ultra 4k white spaces gaming evolves what did you

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c o n s u m e r
e l e c t r o n i c s
M A R C H / A P R I L
2 0 1 2
capture the vision of CES all year
ULTRA 4K
WHITE SPACES
GAMING EVOLVES
WHAT DID YOU MISS
AT CES?
VISIONARY
20th Century Fox
Home Entertainment’s
Mike Dunn
$5.00
The International CES®
is coming to Capitol Hill
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
6-8 p.m.
Rayburn House Office Building Cafeteria (B-357)
Washington, D.C.
The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA)® will again bring the International CES
to Capitol Hill this spring. CES on the Hill will feature products from CEA member
companies that relate to critical policy issues.
Save the Date!
CE.org
a publication of
MARCH/APRIL 2012
FEATURES
4K Brings
Even Higher
Resolution to TV
Wi-Fi › › BLUETOOTH › RFID ›Wi-Fi › › BLUETOOTH › RFID ›Wi-Fi › › BLUETOOTH ›
Wi-Fi › › BLUETOOTH › RFID ›Wi-Fi › › BLUETOOTH › RFID ›Wi-Fi › › BLUETOOTH ›
.... 8
12 ....
Unused TV
Spectrum Opens
to Mobile Apps
White space in the
spectrum is expected
to create new market
opportunities for
wireless access.
Called ultra, super
and extreme:
4K promises to
bring about one
of the greatest
changes to visual
communications
and broadcasting in
decades.
16 ....
The Crowded
Gaming Market
Tablets, smartphones,
and Sony and
Nintendo’s line-up
of portable gaming
hardware are all
competing in a
congested gaming
market.
DEPARTMENTS
2 SHAPIRO’S SPECTRUM
Honoring American
Heroes
3 IN THIS ISSUE
Fast-Forward
4 THE ECONOMIST
Inflationary Concerns?
5 VISIONARY
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment’s
Mike Dunn
20 CEA NEWSLINE
Association News &
Views — Member Link,
Retail Insights
28 TECH POLICY
Pro-Tech Policy at CES
29 TECH SPEAK
CES: Handheld Devices
23 ....
It’s a Wrap
— The 2012
International
CES
No one can see it
all. Check out the
highlights from
the 2012 CES.
30 C4 TRENDS
Entrepreneurs Connect
at CES
31 MARKET INSIDER
Global CE Retail Sales
32 JUST THE STATS
Global Tech Spending
Cover photo courtesy of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
CEVision.org
March/April 2012
1
SHAPIRO’S SPECTRUM
ON THE CONSUMER ELECTRONICS HORIZON
Honoring American Heroes
“Digital Patriots”
are American
visionaries who
have made us
better by their
leadership in
advocating
policies that
promote
innovation.
2
March/April 2012
S
teve Jobs changed us with the iPod, iPhone and iPad. But, he also became
an iconic tech hero, likely inspiring many children to strive to be entrepreneurs, designers and innovators. Jobs, along with 169 others, is a member
(2009) of the CEA Hall of Fame. This legendary group has changed the
world and a new class will be inducted on October 16 in San Francisco at
CEA’s Industry Forum.
But CEA also has another award bestowed only on a chosen few (fewer than 30 to date).
There have been 22 Digital Patriot honorees, not counting the Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) commissioners that were honored at the 2011 International CES.
“Digital Patriots” are American visionaries who have made us better by their leadership
in advocating policies that promote innovation. On the private side only Craig Barrett,
Michael Dell, Bill Gates, Ivan Seidenberg, and Internet inventors Vint Cerf and Robert
Kahn have received the award. A select group of politicians have also been honored.
On April 25th in Washington, we will induct three exceptional people:
David Rubinstein is best known for founding the Carlyle Group, a successful merchant banking firm. But he also has roots in the tech industry where he helped lead
the fight for innovation, ensuring the legality of consumer technology. After leaving
the Carter White House, David became a lawyer and assisted CEA efforts running
the Home Recording Rights Coalition (HRRC). He attended our weekly meetings,
oversaw our grassroots efforts and attended the International CES where he helped
manage the HRRC booth.
More, he helped shape the legal strategy which produced the Supreme Court
Sony Betamax decision, the “Magna Carta” for innovation and our industry. David
later bought the last remaining Magna Carta and donated it to the Smithsonian.
His love for this nation also extends to gifts to the Kennedy Center (whose board he
chairs), paying for repairs to the Washington Monument after it was damaged by an
earthquake last summer and his purchase of the Emancipation Proclamation which
he donated to the White House. David is a worthy Digital Patriot.
CEA will also be honoring a Democratic Senator from Oregon, Ron Wyden. Senator Wyden has been a champion of innovation and the Internet. When the Internetkilling “anti-piracy” legislation sailed unanimously through the Senate Judiciary
Committee, it was Senator Wyden who put a “hold” on the bill. He then promised
a lengthy filibuster. This action allowed CEA and other groups opposing the bill to
regroup and mount a successful opposition. Senator Wyden more than any other
legislator (except perhaps Digital Patriot and former CEA Chairman Congressman
Darrell Issa (R-CA)) deserves credit for blocking and reversing a legislative steamroller. We will also be honoring Congressman Jason Chaffetz (R-VT). Rep. Chaffetz has quickly distinguished himself as a tech-savvy legislator. During the House
Judiciary Committee consideration of the anti-innovation Stop Online Piracy Act
(SOPA) legislation, it was Chaffetz who insisted that “nerds” or Internet experts be
consulted before Congressional action. He is also a co-sponsor of the OPEN Act, a
narrow, effective and targeted way to take down foreign infringing websites.
I hope you can join us celebrate these three American heroes. For more information on the Digital Patriots Dinner, visit CE.org. •
David Rubinstein
Sen. Ron Wyden
Rep. Jason Chaffetz
CEVision.org
ON THE CONSUMER ELECTRONICS HORIZON
PRESIDENT AND CEO
Gary Shapiro
IN THIS ISSUE
Fast-Forward
SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT
Jason Oxman
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Cindy Loffler Stevens
MANAGING EDITOR
Rachel Horn
EDITORIAL ASSISTANT
Mark Chisholm
SENIOR CREATIVE MANAGER
John Lindsey
SENIOR MANAGER, CREATIVE DIRECTION
Octavio Kano
GRAPHIC DESIGNER, CREATIVE SERVICES
Ian Shields, Matt Patchett
DIRECTOR, MARKETING
Jenni Moyer
ADVERTISING MANAGEMENT
Dan Cole, [email protected]
ART DIRECTOR
Glenn Pierce
DESIGN, PRODUCTION AND PUBLISHING MANAGEMENT
TMG| tmgcustommedia.com
CIRCULATION MANAGER
Gretchen Mitchler
EDITORIAL CONTRIBUTORS
Gary Arlen, Alan Breznick, Robert Calem,
Shawn DuBravac, John Gaudiosi, Michael
Grebb, Steve Koenig, Natalie Hope McDonald, Allan Richter, Ron Schneiderman, Susan
Schreiner, Murray Slovick, Phillip Swann
EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD
Kari Aakre, Intel; Dave Arland, Arland
Communications; Peter Brinkman, Casio;
Marcy Cohen, Sony; Gabriele Collier, HDMI;
Kristen Cook, BDS Marketing; Danielle
Deabler, NPR Labs; John Dunstan, Netgear;
Sean Durkin, Dolby Laboratories Inc.;
Peter Fannon, Panasonic/Matsushita; Bill
Kircos, Intel; Bill Leebens, LM&M; Chris
Loncto, Sharp Electronics Corp.; Jim Reilly,
Panasonic; David Steel, Samsung; John
Taylor, LG Electronics; Adam Yates, Samsung
Consumer Electronics Vision is published as a service to the
members of the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA)
and to key players in the consumer electronics industry. CEA
represents more than 2,000 U.S. manufacturers of audio, video,
digital imaging, accessories, mobile electronics, home networking, wireless communication, information technology and
multimedia products that are sold through consumer channels.
The opinions expressed in articles are those of the authors and
not necessarily those of CEA. Comments, questions and letters
to the editor are welcome. Address responses to: Consumer
Electronics Vision, Consumer Electronics Association, 1919
South Eads St., Arlington, VA 22202, tel: 703 907 7600.
© 2012 Consumer Electronics Association
Articles from this issue may be reproduced in whole or in part,
provided full credit is given to CEA.
CES® and International Consumer Electronics Show® are
trademarks owned by CEA.
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W
e are rapidly approaching the end of Q1 2012. Weren’t we just in Las
Vegas for CES? Now it’s nearly time for CES on the Hill and the Digital
Patriots Dinner in Washington, DC. Time flies and so do technology
advances. If you blink, you may miss something important. That’s why
in this issue, we look at the incredible innovations that 4K will bring
to TV including even higher resolution. Although not available in stores yet, LG, Panasonic,
Samsung, Toshiba, Sharp, Sony, Vizio and others showed prototypes of 4K sets at CES. If
you haven’t seen one of these extraordinary TVs yet, read on to find out why these sets are so
amazing.
