In brief….CES 2010 was noticeably more crowded than last year.  There was less exhibit space, however, many of the halls were very crowded and three or four deep around some of the better offerings.  The big buzz at the show was around tablet PCs, 3-D displays and direct internet connected TVs.  Every major display manufacturer had an internet connected TV, 3D and a green/low-power set of models.

 3-D technology was all over the place.  There’s key point here in that the industry doesn’t have a standard technique which will cause market confusion and uncertainty in consumers’ minds.  The three significant techiques are: 1) blue/red filter 2) polarizer and 3) shutter glasses.  All use glasses.  My best guess is the way out of this will be thru the video gaming industry where all the content is essentially 3-D ready by nature and the viewing angle is very wide.  I personally like the polarizing effect the best as the lowest cost, easiest to use approach without any weird side-effects.  

 Another observation about 3-D is that it doesn’t work well on small screens as objects drift off-screen and it becomes a distraction.  When you’re in a theatre or in front of a PC display it’s fully immersive visually and objects drift to your peripheral vision where it’s not distracting.

 Internet-enabled TVs, with a Ethernet connection right into the TV were all over.  Skype’s announcement to bundle this with LG and Panasonic is really interesting.  For the cost of the external camera, web video calls in every home. 

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