2013 International Consumer Electronics Show Starts In Las Vegas

By: Talha Bhatti  |   January 7th, 2013   |   Business, Gadgets, News

The highly anticipated International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas will start today, January 7 and will bring together manufacturers from around the globe to showcase new products, technologies and upcoming trends. This year’s event has attracted 3,000 exhibitors who will be displaying 20,000 products on 1.87-million square feet space.

 

The event is also a very good indicator of what to expect I the coming year and what products are going to be hot with consumers. The Globe and Mail’s Omar El Akkad highlights the following four areas that are going to be making the most noise during this year event.

 

Mobile Accessories

Many believe that CES is the hot bed of product launches but in most cases the show brings out third-party manufacturers and developers. That means many of the stall at the event will be showcasing protective cases for tablets and mobile, portable speakers and hundreds of peripherals. One device that is going to have a heavy presence is the iPhone 5. Apple announced that they would be changing the connector port that is built into the smartphone. That led to every accessory maker upgrading their products to fit the new port. CES will be packed with these sellers and their new and updated products.

 

“Ultra” high-definition televisions

The major manufacturers of consumer electronics usually upgrade the TV evry few years. Some new technologies like HD TV have propelled sales while innovations like 3D TV have proven not to be so popular. This year manufacturers are betting on the UHD TV for future growth as internet connected TVs start gaining traction in the market. UHD beats regular HD by providing four times the resolution of regular HD. The problem for right now is that he devices are super expensive and it is not easy to spot the difference between UHD and HD.

 

3D Printers

3D TV did not make too much of splash in the past couple of CES conferences but this year a new crop of 3D products are expected to attract consumers. A small group of companies are now offering 3D printer for consumers so they can produce physical objects from plastic or other material.

 

Samsung

The South Korean manufacturer is a true consumer electronics giant and has successfully challenged Apple in the smartphone sector. It now looks to innovate in other areas and will be displaying a large number of phones, tablets, cameras and TVs. The spot light will be on the manufacturer thanks to the absence of Apple, Google and the reduced participation of Microsoft who traditionally avoid CES, and with Research In Motion Ltd. still a month away from its big product launch of 2013, public attention is up for grabs at this year’s CES, particularly in the mobile sector.

Source: The Globe and Mail