And speaking of innovation, Vision looks at white spaces. There
are some interesting ways this unused TV spectrum could be utilized,
including opportunities to explore the Internet of Things (IoT), where
smart wireless devices and appliances can connect easily with other
devices and communicate directly with each other without going
through a network infrastructure. Okay, I admit this Internet of Things
has my attention. It reminds me of the film The Matrix.
However, uses also could include image recognition to identify
objects or logos, near-field communications (NFC) for mobile payments and embedded sensors that could detect app stores for mobile users. IoT most likely
also will support the projected huge growth of machine-to-machine (M2M) devices that could
talk to each other wirelessly.
We also delve in to the world of gaming where portability is changing everything. Sony’s PS
Vita and Nintendo 3DS are competing with Apple and Android tablets and smartphones in
a congested gaming market. And because it was impossible for anyone to see the entire 2012
International CES, the largest in show history, Vision gives an inside peek at a few highlights
that made the show so special including the diverse group of attendees and product categories.
Last week I visited with Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment’s Worldwide President Mike Dunn in his Fox Plaza office in LA. As the worldwide marketing, sales and distribution company for all Fox film and television programming on DVD, Blu-ray disc digital copy,
VOD and digital download, the company also releases all products globally for MGM Home
Entertainment. He talked about the intersection of content and CE devices and how they are
now intertwined. See our Visionary column for his interesting insights.
We also recently launched CEA’s new Vision Entrepreneur Awards (VEA) program to
recognize individuals and small businesses in the CE industry that demonstrate innovation
and dedication to the industry. Submit a nomination form online and tell us why you believe
a company or executive of an organization with annual domestic revenue under $30 million
should be recognized. The winners will be honored at CEA’s Industry Forum in October in San
Francisco. For more information, visit CE.org. I hope to see you at CES on the Hill April 24th. •
Cindy Loffler Stevens
Editor-in-Chief
Twitter: calstevens
Visit CEVision.org for the latest updates.
CEVision.org
CEVision.org
March/April 2012
3
ANALYZING FUTURE TRENDS ] • [ BY SHAWN G. DUBRAVAC, CFA
Inﬂationary Concerns?
B
eginning in January, the Federal Reserve Open Market
Committee (FOMC) began
publishing the central tendencies and ranges of projections
for economic growth, the unemployment
rate and inflation expectations together
with the assessments for appropriate
monetary policy for each of the 17 FOMC
participants. The rationale behind the new
public communications strategy is to create greater guidance on the likely path of
monetary policy. The statement from the
FOMC reads as follows:
“ The Committee seeks to explain its
monetary policy decisions to the public
as clearly as possible. Such clarity facilitates well-informed decision-making
by households and businesses, reduces
economic and financial uncertainty,
increases the effectiveness of monetary
policy, and enhances transparency and
accountability, which are essential.”
Researchers have suggested an explicit
inflation target would provide more support for financial stability by helping to
anchor long run inflation expectations. A commitment from the
FOMC to be more explicit in their
communications regarding monetary policy comes closer to realizing
these benefits.
of inflation to fall below the FOMC’s long
run inflation expectation and quasi-target.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia’s Survey of Professional Forecasters, of
which I’m a panelist, anticipates inflation
in 2012 will remain below the FOMC’s long
run expectations. Market participants also
now hold these same expectations. Inflation expectations inferred from five-year
Treasury Inflation-protected Securities
(TIPS) remain below two percent.
I hear from many of you regarding your
concern for near-term inflation and you are
not alone. The University of Michigan Survey of Consumer Attitudes
suggests consumer expectations
for inflation remain above that
of professional forecasters and
the implicit expectations of fixedincome market participants.
Shawn G. DuBravac,
Note the Consumer Price Index
What’s Coming Next?
@twoopinions
(CPI),
a
key
measure of inflationary presThe published central tendency expectasures,
has
declined
each month since Septions for inflation suggest inflation over the
next three years will run below the FOMC’s tember 2011. This largely has been driven by
long run expected (and therefore desirable) declining food and energy prices over this
rate of inflation. This certainly leaves open same period. As of this writing, the annual
the door for further monetary accommo- inflation rate is three percent (December
dation from the Federal Reserve. With Fed 2011). Consumer perceptions and expectafunds rates already low, further monetary tions for inflation are influenced by energy
accommodation will likely come in the prices and a slowing global economy in
form of additional asset purchases—quan- 2012 that will contribute downward prestitative easing or as this third commitment sure on energy prices and subsequently
to quantitative easing will likely be referred inflationary pressures. If the official statistics are to be believed, inflation in places as
to in the press—QE3.
The Federal Reserve isn’t alone in its diverse as China is slowing which is likely
expectations for inflation. Professional a result of decelerating global growth as
forecasts also expect the near-term path Europe moves into recession.
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March/April 2012
Uncertainty will influence
2012 and possibly several
years hence.
In all of this, the FOMC must balance perceptions in the market to ensure
they maintain the credibility necessary
to accomplish their mandate for stable
prices. But importantly, the Federal
Reserve has a dual mandate to not only
maintain stable prices but also maximize
employment. The Federal Reserve speaks
to its mandate for prices in the following
statement:
“ The inflation rate over the longer run
is primarily determined by monetary
policy, and hence the Committee has
the ability to specify a longer-run goal
for inflation. The Committee judges that
inflation at the rate of two percent, as
measured by the annual change in the
price index for personal consumption
expenditures, is most consistent over
the longer run with the Federal Reserve’s
statutory mandate.”
However, as long as economic growth
remains below trend growth, employment
will continue to drop and unemployment
will continue to rise. This is squarely my
expectation for 2012.
Ambiguity Persists
Through all of this, we face a tremendous
amount of uncertainty. This uncertainty
will influence 2012 and possibly several
years hence. Uncertainty is also evident in
the newly released information from the
Federal Reserve which, as I mentioned
above, also includes each individual policymaker’s expectations for the path of monetary policy. There was a very large range
in expectations regarding in which year the
Fed would begin interest rate hikes. While
the public commitment to transparency is
palpable there remains significant divergence and uncertainty within individual
expectations. While inflationary pressures
should be maintained in 2012 and the Federal Reserve remains committed to its dual
mandate, overall uncertainty remains of
key concern. •
CEVision.org
Michael Northrup
THE ECONOMIST
GOING
GLOBAL
VISIONARY
VISIONARY
CE’S CUTTING EDGE LEADERS ] • [ BY CINDY LOFFLER STEVENS
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment’s
Mike Dunn
Fox has produced and distributed the two
highest-grossing films of all time, TITANIC
and AVATAR as well as other successful
film franchises like STAR WARS, ICE AGE,
X-MEN, DIE HARD and HOME ALONE,
acclaimed TV shows such as MODERN
FAMILY, GLEE, THE SIMPSONS and
FAMILY GUY and indie success stories
including SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE and
JUNO.
How does your business model work?
W
ho loves a cool gadget more than James
Bond? That’s exactly
why Mike Dunn,
worldwide president
of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, chose the 2012 International CES to
announce the release of the entire BOND
film series on Blu-ray, bringing along several notable film directors and Bond girls
with him. Dubbed Bond 50 for the series’
50th anniversary, it includes all 22 films.
After all, Bond would love to roam the halls
of CES.
Dunn also continued Fox’s tradition of
hosting The Director’s Vision, a panel at CES
with longtime partner Panasonic on the innovations that help preserve the craft of leading
Hollywood filmmakers. Fox is at the forefront
of creating a digital pathway for consumers
between what’s familiar and what’s possible
in home entertainment. As Dunn puts it,
“we are on the verge of another monumental
event in the media business. We rarely have
the living room escalating into high-def TVs,
thin TVs, and portable devices proliferating
at a rate that’s never been seen before.”
CEVision.org
Movies are released theatrically around the
world with a robust marketing campaign,
followed by a home entertainment release,
then a pay TV channel and free TV. A film’s
life cycle allows for many opportunities to
monetize vs. just a one shot model. Our
content has many different budget levels.
For example, Chronicle has been very successful and was produced for under $20
million. On the other end, we have movies like AVATAR that take years to develop
and cost hundreds of millions to produce.
Before we make a movie, we match the production cost against the potential audience.
Is content distribution radically
changing?
Yes and quickly, but our goal of delivering
the best entertainment experience to audiences remain the same. The televisions are
getting bigger, hi-def is taking over and its
functionality now includes connectivity
and 3D—the living room
is transforming. Also, the
media business is becoming portable with tablets
and smartphones proliferating at a pace never seen
in consumer electronics
before. And our content is
going both ways.
A box office success this year, Fox’s CHRONICLE is a fresh and original film from first-time director
Josh Trank—just one example of the importance of
new voices to the studio.
ing the razors and we are selling the blades.
