Archive for January 5th, 2006
CES Summary
Thursday, January 5th, 2006
Michael Gartenberg summed up what’s going on at CES this year rather nicely in his Trends to Watch For post. With Google’s pending drm’ed video announcement, Apple’s dominance in the portable music business, Microsoft’s push into the living room with CableCard support, and Intel’s Viiv systems, we’re finally going to see some really killer media bits getting pushed around some killer new spaces. But as Michael notes, it won’t be without it’s “walled garden” drawbacks.
Some trends to look for this week. It’s not about convergence but an evolutionary shift. Look for Intel, MSFT, apple and others talk about the pc moving beyond productivity into the realm of a tier one entertainment device. That means hi-def screens, fast processors and machines that can deliver a true CE experience.
Look for mobile video of all sorts to be red hot. Consumer interest is there, the question is will they pay and how much.
All the geek stuff goes mainstream starting now. Moving content around the home and place shifting out of the home will start to be mainstream. Look for lots of solutions to make this real. Look for lots of things that won’t work with other things.
Apple is the biggest presence at the show that isn’t here. Lots of conversations about how Apple will be displaced. Lots of alliances among folks who normally hate each other to combat apple. Most will fail. You don’t create an alliance based on the premise of the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Relationship advice, if you marry someone, do it because you love them not because the two of you share a common enemy.
Blu-ray or HD-DVD?
Thursday, January 5th, 2006
That’s a choice hyour going to have to make this year folks. So far the HD-DVD camp looks to have more hardware support and more titles than Blu-Ray, but I wouldn’t count Sony out. Unfortunately by choosing one or the other format in purchasing a player, you might be limiting yourself to a certain set of movie titles. The big loosers in this battle of the HD formats? We are.
