Catching Up on Your CES Queries
LOS ANGELES--After the hype and hubbub of CES, I needed to spend a little downtime someplace quiet, where nobody's rushing around and nobody's obsessed with their marketing or image. And here I am!
(In case you were wondering why, I'm staying in L.A. with friends for a few days before heading up to San Francisco on Sunday to get ready for Macworld Expo.)
Now that I've had some free time for the first time since Saturday, I've had a chance to read my e-mail and all the comments people have left on my blog this week. Here are my answers to some of the questions I've seen in these places:
Any word on that HDTVs might cost later on in 2008?
Prices have already crashed through the floor--as I mentioned in my Web chat yesterday, the 40-inch LCD that cost $3,000 two years ago now goes for $1,000. They will probably continue to decline for a while, but I would expect the rate of decrease to slow down; there just isn't that much left to trim.
Any news about green computing or electronics?
A lot of companies talked about their environmental commitments, but I didn't see a great deal of specifics about the designs of new TVs or other electronic devices. For example, it would have been nice to see a figure for the average power consumption of a new flat-panel HDTV, but the spec sheets posted under each demo set almost never mentioned that. We'll have to see what these companies do over this year.
What's the most affordable device you've seen that will actually be for sale this year?
This isn't so much a device as a type of technology, but take a look at how prices for flash memory have nose-dived. Already, you can buy a four-gigabyte USB thumb drive for $30 or so, a price that once would have purchased only a 512 MB model. That means that entire categories of products--MP3 players, HD camcorders, laptops--will get both more capable and cheaper in a hurry.
After all this coverage of the digital-TV transition, I'm worried that my five-year-old set isn't ready. How do I know if it is?
If you can't tune into a channel like 9-1 or 9.1 with an over-the-air antenna, it's not digital. See the second item in this Help File from last winter for more details.
This digital-TV transition is a crock! Nobody's selling any digital converter boxes at an affordable price!
Don't panic. Manufacturers are just starting to ship these things--which nobody will actually need for another year anyway. You should have a good selection of $50-and-under boxes by this summer or early fall; look for a review in my column when they arrive.
Are there any portable HD Radios available yet?
No, but iBiquity Digital showed off some new, much smaller and just-released chipsets designed for use in such handheld devices as cell phones and MP3 players. Maybe next year?
What's the real name of this show--CES or the Consumer Electronics Show?
Formally, it's the "2008 International CES." But either "CES" or "Consumer Electronics Show" will suffice in daily use.
Hope that helps! Tune in next week, as my tech trek takes me to the San Francisco Bay Area, where I'll be paying a visit to Google on Monday and covering Macworld Expo on Tuesday.
By Rob Pegoraro |
January 11, 2008; 1:38 PM ET
| Category:
CES 2008
Previous: Signing Off From CES |
Next: Up Next, Macworld
Posted by: Colin | January 11, 2008 7:06 PM
Let me be the cynic about HD radio.
There are no portables; there are only relatively expensive desk top HD radios (one company recently came out with one for $79). Thus, if you want to see if you like what's available in HD, you have to spend a lot, listen at home to a radio plugged into the wall in a fixed location (because most people don't/won't unplug a radio to move it room to room; most people have multiple radios in the house), and perhaps decide HD is not all it's purported to be, or simply what's available is not what you want to listen to. Or, you don't spend anything, don't listen to HD radio, and the industry is the worse for it. But, a consideration is that, if all these stations are brodcasting formats in HD what people are clamoring for, "must have" radio, then why aren't these formats on mainstream radio? The answer, of course, is that what will be available will either be more of the same of what's already being played, or perhaps, if you're in an area with a lot of stations, niche formats; of course if you're in a more limited area, where there may not be a sizeable audience for that niche, there's no value in that format being broadcast, HD or otherwise.
Alternatively, you can invest in HD radio for your car, spend the extra money for the opportunity to listen (as they advertise, "free") to niche formats. But, is it worth the investment to find out that they don't play your niche format, or play it enough, or that you simply have enough choices in radio, as well as being able to play your cassettes, CDs, MP3 and/or i-Pod in your car, or have satellite radio, which may not have the niche format of your choice, but which you can listen to anywhere and everywhere on a proven product, on a radio that costs about the same or less than HD radios, for the subscription price of one cup of Starbucks a week.
HD had such an opportunity that to introduce portable HD radios and bottom of the line table-top HD radios to create a market that would encourage others to buy the product, as well as buy upgraded and more feature-enhanced HD radios (read that as more expensive, and profitable HD radios).
HD copied the Segway personal transporter business plan. They created a product no one really needs and want to sell at a high price to get their invest back, but people won't buy it because the price is too high. They can't sell in enough quantity to reduce the price, and because people aren't buying it, there's no word of mouth about this "must have" product they you'll run out to buy because your friend or neighbor has one.
HD radio should be sold as razors are; sell 'em cheap, and make money on the razor blades. Sell HD radios for as little as possible, and make them a must have item (like the i-Pod is), and make money on radio advertising and people buying newer and better than the basic model. Of course I also think that Eveready and Duracell should market MP3 players at very low cost, and make their money in selling batteries to play the MP3 players.
Dungarees@gmail.com
Posted by: Dungarees | January 11, 2008 11:01 PM
Rob
ABSOLUTELY ENJOY YOUR SHORT BREAK !!! YOU DESERVE IT !!!
Posted by: brucerealtor@gmail.com | January 12, 2008 12:52 AM
Rob, I remember when $30 got a lot less than 512 MB in a USB flash drive. My first--purchased in the dark ages of summer 2002--was *8* MB for $30!
Posted by: andrew | January 12, 2008 10:05 AM
The Macworld thing will be a huge letdown after CES!
Posted by: steve ballmer | January 12, 2008 7:46 PM
The comments to this entry are closed.
"Any news about green computing or electronics?"
Hey, what about CNET's "Best of CES", the Philips 42" Eco TV. Apparently at one point, the TV used little more electricity than an incandescent light bulb!
There's also power-saving, picture-boosting, screen-thinning OLED technology from several manufacturers, GreenPlug power adapters, and the like.