If we align, things are very successful for
both of us. The most obvious success in the
history of the CE business is the DVD. It
revolutionized the CE business and at the
same time, it revolutionized Hollywood.
Who are your CE partners?
We have very strong relationships with
Panasonic, Samsung, JVC and Sony—not
only on their CE devices but also on Sony’s
PlayStation, Microsoft’s Xbox and with
companies like Western Digital and SanDisk. We work incredibly close with them
and are constantly looking to begin new
ones with others.
Why is CEA important
to Fox?
Our partnerships within
the CE community are
very important to us. It is
like the razor/razorblade
relationship, they are sell-
Charlize Theron and Idris Elba in PROMETHEUS.
March/April 2012
5
VISIONARY
Type: Subsidiary of 20th Century Fox
Industry: Home Entertainment
Founded: 1976
Headquarters: Century City, Los Angeles
Owner: News Corporation
Website: foxconnect.com
Visionary filmmaker James Cameron bringing the world of Pandora to life on set during the making
of AVATAR.
Why did you create the Director’s
Panel at CES with Panasonic?
We want to demonstrate the quality of
the movies and how important it is to the
experience on these devices at home. We
believe that content is king and the filmmaker anoints the king.
I’ll give you an example. Jim Cameron
went through AVATAR frame by frame and
color corrected every moment for the home
entertainment release, it took him over three
months. He and his producer Jon Landau
looked at AVATAR on every possible device
out there, from the high-end to the standard
models. He even gave directions on how to
adjust your TV to get the best experience.
For a film buff, details matter. On these
devices with great filmmakers, the details
are incredible. In the case of AVATAR, he
invented a planet, a language, botany, animals—there was nothing in the film that
existed before. In order to be a great movie,
the audience has to suspend belief.
How important is Blu-ray?
Blu-ray is driving growth, consumers love it
and it offers the best experience out there.
On a planet chart, Blu-ray would be Jupiter while YouTube would just be an asteroid out in deep space. Blu-ray provides
25–40 megabits per second and it carries
50 gigs of information so it is throwing
tremendous amounts of data at a very high
bit rate against your TV. Filmmakers like
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March/April 2012
Oliver Stone, Michael Mann and Ridley
Scott spend so much of their career working on details to bring audiences into that
film, and they appreciate the result that
Blu-ray delivers.
Has Blu-ray been a success for the
studios?
Blu-ray is really one of the great Hollywood
success stories. We crossed $2 billion in
software sales in 2011. We’ll cross $3 billion in 2012. Also on a side note, to me the
Blu-ray player is one of the most future
proof devices a consumer can buy. For less
than $150, a Blu-ray player is backwardcompatible for your DVDs, it’s 3D and its
connected. So it really is a killer device.
Will connected TVs change how
consumers interact with their
content?
It opens up a large a la carte offering to the
viewer. If you look at most of the cable programming, it is still linear. There are some
on-demand services but in the case of connected televisions you can tap into deep
libraries of content and it can deliver what
you want, when you want it, very efficiently.
The one drawback is it’s at a lower bit rate
so there is a quality differentiation.
What is UltraViolet? Can you talk a bit
about the benefits of a digital locker
in the cloud?
UltraViolet is a component of the digital
ecosystem, it is in beta release right now.
Fox supports fostering simple, affordable,
accessible ways for consumers to access
their entertainment anytime and enjoy it
across their devices. With that you’ll get
mass consumer adoption. There are four
key components that are critical. The first
is storage. Right now you keep your DVDs
and Blu-rays on your shelf or in a cabinet.
In the future, your purchases will be stored
in a digital locker with a fantastic interface
for easy access.
The second is convenience and access.
DVD was so successful because it didn’t
get locked under the TV in a DVD player.
It could be inserted into a laptop, portable
device or into an automobile. It extended
the rights of that content across many
devices that you didn’t have with a bulky
VHS tape. It was easy to justify buying a
DVD because you could play it in so many
different places. Digital content is going to
have even more consumer rights and play
on even more devices. You can bring it to
your big screen TV, you can move it to your
tablet or you can move it to your phone.
The third element is quality. When you
buy a movie, you’ll get the highest resolution
possible for every playback device. It will be
delivered through an integrated file that renders HD quality to large screens or SD to a
portable device. The content will move fast
and it will be the right file size for the device
that you are using at that moment.
The final component is trust. The promise of having the content they purchased
always there is vital. Consumer confidence
in true ownership is extremely important.
With full UV, you will be able to stream or
download content from your digital locker
to up to 12 devices. Once you download the
content, you will be able to move it from
device to device regardless of which retailer
you bought it from or service provider it is
played back on.
CEVision.org
VISIONARY
“There is an unprecedented growth of HD adoption, and with
the mainstream acceptance of Blu-ray and the introduction of Blu-ray 3D, we
now have opportunities to present our movies in the home at a quality level
never seen before. It’s exciting to work with Mike and the whole
Fox Home Entertainment team to bring this dream to life.”
—James Cameron, Filmmaker
Is this the future of content?
Yes, the development of the digital ownership model is a key priority for the future
of our business. Given all of the different
services that are available—Netflix, HBO
Go, Amazon Prime Instant Video—the
content quickly gets fragmented. The reason we buy the movies we love is because
it is always available when we want to
watch it. You don’t want to go on a hunt
and search mission through a variety of
subscription services to find it. You’ll be
able to buy it once and have it forever.
So it won’t become obsolete?
Digital is very future proof. For the consumer, the concept of future proof is
incredibly important.
What are your thoughts about 3D?
We are bullish on the 3D format in the
theater and in the home. Three of our key
upcoming tentpole titles will be presented
in 3D: PROMETHEUS (June 8) directed
by Ridley Scott, ABRAHAM LINCOLN:
VAMPIRE HUNTER (June 22) produced
by Tim Burton and directed by Timur Bekmambetov, and ICE AGE: CONTINENTAL
DRIFT (July 13), our fourth installment.
We are also converting the Will Smith
movie I, ROBOT with JVC.
What role do apps play in how
consumers access content?
A growing number of consumers are using
a secondary device like a smartphone or
a tablet while watching movies and TV
shows at home. This is a tremendous
opportunity for us. For example, with
SONS OF ANARCHY, a hugely successful show on FX, we created an interactive
shopping app called “SOA Gear” for the
iPad. It gives the loyal fan base a way to
shop for exclusive and licensed merchandise while watching the show. This opens
the door for endless ideas on expanding
what is possible with our content through
the advancements of technology. •
Baz Luhrmann, Michael Mann, Oliver Stone and Mike Dunn at the Filmmakers Panel at CES. CEVision.org
March/April 2012
7
BRINGS EVEN HIGHER
RESOLUTION TO TV
During the London Olympics this summer, some viewers
around the world will get a glimpse of television’s next vision. Ultra highdefinition TV (UHDTV)—also known as 4K and Super Hi-Vision—telecasts of selected Olympic events will be shown at public venues globally,
starting in late July. Britain’s BBC will display 4K coverage on 15-meter
display screens around London, and NHK plans to show some games on
similar big screens. A 4K feed is also scheduled to be on display in Washington, D.C., although details have not been disclosed.
“UHDTV promises to bring about one of
the greatest changes to audio visual communications and broadcasting in recent
decades,” says Christoph Dosch, chairman
of the Broadcasting Service Study Group
of the International Telecommunications
Union, which is helping to coordinate the
Olympic “ultra” productions. “Technology is
truly at the cusp of transforming how people
experience audio visual communications.”
Visitors at the 2012 International CES in
Las Vegas in January got an advance peek
at TV’s next wave of display technology,
which delivers four times the on-screen
picture information of today’s best HDTV,
hence the term “4K” to describe the new
category. Its pictures are displayed in 3480
x 2160 resolution or about 8.3 million pixels compared to a maximum of two million
pixels for current HD.
B Y G A R Y A R L E N • I L L U S T R AT I O N B Y M A R T I N A N S I N
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March/April 2012
CEVision.org
March/April 2012
9
“The special feature of 4K is that its
higher resolution allows for more detailed
pictures and larger screen size,” explains
Tim Alessi, director of new product development at LG Electronics, which showcased an 84-inch Ultra HD screen at CES.
“That means viewers can sit closer without
seeing pixel grid. 4K adds the extra pixel
density that you wouldn’t see on a regular
screen.”
That visual intensity is why the numerous CES demonstrations of 4K frequently
generated “wows” and awestruck gasps as
viewers took in the extraordinary colors
and clarity of 4K images, often shown in
side-by-side comparisons with conventional HD monitors. The picture quality
was breathtaking at standard viewing
distances and was vividly clear farther
back across the booths. LG, Panasonic,
Samsung, Toshiba, Sharp, Sony, Vizio
and others showed prototypes of 4K sets
‘virtual holodeck’”—an immersive visual
experience, predicts Steve Koenig, director of industry analysis at CEA. He also
sees the evolution of technology at work
here. For example, 4K with its greater
resolution may ease the way for passive
“It will be a challenge for broadcast
channels to carry UHDTV, but at one
time it was thought that digital HDTV
was impossible.”—Brian Siegel, Sony Electronics
which may reach market by late this year.
