More than 20 000 new consumer electronics products are expected to be showcased at this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the world's largest such exhibition.
The show, which is expected to attract hundreds of thousands of visitors, runs between 10 and 13 January in Las Vegas, and is owned and produced by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA).
Karen Chupka, CEA's senior VP of events and conferences, said recently: “More than 20 000 new products are expected to launch at the 2012 CES.”
Research firm Ovum says CES 2012 will see announcements around tablets, ultrabooks, and more information on Microsoft's latest operating system version, Windows 8.
Ovum says the show will see a number of Android-related announcements, both from major original equipment manufacturers such as Samsung, as well as below-the-radar original design manufacturers.
The products will seek consumer market share, but will also target Apple's dominant position, says Ovum.
Ovum also notes, with the 2011 collapse of the netbook market, Apple's dominance in tablet and high-end notebooks, and the category threat from smartphones and tablets, 2012 will “see a large number of PC manufacturers fight back with 'ultrabook' form factor devices”.
“Expect to see these mimic the form factor and feature specifications of the MacBook Air with pricing in the $600 to $700 range,” says the research firm. It cautions, however, that this does not mean that the presence of ultrabooks will translate into market share by year-end 2012.
“A lot of companies are trying to imitate Apple's success in a lot of areas, and one area where Apple has been extremely successful is in controlling its message by controlling the event and the timetable of its announcements,” Reuters quoted Avi Greengart, research director for consumer devices at Current Analysis, a business intelligence firm, as saying.
Last stand?
Reuters reports that Microsoft is making this show its last. The wire service says the show does not fit in with the company's product-release cycle.
Ovum also expects another slew of mobile DTV announcements, including a focus on in-car integration. It also anticipates that Research In Motion will showcase its BlackBerry tablet OS 2.0 at CES.
However, says Ovum, it is “not clear if they will also use the event to launch the PlayBook 2, or announce it at a later date”.
Reuters notes that CES, which started in 1967, in New York, was the launch pad for the VCR, camcorder, DVD, HDTV, and other pivotal home tech developments. However, says the wire service, it has been some time since CES was home to such “game-changing” launches.
This year's show is set to be the second-biggest on record, with more than 2 700 exhibitors taking up over 167 000 square meters of show floor, with about 150 000 attendees, says the wire service.
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