The good, the great and the impossibly stylish turned out in force for the first tech exhibitions of the New Year, showcasing their must-have gadgets for 2007.
The annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, and the MacWorld exhibition in San Francisco, are traditionally the first opportunities for tech firms to generate hype for their forthcoming products and inject a little enthusiasm into the January slump.
At CES, viewers were treated to a host of new music players, streaming video, mobile phones and TVs, with digital video cameras and DVD products thrown in for good measure.
A couple of Irish firms made the trip to 'Sin City': Galway-based Futiro used CES to launch its stylish range of Skype phones worldwide, while high-definition media interface (HDMI) chipset maker Redmere Technology also exhibited.
Redmere is currently well-positioned as its technology links digital home devices, and growing demand for high-definition TVs is creating a buoyant market. Recent research from In-Stat suggests worldwide adoption of HD TVs has grown significantly, with 15 million households using HD TV sets and services by mid-2006.
This figure was expected to grow to 20.3 million by the end of 2006.
Meanwhile, the most recent Semiconductor Industry Association figures show global chip sales reached USD22.
7 billion in November. This fifth consecutive month of record sales is likely to be driven by HD devices such as games consoles, TVs and video recorders. In-Stat is expecting more than 130 million HDMI devices to ship during 2007.
One of the biggest HD excitements at CES was the LG BH100, a dual-format DVD player that reads Blu-Ray discs and also the rival HD-DVD format. The player could eliminate the debate over which format to opt for, thus neatly circumventing another VHS vs Betamax-type war.
LG's player launch was complemented by Warner's announcement that it has developed a single disc which stores films in Blu-Ray and HD DVD format -- although they are still working on getting the regular DVD layer incorporated.
Other CES highlights included Sharp's gargantuan 108-inch LCD TV, while SanDisk's new WiFi-enabled MP3 player, the Sansa Connect, created a buzz among attendees by allowing them to download content from multiple sources.
As much as was going on at CES, Apple upstaged the Nevada tech fest by announcing its iPhone at MacWorld, to great fanfare. The combined phone and music player comes with a touch-screen control pad, and 4GB or 8GB storage capacity for music and video.
Despite running Apple's OSX system, the product appears to be aimed more at the consumer market than the corporate customer.
Neil Mawston, analyst with Strategy Analytics, believes the iPhone is good news for the entire mobile industry, as it showcases possibilities for mobile multimedia. "A rising tide lifts all ships, as they say.
"
It will also help refocus manufacturers on the user interface, he said. "Just as Motorola's Razr forced vendors such as Nokia to rethink their hardware designs, so too the iPhone will force handset makers to rethink their software. Phones have become prettier in the last few years.
.. now they should get more user-friendly.
"
However, it seems Apple's announcement may have been slightly premature -- at least when it came to the name, as it turns out Cisco owns the trademark to 'iPhone'. While Apple CEO Steve Jobs lauded his new product as "magical", Cisco prepared to take legal action. Apple is confident of prevailing; only time will tell.
Now that the dust has settled, critics have begun to look harder at the iPhone. And there are a few drawbacks.
Firstly, its lack of 3G support -- the iPhone is GSM-only for the time being.
Another minus point is the price. At USD500 with a two-year contract from Cingular for the lower-capacity version, the phone is more expensive than expected. Moreover, once you take into account the lack of support for third-party developers, the shine has come off the iPhone a little.
Mawston advises the hype must be put into context: "Out of 1.1 billion cell phones to be sold globally in 2007, Apple will account for less than 1 percent of that total. It is still a very niche player.
" The iPhone is slated for release in Europe later in 2007, but already there is speculation this could be delayed.
The iPhone wasn't the only highlight of MacWorld 2007. Somewhat overshadowed was the launch of Apple TV, formerly known as iTV.
This set-top box allows users to stream content from a computer onto a television screen. The box comes with a 40Gb hard disk which stores up to 50 hours of TV programmes, or thousands of songs. The best bit, however, is the streaming capability.
Although the box will only permit owners to copy content onto the hard drive from one copy of iTunes, it will allow wireless streaming content from five PCs.
With all the exciting announcements spewing from the two tech exhibitions, it's no surprise some tech fans are already drawing up their shopping list for the year.
While Irish gadget-lovers will have to wait a while to get their hands on the latest devices, manufacturers have used the shows as a springboard to generate as much year-long hype as possible.
Whether their products live up to their promises, however, remains to be seen.
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