Sony showed three home theater displays featuring 4K technology, including a demonstration up-scaling a 1080p
image to 4K resolution. One of the displays featured a Sony 4K projector, a
home version of devices being used in
digital cinema.
Analysts acknowledge that the 4K juggernaut is in its earliest phase. Even the
name is still up in the air, with various
terms including “ultra HD” and “super
HD” still bandied about to describe the
emerging category. Arriving at about the
same time as the new big-screen OLED
(Organic Light Emitting Diode) technology, which is an emissive electroluminescent display format, 4K resolution
technology opens the screens for incredible visual experiences and also for more
complicated consumer options.
“This wave of increasingly higher resolution displays may be the stepping stones
across the evolutionary path toward the
10
March/April 2012
3D glasses, which are priced lower than
active-matrix 3D glasses and thus 4K
resolution could invigorate the 3D category, Koenig says.
Koenig agrees that there’s no problem
with the 4K category name being in flux.
“Whatever we wind up calling it, the
industry will get that sorted out,” he says.
The 4K value proposition is a more
significant factor. Koenig points out that
a technical standard and specifications
are still works in progress, and that there
are slight differences in pixel counts and
other factors that will become essential
when 4K content begins to flow. “Based
on our research, content is a pre-requisite for market acceptance,” Koenig adds.
MORE THAN 4K
Sony, which demonstrated a prototype
of its new Crystal LED at CES, acknowledges that the system is still in development, and no distribution timetable has
been set. Still Brian Siegel, vice president
of television for Sony Electronics, focuses
on the high resolution as the primary
attraction in this next wave of TV sets.
“With Crystal LED, each pixel contains
an LED for each of the red, green and
blue color spectrums, a total of six million LEDs on the two million pixels of the
prototype shown at CES,” Siegel explains.
“What this means is that each pixel has a
self-emitting light source, [which] is not
the case with LCD screens,” he adds.
Despite the aggressive efforts to establish a home 4K presence, the road to 4K
may be as demanding as the Olympic
competitions themselves. The bandwidth
needed to transmit 4K images will stress
broadcast and cable channels initially.
And video producers’ limited capabilities to create 4K content resemble the 3D
dilemma of the past few years: an initial
paucity of content, followed by a deluge
of original content.
“It will be a challenge for broadcast
channels to carry UHDTV, but at one
time it was thought that digital HDTV
was impossible,” observes Mark Richer,
president of the Advanced Television
Systems Committee (ATSC). He points
out that NHK in Japan as well as the
ITU are doing 4K transmission research,
but he adds that it’s “not clear if UHDTV
will be a priority for broadcasters or [if ]
other services such as mobile DTV will be
more important.”
Nonetheless, 4K technology is entering
the TV market in a variety of ways.
“4K may be the greatest thing that
happens to HD,” says Mark Schubin, an
Emmy-winning TV engineer, who focuses
CEVision.org
on the evolution of production tactics. “At
the tail end of the standard-definition
era, producers were shooting with HD
cameras and over-sampling. 4K cameras
inherently over-sample, which makes it
so much better looking even if you watch
the show on a traditional HD set.”
timed with the introduction of 8K into
the general marketplace.
In addition to the resolution improvements, video technologists are working
on other display technologies to enliven
the viewing experience. For example,
quantum dots (QD), semiconductors
“The special feature of 4K is that
its higher resolution allows for more
detailed pictures and larger screen
size.”—Tim Alessi, LG Electronics
Schubin, a long-time technical consultant to Lincoln Center’s Metropolitan
Opera and an organizer of major Hollywood production technology programs,
cites other 4K routes to market. Studios
have been working on 4K for at least 10
years, he notes, with the expectation that
it will emerge in digital cinema theaters.
“Now we’re in a new era where people
have large screens and home theaters,”
Schubin says. “4K is a differentiator.”
LG’s Alessi agrees, pointing out how
his company is integrating “3D cinema, the smart TV platform and magic
remote” (with gesture control and voice
recognition) as part of the experience.
Mark Viken, vice president of marketing at Sharp Electronics Marketing
Company of America expects a similar
progression toward 4K. Sharp, which
calls its technology ICC 4K, jointly
developed its system with the I-cubed
Research Center Inc. The display “pre
sents a clearer, more life-like image” and
“intelligently up-scales from HD to 4K
[to] provide a real-viewing equivalent to
the natural world,” Viken says.
WHAT’S BEYOND 4K?
8K. It displays 7680x4320 resolution—
about 33 million pixels, which is 16 times
that of today’s HDTV sets. Sharp showed
an 8K prototype at CES in the form of an
85-inch LED display.
“8K is scheduled to be demonstrated
at high-profile public venues throughout
2012, including the Summer Olympics,”
says Sharp’s Viken. “The dates for mass
production of Sharp 8K products have
not yet been determined, but will be
CEVision.org
with electronic characteristics tied to the
size and shape of the individual crystal,
are coming to TV displays. The British
university research lab which developed the QD technology is working with
Korean, Japanese and other TV set makers to create lower cost, energy-efficiency
displays and other products possibly
available within the next few years.
The scope of the “ultra” and beyond
TV evolution is prompting organizations throughout the media, electronics
and telecommunications infrastructure
to rethink how TV will work. At Cable
Television Laboratories (CableLabs), the
cable industry’s non-profit research consortium, David Broberg, vice president
of consumer video technology, points out
that these high-bandwidth display technologies will benefit from future Internet
Protocol delivery.
“Delivering 4K directly to the final display via IP connections avoids the digital
interface bottleneck,” Broberg explains.
“This approach can also take advantage
of faster adoption rates for AVC and
HEVC decoding technology directly
within future 4K receivers.”
HEVC (High-Efficiency Video Coding) is a proposed video encoding technology being devised by the ITU and the
Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG)
as the follow-up to H.264/MPEG 4 AVC
(Advanced Video Coding) codec. Broberg
adds that the new HEVC compression
standards are well suited for 4K delivery, although they are not yet deployable.
“They promise the ability to deliver
high-quality 4K content at bit rates being
used today for 1080p content (five Mbps
to six Mbps),” he says. Although limited
4K tests could take place using existing
AVC coding (at rates between 10 Mbps
and 20 Mbps) on existing infrastructure,
Broberg expects, “It could take years
before standards are sufficiently defined
to make this widely available.”
That coincides with other predictions
about the 4K timetable. As it was a decade
ago for HD, the primary initial content
source may be pre-recorded content.
Blu-ray discs have the capacity to store a
4K movie, although studios have not yet
decided if they will use that format.
The 4K rollout process is under review
worldwide. NHK, the Japanese network
that first demonstrated the format in
2003, plans to begin test broadcasts
of UHDTV in 2020. The network first
began exploring 4K in 2000. Meanwhile,
ITU expects to issue its first draft standard for HEVC early this year, with a target for adoption by mid-2013.
Panasonic’s Chief Technology Officer
Eisuke Tsuyazaki acknowledges the need
to coordinate 4K display release with the
availability of broadcast, cable, satellite
or other transmission technology. He
envisioned the initial installation of 4K
displays for medical use as well as computer graphics and design.
“It’s going to be a while until 4K gets
into living rooms,” Tsuyazaki said in
published reports during CES. “It’s not
a technical issue. The biggest issue is
content.”
And that’s where the London Olympics telecasts play a key role. The limited public 4K displays will give viewers
a preview of the stunning images awaiting them. The risk, as always in the
CE industry, is that viewers will be
so enticed by 4K that they decide to
postpone purchases of currently available—and lower priced—OLED highdefinition displays.
At the same time, the 4K demonstrations much like the other advanced
visualization exhibits at CES, including
Crystal LED, 8K and more, are reminders that there will always be something
aspirational to watch: bigger, better and
brighter.
For now, that’s what “ultra,” “super”
and “extreme” mean for television. •
March/April 2012
11
WIRELESS MICROPHONES › WIRELESS MICROPHONES › WIREL
SMART UTILITY METERS › SMART UTILITY METERS › SMART UTILI
CELLULAR TRAFFIC › CELLULAR TRAFFIC › CELLULAR TRAFFIC
Wi-Fi › › BLUETOOTH › RFID ›Wi-Fi › › BLUETOOTH › RFID ›Wi-Fi › ›
UNUSED TV SPECTRUM
BY RON SCHNEIDERMAN
Unused and unlicensed spectrum between TV channels—called white space—is opening up
spectrum-starved bandwidth for mobile data network operators and users. And just in time.
Ericsson projects a 10-fold increase in
global mobile data traffic between 2011 and
2016, with mobile broadband connections
growing from 900 million in 2011 to almost
five billion in 2016.
