This year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada (Jan 6-9), set multiple records for attendance, exhibition space and exhibitor participation. CES has become the world's largest annual consumer technology trade show and exhibition.

This year CES took up more then 1.5 million sq. ft. of exhibition floor space, or in other words, more then 26 football fields. In attendance were more then 2,400 exhibitors from 115 countries displaying tens of thousands of new products and technologies.

The public and the press turned out in groves, setting a new attendance record of 140,000 attendees.

CES is sponsored by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA). CEA is the preeminent trade association promoting growth in the consumer technology industry. CEA represents more than 1,800 corporate members worldwide. Their members are involved in all aspects of the consumer electronics industry.

Combined, CEA's members account for more than $100 billion in annual sales. More information can be found on CEA and the services they offer at www.CE.org.

This year, as in the past, the show was packed with executives from the technology, manufacturing, distribution, broadcasting, film, and entertainment industries. They came to hear from technology visionaries and view a spectacular showcase of hot new products and trends in audio, accessories, home networking, mobile electronics, video and wireless.

Another benefit of attending CES is the many industry training and certification courses available during this four-day event. I truly enjoyed the workshops and panels on industry issues and concerns.

To make a long story short, there were just too many products on display for me to adequately cover them here in this column. And unless you've lived in a cave last week, I'm sure your local media has inundated you with images and acronyms of the latest gadgets and technology.

If you are interested in particular products, CEA has a full (rich media) featured website with links to all the manufactures and exhibitors at www.cesweb.org. What I want to focus in on in this column is the trends and coming opportunities in consumer electronics and how technology is changing our everyday life.

In 2003 the message at CES was, Portability, Interoperability, and Compliance; in 2004 they focused on the Consumer Of Electronic Goods; this year it was all about Digital ... digital TV's, digital players, digital camera's, digital cell phones, digital whatever. The elephant in the middle of the room was standards and formats.

How do all these digital products interconnect? How do they compliment each other? What is the value of digital? In other words, is the consumer expected to spend his or her, hard earned dollar for simply bragging rights, or do digital products add to the quality of a persons/consumers life style?

I was not impressed with the consumer industry answer to any of these questions but that is fodder for another article.

It is clear that the coming trend for 2005 will be to sell you a new digital product, but the opportunity will be in answering the afore mentioned consumer questions. The consumer electronics industry must assure the consumer that the product they buy today will not be obsolete tomorrow.

The consumer must be confident that their media, regardless of the format or storage medium, will work on any digital device. Nobody wants to buy a product that will trap them into a proprietary service unable to interact with every other digital device, they or their friends own.

Digital products and services must be interoperable between car, home and mobile devices. What comes first; consumer demand or industry hype?

According to CES the five technologies to watch in 2005 are:

1) Media Servers
2) Portable Entertainment
3) Hybrid White Goods
4) Video Gaming
5) Telematrics.

These technologies, or areas of interest, all represent opportunities for the new millennium entrepreneur. They are wide open fields of endeavor, that standards and formats have not be set, as of yet. As a consumer, you can expect to see major advertising campaigns and/or media hype on new products in these areas.

Remember, the more you know about these technologies, the less chance you have of purchasing the next consumer equivalent of an 8 track or Betamax player/tape.

1) Media Servers, generally speaking, contain a hard disk drive for storing digital media and allowing distribution of those files to other devices (Think iPod or TiVo). CEA market studies show that more than 52 percent of U.S. households expected to have a home network by 2008 (think Windows XP Media Center).

With the advent of wireless 802.11 networks and the push by everyone from ISP's to cable companies to manufactures pushing wireless interconnectivity, the infrastructure for media servers is firmly in place. However, product interconnectivity, bandwidth capacity and copyright issues remain the largest barriers to mass adoption. But with the price points dropping drastically on wireless routers and hubs, I don't think it will be long before we're all connected.

2) Portable Entertainment devices such as MP3/4 and DVD players are currently the rage, but changes not only in the type of devices entering the market (combo players) but also the way consumers are using them (think podcasting) will drastically effect the marketplace.

According to CEA market research, portable MP3 players topped 2.5 million units sold in the first half of 2004 and studies also indicate that portable entertainment devices are on a convergence path with cell phones, PDA's, digital memo recorders and even cars. Portable entertainment devices are the hot ticket items, as consumers increasingly want the ability to take their digital audio/video content with them wherever they go.

3) Hybrid white goods, or what we commonly think of as "Smart" homes, are products that combine old technologies with new. For instance; refrigerators that can monitor the shelf life of its contents (think RFID tags) and microwaves that can download and execute recipes. According to CEA studies, Wi-Fi/broadband technology is the key to the promises of the long predicted smart kitchen.

Consumers are intrigued by the convenience and efficiency of hybrid white goods. A recent survey by the Internet Home Alliance revealed that 42 percent of U.S. single-family homeowners are interested in new technology in a connected home.

4) Innovative gaming according to CEA is the fourth out of the five technologies to watch. Video games such as Grand Theft Auto and Halo are currently outselling mainstream Hollywood movie releases. Both Hip-Hop powerhouses, Def Jam and Rock-A-Fella records have recently announced whole divisions dedicated to creating new video games.

Sony's new mobile gaming device PSP and Nintendo's Duel-Screen mobile player currently cannot fill the popular demand for this market. And be aware that both mobile devices can play movies and music as well as play games. Studies show that 35 percent of American homes own some type of gaming device.

5) Telematrics, which is tech talk for embedded auto technology that allows cars to connect wirelessly to external sources and applications. This technology in my opinion might hold the greatest opportunity for small and independent entrepreneurs. Innovative aftermarket auto customizing has always started in the streets with tinkerers or kids making their cars stand out from the crowd.

With Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and mobile satellite services readily available, onboard navigation and media systems can be accessed directly instead of scripted from a CDROM or DVD. While traditionally used for emergency monitoring services (such as NorthStar) or hand-free wireless phones, the successful adoption of Telematrics lies in the entertainment realm. This trend will boost aftermarket sales, and allow the car to be connected to the outside world in the same manner that homes and offices are today.

I have found CES to be right on target in their industry predications in the past and believe that if you're interested in the business of consumer electronics then CES is the can't miss event of the year. For those that missed CES, you can find the studies and reports mentioned in this column at (www.ce.or/publications) and complete keynote speeches, as well as product reviews, and pictures from CES on their respective websites.

Brother Jim Neusom will be keeping the Black community updated on the most current social and technology news. Visit regularly for new information that could help you overcome and make the best of your everyday experiences.

To subscribe to Neusom's column join the Afromerica email list to receive new information as it is updated. Or E-mail Neusom at: jneusom@yahoo.com

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