For several years now pundits have been predicting that the social web will be available on all kinds of devices in the home and not just PCs and Smartphone. In many ways CES 2010, the huge consumer electronics show which was held last week in Las Vegas, saw those web gadgets finally materialise. For although there were some interesting new PCs (Lenovo broke the mould with a couple of its models), and an innovative smartphone from Motorola the Backflip, CES 2010 was all about web-enabled TVs, devices, ereaders and of course tablets.
The impending arrival of Apple’s tablet, the iSlate or iTablet depending on which ‘insider’ you believe, cast a very long shadow over the event. Almost all the major PC makers, along with tens of small far eastern companies, paraded web tablets that will inevitably rival whatever is up Apple’s sleeve. Of course web tablets are not new, Microsoft had one as far back as 2010, the difference this time round is that the tablets run largely using web browsers than full operating system like Windows. They are also very much driven by the social web with access to Twitter/Facebook and other networking sites one of their core applications.
Part of the new wave of tablets has been driven by the growing adoption of the Google Android platform; at the show I saw at least a dozen tablets running using this format. They worked well and did offer easy access to key apps as well as quick and easy web browsing, however the cynic in me did feel that they seemed little more than smart phones with bigger screens. It’ll be very interesting to see how the high profile models from the likes of Dell and HP fare.
Several companies did offer innovative takes on the tablet the best of which, in my view, was the Sony Dash. Designed to be used more in the kitchen and the bedroom the Dash offers very easy access to a host of key websites and from day one the users also has the option of downloading over 100 apps for the device. It goes on sale in the US shortly, but there’s no UK launch planned.
British company Pure Digital also debuted an interesting device the show, the Sensia is essentially an internet radio that has been customised to enable the user to access their Facebook and Twitter accounts. Similar to Sony Pure is hoping that its community will create apps for use on the device.
CES 2010 was also the year of the ereader with a host of companies parading innovative new models. Almost all included on board wireless connections and web browsers so that the device could be used as tablets when they weren’t being used for reading. The device that perhaps generated the most excitement was the Plastic Logic Que ereader, which was originally developed in Cambridge in the UK. It has been created with newspapers and periodicals in mind. Much bigger than most ereaders the demos we saw of USA Today on its 8.5 screen looked very convincing. Its only problem is that it runs a mono screen rather than a colour one.
Sure to be a key rival to Plastic Logic in the high-end ereader sphere, the Entourage eDGe will be the first ereader to go on sale that sports two screens. The concept being that one is permanently used for reading books while the other enables the user to surf the web or work with Excel spreadsheets etc.
CES 2010 also saw the social web properly arrive on big screen sets. Almost all the major manufacturers from LG through to Panasonic announced internet ready TVs and Samsung even unveiled an app programme with a range of goodies such as YouTube and Twitter already optimised for its sets. Several companies also showed Skype running on TVs with set owners using services to make free video calls.
In some respects CES 2010 was transitional one. Many of the products will go on sale in the UK initially and only reach the UK at the end of the year. However it is clear that we are inching ever close to the connected home and the social web in every room