Julius Genachowski, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC),
warned of a “spectrum crunch” at the 2012
International CES Show in Las Vegas and
said U.S. leadership in mobile markets is at
stake without Congressional action on spectrum legislation. In mid-February, Congress
acted and the president signed a law allowing spectrum sales. (See sidebar.)
The Yankee Group, a market research
firm, estimates that by 2015, consumer use
of wireless applications and services will be
almost 60 times today’s volume.
Michael Flanagan, the chief technology
officer of Arieso, a U.K.-based consultancy
for mobile operators with clients in the
12
March/April 2012
U.S., Europe, and Africa, says the introduction of increasingly sophisticated devices,
coupled with growing consumer demand,
is creating unrelenting pressure on mobile
networks. “The capacity is still a very real
threat for mobile operators, and it looks set
to only get harder in 2012.”
An Arieso survey in November 2011
found that one percent of consumers currently generate half of all mobile traffic
in the world, while the top 10 percent of
mobile users are consuming 90 percent
of wireless bandwidth. Today, the most
active users account for about 70 percent
of mobile traffic. About 64 percent of
“extreme users” of mobile data use laptops,
according to Arieso, a third use smartphones, and three percent an iPad.
To help reduce the growing pressure of
traffic on wireless networks, the FCC has
approved rules for the use of unlicensed,
unused “white spaces” in the spectrum
between TV channels. Both houses of
Congress also significantly helped the
cause of TV white spaces supporters when
they passed the payroll tax extension bill,
which allows the FCC to create bands of
unlicensed white space spectrum.
On the official FCC blog, Julius Knapp,
chief of the FCC’s Office of Engineering and Technology, says the availability
of spectrum for unlicensed devices has
already fueled a wave of innovation for new
businesses based on technologies such as
Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, cordless phones, RFID,
smart utility meters, baby monitors, and
many others that could include a range of
applications for the smart grid, off-loading
cellular traffic to unlicensed spectrum, distance learning, regional area public safety/
homeland security/emergency broadband
services, monitoring rain forests, broadCEVision.org
NEAR-FIELD COMMUNICATIONS PAYMENTS › NEAR-FIELD COMM
‘BACK CHANNEL’ APPLICATIONS › ‘BACK CHANNEL’ APPLICATI
DISTANCE LEARNING › DISTANCE LEARNING › DISTANCE LEAR
HOMELAND SECURITY/EMERGENCY › HOMELAND SECURITY/EM
RURAL BROADBAND SERVICE › RURAL BROADBAND SERVICE › RU
SHOPPING SERVICES › SHOPPING SERVICES › SHOPPING SERVI
ONLINE VIDEO GAMING › ONLINE VIDEO GAMING › ONLINE VIDEO
OPENS TO MOBILE APPS
band service for multiple dwelling and
multi-tenant units, and small office/home
offices and campuses.
WHERE IS IT?
The white spaces are the narrow slices of
frequencies in the 700 MHz band that were
freed up by the FCC as part of the transition of TV channels from analog to digital
in September 2010. While the U.S. is just
starting to dig into these new spectrum
opportunities, most of Europe is already
moving forward to take advantage of the frequency bands between TV channels. Ofcom,
the United Kingdom’s FCC equivalent, has
approved the use of white space spectrum
for broadband Internet and other services in
the U.K. Last year, U.K.-based Neul teamed
with California-based Carlson Wireless to
develop and market a white space network
that focuses on underserved markets. Regulators in other European Union member
states are considering similar action.
Of course, making the white spaces available to mobile device vendors and service
CEVision.org
providers didn’t go down without a fight,
mainly from TV broadcasters. The National
Association of Broadcasters (NAB) formed
the Future of TV Coalition to lobby the FCC
and legislators to oppose the takeover of
unused spectrum between TV channels for
wireless applications. The NAB was joined
in its opposition by the Coalition of Free TV
and Broadband, representing low-power
TV and translator stations that suggested
alternatives that would enable them to offer
point-to-multipoint broadband services.
The NAB claimed that the use of the
white space frequencies would reduce the
broadcast quality of their TV signals, and
that current spectrum levels are insufficient
to provide wireless broadband to American
consumers. But since filing formal arguments
with the FCC, some broadcasters have begun
rethinking the commission’s decision and are
now considering using the white spaces for
interactive “back-channel” applications to
deliver highly local content. Wireless interests have also argued that broadcasters could
also benefit by using the white space to offer
online video games, shopping services, and
other data applications.
The white spaces may also create an
opportunity for cable companies to deliver
wireless broadband services. (Further bolstering the case of the wireless community,
position papers published by a number of
industry sources suggest that much of the
spectrum is idle at any given time. Rohit
Gaikwad, director of systems design engineering at Broadcom, also says a coalition of companies is lobbying the FCC to
reduce restrictions of bandwidth to allow
a bit more leakage into the TV channels
to demonstrate that it doesn’t cause serious interference problems, especially with
digital signals.)
MANAGING THE SYSTEM
To manage the use of white spaces, FCC
rules require that devices in the U.S. query
a TV bands database to obtain a list of
channels that are available for their operation, ensuring the protection of licensed
services. The FCC has approved 10 differMarch/April 2012
13
ent database providers to conduct 45-day
public trials of their systems. Florida-based
Spectrum Bridge says it successfully completed the trial on November 2, 2011, and
the company formally filed a Summary
Report of the trial (which can be found on
the FCC’s electronic filing system).
As of this writing, only Spectrum Bridge
received FCC approval to operate its cloudbased spectrum management TV white
spaces database system, beginning with a
phased deployment in Wilmington, N.C.
The North Carolina community was the
first to switch from analog to digital TV.
The FCC has also agreed to set aside
two channels for wireless microphones to
mitigate potential interference from news
production crews or entertainment venues
and others who might use the spectrum to
support wireless microphones and other
devices for brief periods.
“Now that the solution is approved by
the FCC, TV white space will be the proving ground for showing the market how our
solutions can be used for spectrum bands in
the U.S. and globally,” says Rod Dir, Spectrum Bridge’s CEO. In fact, major industry
players are beginning to take a larger role
in how spectrum is allocated and managed. For example, Qualcomm and Nokia
have recently proposed the concept of
Authorized Shared Access, which allows
spectrum sharing via cognitive network
techniques aimed at benefiting consumers
and helping to sustain economic growth.
In early December, Telcordia, a specialist in mobile broadband and enterprise
communications software and services,
announced that the FCC’s Office of Engineering and Technology would begin a
45-day public trial of Telcordia’s white
space database. The FCC also conditionally designated Microsoft as a TV bands
database administrator. (Microsoft was the
tenth and final entity to be named by the
FCC to test a white space database.)
The white spaces are expected to be
especially useful for serving less populated,
rural areas and developing countries where
there are more vacant TV channels, even
in the U.S. where the Department of Commerce says that only 57 percent of rural
U.S. households have broadband Internet
access, compared to 70 percent of urban
households.
14
March/April 2012
“The development of the 802.22
standard started out for the sole
purpose of meeting the demands
of rural areas.”
—Apurva N. Mody, IEEE 802.22 Standard Working Group
SETTING A STANDARD
At least one new technical standard is helping to smooth the way to the use of these
white spaces, ensuring that just about anything designed and built for this newlyavailable spectrum is interoperable.
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) published the IEEE
802.22 standard in July 2011 to provide
reliable and secure broadband access to
wide regional areas around the world. IEEE
802.22 incorporates several advanced features, including cognitive radio capabilities, accurate geo-location techniques, and
spectrum sensing. The characteristics of
the standard are considered ideal for wide
bandwidth applications in the U.S., Asia
and Europe, particularly through wireless
regional area networks (WRANS).
Another standard likely to benefit from
using white space is IEEE 802.11af. Sometimes known as White-Fi, it could provide
services similar to IEEE 802.11 Wi-Fi. The
difference between Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/ and
the proposed 802.af is that the newer standard is based on evolving “smart” or cognitive radio technologies for operation in the
TV white spaces, using emerging softwaredefined radio (SDR) technologies that can
potentially interoperate with virtually any
wireless transmission standard. 802.22 and
802.11af may also find different applications of white space. While 802.22 is more
“WiMax-like,” targeting wide regional, possibly rural, broadband areas (at least, initially), 802.11af is closer to Wi-Fi in terms
of its likely applications.
“Today, more than half the world’s population lives in rural areas with hardly any
access to broadband. The development of the
802.22 standard started out for the sole purpose of meeting the demands of rural areas,”
says Apurva N. Mody, chair of the IEEE
802.22 Standard Working Group (www.
ieee802.org/22) and chair of the WRAN
Alliance (www.wranalliance.org). “Our focus
was on the creation of rural networks.”
But Mody also sees significant opportu-
U K W H I TE S PA CE S TUDY
While the U.S. is still seen as the driving force behind white space applications,
a study by U.K.-based Cambridge Consultants indicates the European Commission is in the process of establishing a spectrum policy program to address
similar issues. But the study says developing the EC program will “take time.”
