Last year:
We have the iPhone to thank for much of the touch screen mania that's permeating a growing number of segments in the electronics market at the moment. Sure, there were plenty of touch screens around before, but 2008 may have been the first year for CES where the number of new products increased, while the number of tactile buttons decreased. Phones, media players....hell even refrigerators know how to respond to your fingertips.
This year:
Our lust for things we can control with our pointer fingers hasn't subsided and we're expecting to see even more button-free devices. But, one finger doesn't cut it anymore. It's all about multi-touch. Microsoft's finger-friendly interactive table, Surface, has gone from something you'd see in one of the booths, to something you'll rest your drink on at the restaurant after the show has closed up for the night. Even Palm is probably getting in all-touch action with their upcoming announcement.
Last year:
Walking past HD-DVD's booth at last year's show brought about a variety of emotions. There was the initial "Hey look, a Transformer!" moment, which was quickly diminished by the realization that their enormous (and obviously very expensive) booth stood as nothing more than a memorial for a format that had just bitten the dust. Various companies still showed off their now hilariously obsolete combo players, but the overall climate was best described as, well, confused. Blu-ray had won, but no one was quite sure what was going to happen next.
This year:
While Blu-ray players still haven't hit the $100 mark like HD-DVD players did as they raced toward uselessness, significant price drops (mostly on players, which leaves the movies still too expensive) and better market penetration for the PS3 have helped bolster a little confidence in early adopters who got burned by the format war, as well as casual users who hardly knew there was a format war in the first place. This year that little blue "b" is going to be everywhere, showing off proudly, while trying to convince everyone that it will be around longer than five years.
Last year:
Form factor has always been one of the biggest obstacles for mobile computing. Last year, it seemed like the UMPC might be taking hold. Many of them, like Samsung's Q1 Ultra and Fujitsu's Lifebook U series were awkward and, more importantly, very expensive. It was Asus, though that screwed everything up for fans of thumb typing. The original Eee PC showed up wearing only its Linux OS and $400 price tag making the idea of carrying around a $2,000 brick that was likely to choke on Windows Vista seem kind of silly. The dawn of the netbook age was upon us.
Ths year:
By now, almost every company that you'd expect to make a netbook has one and those who don't (like Sony) are expected to drop one during this year's show. You can still find UMPCs, but you're going to have to dig through a huge pile of Linux-toting, SSD-sporting lappies to get to them.
Last year: Even less prestigious companies, like Vizio, were showing off their new panels with their swanky new refresh rates. They were announcing that 1080p was now standard and, thus, old news. The new crusade was one to be fought against jittery picture and dropped frames. We were treated to the same scene from the Pirates of the Carribean Blu-ray over and over again, encouraged to observe just how realistic the picture was. The difference is very noticeable and 120Hz has actually made the move into the marketplace, which is more than we can say for some of these other trends.
This year:
With the size and resolution wars gone quiet (until 4k comes rolling around, of course) TV makers still need specs to fight about. Some manufacturers have already upped the 120Hz ante to 240Hz, because more is almost always better. Unfortunately the 240Hz results have only been marginally better, earning themselves a reputation as kind of a novelty for the moment. But, doing things for bragging rights usually makes for some pretty interesting demos. And what will happen when LG drops the 480Hz set they're rumored to be bringing? We hope our eyeballs can handle it.
When the doors of the convention floor were flung open, journalists flocked to the site of the 150-inch TV. But for most of us, one of the best moments was stumbling into Sony's enormous compound of a booth and laying eyeballs on the 9mm wonder of their OLED panel. The words "organic light-emitting diode" were flowing from fingers straight onto the internet, but unfortunately the actual TV sets haven't come so easily.
This year:
The vision of its beauty long drifted from our minds, replaced by the disappointing XEL-1, Sony's $2,500 proof of concept with an impressive-but-puny 11-inch screen. Kodak rolled out their fancy OLED digital picture frame, too. But $1,000 for a 7.6-inch screen without a tuner isn't exactly the hot item this holiday season. But we plan on seeing a lot of stuff powered by OLED this year. There's talk of everything from keyboards to a 50-inch display from Samsung, but we would be more impressed if someone were to drop a 27-inch panel that didn't cost as much as a private jet.
Whether they're trying to look like a normal pair of glasses, a piece of Star Trek headgear or just some horrific-looking visor with two little screens attached, head mounted displays made a big push last year by upping resolutions and lowering prices. Unfortunately, they couldn't quite manage to make a unit that didn't make the viewer look pretty ridiculous.
This year:
In the 12 months since last year's show, wearing your screen on you face still hasn't caught on. That doesn't mean they're going to stop trying, though. We expect to see just as many, if not more "booth babes" wandering the halls, trying to watch Transformers without banging into distracted show-goers.