This year's Consumer Electronics Show is now history, and it was interesting in several ways. There were a number of Apple iPad tablet competitors announced, but there were surprisingly few that gathered much interest.
The Motorola Xoom tablet got the most buzz, and it is impressive indeed. It runs the next Android operating system called HoneyComb, and it appears that for the first time Android is truly being optimized for tablets.
The device has a fast, dual-core processor and can be upgraded at some point to use the LTE 4G network. It should be released by April at the latest, perhaps close to the rumored Apple iPad upgrade.
My favorite innovation announced at the show was the Motorola Atrix cell phone. I told a friend recently that my idea for the future of mobile would be some sort of device that would allow accessing your data anywhere. The Atrix model of design promises to accomplish that nicely.
First of all the phone itself is an excellent Android device. The Atrix can be docked with a desktop or laptop terminal, basically allowing you to have a complete computer experience anywhere you go and have the terminals set up.
This is hard to describe, but take a look at the videos posted on engadget.com or several on YouTube. This is a huge innovation and will probably be imitated by others. If Motorola improves this idea we'll see some amazing hybrid devices in the future.
If this approach is successful you can expect tablets to follow with similar connectivity, and no doubt we'll see designs we can't even imagine right now. One possible downside is that the Atrix is presently sold only by AT&T. As you know many take issue these days with their service, although it seems that they are correcting many faults.
There were several excellent cell phones introduced that will run on the upcoming 4G LTE Verizon network, as well as the 4G networks of other carriers. New, 4G service promises a faster connection and has the promise of being able to use voice and data services at the same time, something that some 3G services can't provide.
Manufacturers continued to show 3D TV sets, although the idea hasn't yet been all that successful. There were also several camera makers showing models with 3D features, including Sony's new camcorder line.
If there is one word to describe what almost all device makers are including in their wares, it would be "social." It seems that every phone, many cameras, everything has some sort of ability to connect to Facebook and Twitter. It may be that in the future a device will be assumed to be a social integrator, and most of them are heading that way.
Finally, the sleeping giant of CES is probably the so called Internet Of Things. This is the movement to connect every device online via the use of sensor and RFID devices. There were even home appliances shown at the show that are Internet ready.
E-mail Donnie Jenkins at donniejenkins@yahoo.com