“Without doubt, standards developed in different parts of the world will initially be different,” the Cambridge study says, adding that, “harmonization will be
required if white space is to be successful on a significant geographical basis in
the long-term.” (None of this has been lost on China, which conducted a series of
forums on IoT activities at the China Hi-Tech Fair in Shenzhen in November. The
tech fair also featured nine pavilions focused on IoT developments.)
Even with several players already active in white space applications, white
space activity is only beginning to gain traction. In a recent issue of its magazine Interface, Cambridge Consultants says, “Because of the large number of
possible areas where white space could be used, the technology is expected
to emerge initially as a set of smaller bottom-up market opportunities. As
the idea of unlicensed access to large parts of spectrum starts to take shape,
white space has the potential to trailblaze a revolutionary new approach to
wireless access.”
CEVision.org
nities for 802.22 in the consumer electronics sector. “It took some time for people to
take up Wi-Fi-based products, but it has
grown exponentially into a multi-billion
dollar industry. I believe the same thing
will happen with TV white spaces.”
Mody also says that several advancements to cognitive radio are being considered to improve the performance of radios
that would fit into white space applications.
IN THE CHIPS
Several chip companies and other industry
vendors consider white space to be prime
spectrum real estate because the signals
in these TV bands travel well, and these
ally replace 802.11n devices. (A number of
companies, including Qualcomm Atheros,
Broadcom, Quantenna Communications
and Redpine Signals, are promoting the “ac”
version of 802.11 for applications such as
streaming video and for other home-based
and mobile devices.)
Product development is proceeding in
parallel along with these standards. In the
802.11 world, products often get released
when the draft of a standard reaches its second stage of approval, but before it’s actually
ratified and official. “You know enough to
develop and even release products after the
second draft of the standard,” says Hurlston.
“That’s typically what we would do.”
“I think you will see a tablet technology
where you don’t have to pay a subscription
for wide area service. Probably less so (for)
PCs and mobile phones.”
—Michael Hurlston, Broadcom
frequency bands are well suited for mobile
wireless devices.
Michael Hurlston, senior vice president
and general manager of Broadcom’s wireless local-area network (WLAN) business,
says the earliest 802.11af products could
actually reach consumers would be toward
the end of 2013, perhaps early 2014. He
also sees the earliest opportunities for
802.11af applications in rural areas, possibly with the creation of local Internet connections or services.
As for devices, Hurlston says, “I think
you will see a tablet technology where you
don’t have to pay a subscription for wide
area service. Probably less so (for) PCs and
mobile phones.”
There’s also a push on for the adoption of
another technical standard—802.11ac. IMS
Research says that the number of announcements of 802.11ac chips with peak data rates
of one Gbps or higher, compared to the 600
Mbps peak data rate of the more familiar
802.11n Wi-Fi standard and lower power
consumption has prompted it to boost its
forecast for the shipment of 802.11ac devices
this year to three million, growing steadily
to more than 400 million devices in 2016.
The 802.11ac standard may not be finalized
until late 2013, but it is expected to eventuCEVision.org
INTERNET OF THINGS
One of the elements of opening up the TV
white spaces that has wireless carriers and
device manufacturers excited is the opportunity to develop new integrated Webbased products and services that have
become known as the Internet of Things
(IoT), a concept in which smart things like
wireless devices and appliances will easily
be able to connect with other devices in
their environment, possibly communicating directly with each other without going
through a network infrastructure.
Vendors have already identified several
opportunities for the IoT space: One is micro
or highly localized wireless Internet services
for businesses (think “big box” stores such as
Target and Walmart, supermarkets, or local
government agencies) operating in rural or
remote areas. Broadcasters could also use
the IoT concept for interactive “back-channel” applications to provide local content
and advertising. Another highly anticipated
opportunity for IoT is just about anything
that might improve the efficiency of energyrelated products, including smart metering
and the control and monitoring of major
appliances.
The Gartner Group also sees opportunities for IoT in image recognition (identi-
fying objects, identifying logos), near-field
communications payment (allowing users
to make payments by waving their mobile
phones in front of a compatible reader),
and embedded sensors that could detect
app stores where hundreds of thousands of
applications are available to mobile users.
IoT concepts are also expected to be
a boon to the already anticipated huge
growth of machine-to-machine (M2M)
devices that could “talk” to each other wirelessly. (The TIA recently released its Smart
Device Communications Reference Architecture standard, TIA-4940, addressing
M2M technologies and markets.)
The Yankee Group expects enterprise
cellular M2M connections worldwide fitting comfortably into fleet
management, mobile health, security, connected energy, and industrial processes, to name a few
potential high-growth market segments, surging from 81.8 million
connections in 2011 to nearly 217.5
million in 2015. It also sees connectivity revenue more than doubling from
$3.1 billion to $6.7 billion in the same time
frame, making the M2M market one of the
highest growth areas in the wireless arena
in the next decade. One potential inhibitor to M2M’s success is the development of
industry standards. Research firm Analysis
Mason says interoperability could continue
to be a challenge for M2M as major industry sectors develop products and services
for both vertical and horizontal markets. •
In February, Congress granted the Federal
Communications Committee the authority
to hold spectrum incentive auctions. This
legislation will ensure that licensed and
unlicensed spectrum are put to the highest
use. CEA advocated for this legislation for
years to improve the nation’s ability to innovate, create jobs in the future and meet the
burgeoning needs of 21st century wireless
networks.
These auctions will bring additional
revenue to the U.S. Treasury while handsomely rewarding broadcasters who choose
to participate. Most important, this will
help ensure wireless broadband products
have more usable spectrum and thus will
increase the likelihood that the U.S. will
remain the global leader of the Internet
economy.
March/April 2012
15
GAMING’S
CROWDED
MARKETSPACE
A
BY JOHN GAUDIOSI
MID THE GLITZ AND GLAM, Sony Computer Entertainment America used
CEA’s 2012 International CES to showcase its newest portable game system,
PlayStation (PS) Vita. Although the device launched in Japan in December with
more than 500,000 units sold, Sony’s big global push for the new OLED display
gaming gadget kicked off in North America in January. Sony however, faces challenges with its newest gaming device including stiff competition from Apple iOS
and Google Android tablets and smartphones as well as strong sales from market
leader Nintendo’s line-up of portable gaming hardware.
Nintendo was also at CES with its Nintendo 3DS
device, which sold more than four million units in the U.S.
alone last year. But Sony is committed to PS Vita for the
long haul with a 10-year plan for this upgradable device
much like its PlayStation 3, which also offers interoperability between Sony’s portable and console devices.
John Koller, director of hardware marketing for Sony
Computer Entertainment America, concedes that launching the PS Vita is a challenge at a time when smartphones
and tablets are competing with videogame systems for
consumer attention. “There is a certain demographic
that’s come to this expanding market and for that we
applaud Apple and some of the Android devices for assisting us in bringing more consumers to this space,” he says.
“We’ve built Vita around these types of big experiences
like Uncharted: Golden Abyss, FIFA, Marvel vs. Capcom
16
March/April 2012
and Assassin’s Creed that aren’t possible on tablets or
smartphones. The technology built into Vita far supersedes what is in the market or what will be in the market
over the next few years.”
Michael Pachter, videogame analyst for Wedbush Morgan Securities, forecasts that Sony will sell 4.3 million
units of hardware globally this year, including 1.5 million
in the U.S., 1.5 million in Japan and 1.3 million in Europe.
He believes the biggest challenge for Sony is the price
point, which is $250 for the Wi-Fi-enabled device and
$300 for the AT&T 3G version. “While it’s not expensive,
and arguably the PS Vita is a phenomenal value, it is the
same price point as a PS3 with a large HDD (hard disc
drive), so it’s hard for someone without a console to purchase a PS Vita before a PS3,” explains Pachter. “I think
that will limit the Vita’s appeal to people who already have
CEVision.org
LAUNCHING THE PS VITA IS A CHALLENGE AT A TIME
WHEN SMARTPHONES AND TABLETS ARE COMPETING
WITH VIDEOGAME SYSTEMS FOR CONSUMER ATTENTION.
CEVision.org
battle with the Vita beyond Japan.”
There are positives surrounding Sony’s replacement for
its PlayStation Portable (PSP). Billy Pidgeon, videogame
analyst at M2 Research, believes PSP taught Sony some
valuable lessons. He says that PS Vita has better competitive prospects than did PSP, and the PS Vita retail performance should reflect that by an order of magnitude.
THE BIGGER PICTURE
With PS Vita, Sony is targeting its “PlayStation nation,”
which consists of early adopter males in their twenties
that purchase a lot of games and enjoy deep game experiences, according to Koller. PS Vita provides graphics
that are closer to the PlayStation 3 than an iPad 2. Koller
believes a lot of PS Vita owners already own a PSP and
PS3, as well as other PlayStation hardware.
March/April 2012
Glenn Pierce/TMG Custom Media
a PS3, so the sell-through will be lower than many expect
for a while.”
