xbox gaming console built into the dashboard. (see next page for more auto gadgets)

Wireless connectivity was a huge theme at the show, which featured many devices sending signals using a protocol called Wi-Fi (for wireless fidelity, also known as 802.11). Rockford Fosgate showed a car stereo with a Wi-Fi link allowing people to send tunes from a home stereo into a car parked in their garage.

And many thousands of square feet were devoted to extravagant new multimedia systems for the car. You'd think people lived in their cars judging by these elaborate video and gaming systems. Not only are carmakers building video monitors into individual headrests and dashboards, but they're also installing video game consoles such as the Xbox directly into the dash. Also popular at the show were digital radio systems displaying the names of songs as they're playing.

CreativeLabs' three-octave, $99 Prodikeys musical keyboard features both piano keys and regular alphabet keys.

Other hybrid devices garnering attention were more unusual. Creative Labs announced a dual keyboard that merged piano keys with a regular PC office keyboard. The three-octave, $99 Prodikeys keyboard features plastic piano keys alongside the regular alphabet keys and includes software to help beginners with color-coded diagrams. Another company called Keybowl released a "keyless" keyboard called the orbiTouch, which supposedly reduces the amount of finger and wrist motion required by using dome-shaped pads to create letters.

In a different area, the KidSmart Vocal Smoke Detector by Smart Safety Systems Inc. is designed to help children escape fire emergencies by playing directions in their parents' pre-recorded voices rather than just blaring terrifying noises.

The MobileWise battery pad allows wireless charging of laptops, cell phones and other devices equipped with a special chip.

Another novelty was the wireless battery charger from MobileWise that looked like a giant mouse pad and charges laptops or cell phones placed on it. To accept the charge, devices need a special chip inside.

The show also featured scores of new headphones and earpieces, such as theBoom, a $149 headset from UmeVoice that suppresses background sounds so cell phone users can be heard talking from noisy places like bars and busy trade shows. And for the multitasking generation, another little $30 earpiece called the Skull Candy Portable Link contained dual plugs -- one for your cell phone and another for your music player, letting you hear the phone ring over music.

Geeks flocked to view hundreds of portable communicators and media players. One portable video player garnering attention was the Video AV140 from Archos that costs $450, has 40 gigabytes of storage and plays MPEG-4 video as well as MP3 music files. About as big as the palm of your hand, it can record video from TV sets or DVD players with a cable attachment.

Citizen, Fossil and Suunto announced they will make special watches equipped with FM receivers to display data using Microsoft's new SPOT technology.

Microsoft jumped into the race to deliver handheld video players, displaying prototypes of the new Media2Go video player it's developing with Intel. Four manufacturers -- Samsung Electronics, ViewSonic, Sanyo Electric and iRiver -- announced they are making Media2Go players for release this year.

Microsoft also disclosed that the mysterious wireless technology it announced in November will use FM radio technology to distribute data, and the first object using it will be wristwatches. Called SPOT (for smart personal object technology,) the system sends data to tiny chips equipped with FM receivers. Three watchmakers -- Fossil, Citizen and Suunto -- announced they will release Microsoft SPOT watches by year end. Users will pay a monthly service fee that hasn't been set yet to get data beamed to their wrists, after specifying what data they want at a special Web site.