Pachter also believes the PlayStation Vita cards,
although priced lower than standard Sony memory
sticks, are still pretty expensive. The limited built-in storage means that to buy downloadable games, consumers
also have to buy extra storage, which increases the price
of downloads. Gamers will have the choice of buying new
games at retail stores or digitally, although many smaller
games will be sold only as downloadable content through
the PlayStation Store.
“This is about brand awareness for Sony on a global
level, and, 10 years after promising it, delivering on a
vertically integrated product with software and content,”
says PJ McNealy, videogame analyst at Digital World
Research. “They have lost ground and have an uphill
17
S
BREAKING DOWN
PS VITA TECHNOLOGY
ONY’S KEY SELLING POINTS for the PS
Vita are built into the hardware itself.
While the PS Vita doesn’t have a large
screen like the iPad 2 or Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, it does showcase incredible
depth through its five-inch OLED multitouch screen. Games like Uncharted:
Golden Abyss come alive with the vibrant
display.
It’s the interaction with virtual characters in HD environments that separates PS Vita from both its competition
from Apple and Google, as well as from
Nintendo devices. The unit features a
rear-touch pad, dual analog sticks, dual
cameras, and a six-axis motion sensing
system. PS Vita will also interact with
the PlayStation 3 with certain games,
offering multiplayer experiences across
devices with no latency issues and introduce cloud gaming functionality, where
players can start a game on the PS3 and
continue it on the PS Vita.
Both versions of the PS Vita offer a
variety of social networking and communications services such as Facebook,
Flickr, foursquare, Skype, and Twitter.
There’s also “near,” which allows gamers to connect with other PS Vita players
nearby. “Near” also enables locationbased gaming features such as “gifting,” in which a user can access virtual
game-related items that other users are
sharing by checking in at geographic
locations that others have also visited.
Another form of connectivity comes
through “LiveArea,” an interactive space
for each PS Vita game that allows players to access the latest information for
games through PlayStation Network.
Additionally, users can view an “Activity” log that is constantly updated with
accomplishments from users who are
playing the same game, which in turn
can trigger active real-time communication among users. Additionally, PS Vita
comes pre-installed with the “Party”
app, which enables users to enjoy voice
chat or text chat any time they’re connected to the Internet without needing
to use Skype.
18
March/April 2012
When Sony first started the design process for PS Vita about four years ago, the
company went to its game developers to
discuss potential features for the device.
Sony reached out to both its network of
internal studios as well as third-party publishers to make sure that PS Vita games,
especially the first generation of titles,
would take advantage of its capabilities.
(See sidebars)
One of the first things to go was the Universal Media Disk (UMD). Created for the
delivery of movies and games across the PSP
line of devices, the disc was victim to piracy
as well as negative press. The new format
is an easier medium for developers to work
with and Sony has experienced better operational efficiencies. “The UMD format, a pro-
One update gamers won’t find in the
future is autostereoscopic gameplay.
While Sony continues to market the stereoscopic 3D capabilities of PS3, they’ve
let Nintendo and a growing number of
smartphone makers have the glasses-free
portable gaming space to themselves.
Koller says Sony looks at the larger screen
as the resident technology for 3D gaming.
Sony Computer Entertainment actually
entered the 3DTV business last fall with
its 24-inch PlayStation 3D LCD monitor
and glasses.
“We don’t think the smaller screen experiences are quite as compelling within the
3D space,” says Koller. “Certainly we have
a lot of learning on the PS3 side and our
research has shown that consumers enjoy
“The way that we expect to change how Vita
is used in play is through firmware updates,
as we’ve done with PS3 very effectively.”
—John Koller, Sony
prietary version of optical-read disc media,
was wrong for a portable device,” says Pidgeon. “Optical disc was a huge competitive
advantage for Sony with the first PlayStation against competitive Nintendo and Sega
home consoles, which used more expensive
silicon-based media that required longer
manufacturing cycles. Solid state media is
far better for portable gaming devices.”
With both PS Vita cards and digital distribution options, Sony has built the PS
Vita for the long haul. The hardware maker
released multiple versions of the PSP over
a relatively short window and by the time
the last device was released, they had abandoned the UMD completely in favor of digital downloads.
“We’ve designed the PS Vita in the same
vein as the PS3 and PS2 and we think that
the ecosystem will live for 10 years,” says
Koller. “We have no plans for hardware
iteration at this point. The way that we
expect to change how Vita is used in play is
through firmware updates, as we’ve done
with PS3 very effectively. You’re going to
see features and applications added and
changed as we go along. Certainly we have
a pretty strong roadmap for the rest of calendar year 2012 and 2013.”
playing it on the large screens, but have
had health issues on the smaller screens.
We would have eliminated some of our own
consumer base through that avenue. Our
bread and butter with 3D is PS3.”
MORE COMPETITION
But gamers are changing rapidly. Apple’s
new iPad 3 is shipping with a new HD
screen and a quad-core processor. And
gaming tablets like Razer’s Project Fiona,
which debuted at CES, and NVIDIA Tegra
3-powered devices like the Asus Eee Pad
Transformer Prime are entering the space
with advanced gaming capabilities. There
is more competition in the videogame sector than ever.
“Tablets are the fastest growing consumer electronics device in history,” says
Jen-Hsun Huang, president, CEO and
co-founder of NVIDIA. “Just as computerized technology has turned digital phones
into smartphones, just as digital music has
revolutionized music through technology,
now tablets are changing the way people
play games.”
The first year of tablet sales saw 20 million devices sold to early adopters. The
second year saw mainstream growth with
CEVision.org
A
more than 60 million tablets sold. Part
of that growth has come through Google
Android tablets. While a quarter of all tablets sold in the first year were non-Apple
iPad devices, the second year that figure
rose to 40 percent. Part of that growth can
also be attributed to NVIDIA’s powerful
new chips, which are pushing both tablet
and smartphone technology forward.
“It’s a losing battle when it comes to
portable game devices like PS Vita and
Nintendo 3DS when you look at how fast
tablets and smartphones are evolving,” said
Ed Del Castillo, president of game developer Liquid Entertainment. “Tablets and
smartphones are devices that you have to
carry around with you anyway, whereas you
don’t have to carry around a 3DS or a PS
Vita because you’re not using that as your
phone or as your portable computer.”
Considering the game maker is in second
place against Nintendo without Google and
Apple in the mix, there remain questions
about the future of dedicated portable gaming devices beyond the PS Vita. There are
more than 250 million Android devices in
the market today with 700,000 new activations a day, providing an enormous base for
content developers. Game developers can
now target one, cohesive user base thanks
NINTENDO 3DS BREAKS RECORDS
FTER A SLOW START OUT OF THE GATE in February 2011, due in large part to its $250
price point, Nintendo dropped its price for the 3DS to $170 in August. Consumers responded to the new price point as Nintendo sold four million units of hardware in the U.S. and an
additional four million in Japan in 2011. It’s worth noting the original price point, because
Sony’s PS Vita carries a $250 launch price point in the U.S. and its games cost as much as
$50, which is more expensive than Nintendo 3DS games, at $40.
Nintendo also connected with gamers by bringing key franchises like Super Mario
3D Land and Mario Kart 7 to 3DS. Each game sold more than one million copies in
the U.S. alone last fall. “Consumers are really going to come to our devices, first and
foremost, for gaming experiences,” says Scott Moffitt, Nintendo of America’s executive
vice president of sales and marketing. “If you can provide other non-gaming, entertainment experiences as well, that really just helps push them over the fence and solidify the
purchase.”
Nintendo has expanded the capabilities of its 3DS
by offering 3D video recording capabilities, which allow
users to record up to 10 minutes of 3D video. The
game maker has also launched a series of original
3D shorts, partnering with Hollywood studios like
Dreamworks Animation and entities like The Blue
Man Group and College Humor to provide free
entertainment for gamers.
Nintendo continues to support its Nintendo DSi, Nintendo DS XL and Nintendo
DS devices, on top of Nintendo 3DS. And
new games for all platforms are being
rolled out in 2012, as the game maker continues to
push glasses-free 3D gaming to the mainstream audience.
“While it’s not expensive, and arguably the PS Vita
is a phenomenal value, it is the same price point
as a PS3 with a large HDD (hard disc drive), so it’s
hard for someone without a console to purchase a
PS Vita before a PS3.” —Michael Pachter, Wedbush Morgan Securities
to the new Google Android Ice Cream
Sandwich operating system.
Developers are currently launching
14,000 new Android apps a month, and
a large percentage of these are games.
Apple has over a half a million apps available for its devices and these numbers
continue to grow exponentially. But that’s
just part of the gaming competition. New
streaming capabilities from companies
like OnLive, Gaikai and even apps like
Splashtop allow PC quality games to be
streamed with no lag on tablets. NVIDIA
CEVision.org
demonstrated Skyrim streaming from
a PC to an Asus Eee Pad Transformer
Prime at CES.
Tablets and smartphones are advancing
at a record pace. Tegra 6 chips will be 100
times more powerful than Tegra 2 chips
that debuted just last year. It’s not just the
portable gaming space that these devices
are impacting, but the very future of game
consoles. Tablets can now stream games to
HDTVs, serving as portable gaming devices
as well as “consoles” while at home. Game
retailer Gamestop is already selling tablets
and game controllers designed
for them alongside Xbox 360s,
PlayStation 3s and Wiis in its
stores. Nintendo has a new Wii
U launching in 2012 while Sony
and Microsoft are expected to
introduce new consoles in 2014.
But beyond that, the future of
gaming is likely going to take a
tablet form.
Sony already makes PlayStation Certified gaming tablets and smartphones,
but it separates its game division through
Sony Computer Entertainment and its
exclusive game franchises. PS Vita and
Nintendo 3DS face challenges, but Sony
and Nintendo will continue to push their
current devices to the masses. Tablet
prices still need to drop to the Kindle Fire
and Nook level, but that is happening. It’s
just a matter of time, and Moore’s Law,
before all gaming also comes in a portable
device. •
March/April 2012
19
CEAnewsline
SBC PROFILE
President Product for Profit
Karen Waksman
CE Vision sat down with Karen Waksman, a new
addition to CEA’s Small Business Council (SBC)
and a first-time CES attendee, to find out more
about her training program “Retail MBA: How to
Sell to Walmart and Other Chain Store Retailers.”
Waksman describes herself
as a “manufacturer rep turned
speaker and trainer.” In addition to leading seminars and
Webcasts for groups like CEA’s
SBC, Waksman’s company,
Product for Profit, has developed a training program called
Retail MBA that teaches new
and established companies,
alike, how to get their products
into small, chain and online
retailers as well as catalogs.
Having represented products
in multiple industries, Waksman
understands what it takes to sell
to retailers. She parlayed her pas-
MEMBER LINK
The International
CES is our highest
value tradeshow of
the year.
20
March/April 2012
sion for small business and innovation with her experience as a
manufacturer’s representative
to teach small businesses how to
prepare a product for retail, pitch
a chain store buyer and turn a
lead into a sale.
She says what started as a
fun side project quickly grew
into a huge business opportunity. “I published an eBook
outlining my little formula
that I’ve used for years to get
products into stores,” she says.
Once published, her eBook led
to speaking opportunities and
ultimately evolved into a com-
prehensive training
program.
Waksman’s message strongly resonates with small
businesses
and
entrepreneurs, if the
enthusiastic audience at her CES conference presentation or top-rated series of
SBC webinars is any indication.
“There are a lot of people just
starting out who have no clue
how to get retail ready,” Waksman says. She believes that the
most common misconception
is that chain store buyers aren’t
interested in working with a
one-sku company just starting out. “Buyers are constantly
looking for innovative new
products. Often small companies can do that quicker and
better,” she says. “I 100 percent
believe that companies just
starting out have a great chance
of getting their products into
chain stores.”
The 2012 International
CES was Waksman’s first. “It
was the coolest thing I’ve ever
seen and I felt very lucky and
blessed to be there and be a part
of it,” she says. Waksman believes trade
shows are a strategy
for reaching retail
buyers. She asks,
“What’s better than
having buyers come
to you?” Waksman is
also very excited as a new member of CEA to become active in
the SBC.
Waksman offers some tips
for small business owners trying to make an impact at a show
like CES. First, she recommends that exhibitors identify
and reach out to retail buyers
in advance to build excitement
for a new product and extend
an invitation to come see them
in their booth. Second, she
encourages product companies
to exhibit when they are “retail
ready.” This means having an
actual product to demonstrate
(including packaging) and all of
the pricing details worked out.
Third, she advises, always have
purchase orders on hand since
many buyers have the ability to
purchase on the spot.
Stay tuned for news on
upcoming SBC webinars. •
By Jason Oxman
T
he 2012 International CES included a brand new TechZone—Eureka Park—with a special
focus on smaller tech start-ups. With more than 3,000 exhibitors unveiling some 20,000
new products in front of 150,000 tech executives, CES is the world’s best stage for innovative technology debuts.
For Boston-based iTwin Inc., CES was such a successful product launching pad that the company
decided to join the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) to benefit from CEA’s year round activities and engagement on behalf of the technology industry. Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer
Lux Anantharaman tells Vision magazine why CES is his “highest value tradeshow of the year” and
why CEA is the right place for tech start-ups.
Tell us about iTwin—when was
the company founded and what
is unique about your product?
iTwin is based in Boston and
is a wholly owned subsidiary
of iTwin Pte. Ltd., which was
founded in June 2010 as a Singapore based, venture-backed
start-up. The unmet customer
need we address is simple and
safe remote file access. Traditional remote file access solutions
are either simple to use or are
very secure, but not both. iTwin is
the world’s first remote file access
solution that is extremely simple
to use and offers high-level security. iTwin works like a ‘limitless’
secure USB device that connects
any two or more Internet connected computers anywhere in
the world.
iTwin won an Innovations award
at CES for engineering and design.
What did winning that award
mean for iTwin?
CEVision.org
CEAnewsline
TECHNOLOGY & STANDARDS
Winning any award is always
a thrill, but when you receive a
prestigious award from a distinguished brand such as the
International CES, it is truly
special. The CES award is a
testament to the iTwin team’s
hard work and relentless focus
on product quality. This award
has inspired us to further push
the envelope while designing
new products and enhancements.
How will consumers share content online in the future? Is the
cloud the answer, or a hardware
solution, or is it both?
I believe it is both. If
you use the analogy that online
content is like our extended
human memories, then there
are three types of ‘online’ memories. ‘Public’ memories have
been indexed and made easily
searchable through wonderful
tools such as Google. ‘Community’ memories have been
made accessible and shared
via Facebook and other social
networks. However, ‘private’
memories or content is still
typically stored and made
accessible via a hard disk as the
most secure method. Remotely
accessing a hard disk has historically been too complicated.
It is a real pain.
What is your outlook for the CE
industry for 2012—do you see
continued consumer demand for
technology?
Yes, two major trends, the
growth of digital storage and
also the expansion of computing devices, especially mobile
devices, makes me optimistic
about the future.
Do consumers understand the
importance of privacy and security online?
Online consumers have been
making a trade-off of conveCEVision.org
An Efficient Process
F
By Bill Belt
nience for privacy
for many years now,
and social networks and
cloud storage services are good
examples of this. However,
there are certain types of information, such as confidential
files and other proprietary, sensitive company information or
financial data that simply cannot be stored in a public cloud
service.
How important is free trade and
access to the global supply chain
to your business?
Our business relies on the
Internet and a global supply
chain to deliver iTwin products
into 40+ countries, so it’s critically important.
What would you say to start-up
technology companies that are
considering CEA membership?
We joined CEA in 2011, however I would suggest that other
start-ups take advantage of
CEA’s excellent research, training programs and networking
opportunities. CEA is such a
treasure trove of knowledge for
any young company.
What did CES mean for your
business? Tell us about your
experience at the show.
This was our 2nd year at
the International CES. After
launching iTwin at the 2011
CES, we announced our exciting new iTwin Multi functionality at the 2012 CES, plus several
new key retailer channels. We
also benefitted from excellent
press at CES and developed a
strong pipeline of sales leads as
well. The International CES is
our highest value tradeshow of
the year. •
ederal, state and local governments represent the
biggest consumers of goods and services and benefit
greatly from the technical standards that facilitate
interoperability between the goods and services it
purchases. Yet the industry-led, standards-setting
process is under increasing threat by the government. Over and
over the government has chosen to write its own, unique standards
even when an industry consensus standard exists. Duplication of
standards-setting efforts wastes valuable resources, taxpayer funds
and increases the costs of doing business with the government. It
also threatens the effectiveness of industry-led efforts by creating
multiple standards.
The National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act was
signed into law in 1996 and directs federal agencies and departments
to use technical standards that are developed or adopted by voluntary
consensus standards bodies. Industry technical standards serve as a
means to carry out policy objectives determined by the government.
Revisions made to OMB Circular A-119 in February 1998 instruct
agencies to use voluntary consensus standards in lieu of government
unique standards “except where inconsistent with law or otherwise
impractical.” These policies are intended to reduce to a minimum the
reliance by agencies on government unique standards.
Many federal agencies have used the exception loophole to circumvent the industry standards process and write their own, unique
standards. For example, CEA has standards for measuring energy
consumption of set-top boxes and televisions that allow for accurate,
repeatable measurement in these devices. They were drafted with participation by both industry and government representatives. Yet, in
spite of these efforts, government regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy do not directly
reference these standards. Instead, the agencies relied on outside consultants to create variations of the industry standards for use in their
regulations.
Standards at CEA are developed in an open, transparent process
that encourages participation from anyone with an interest in the
outcome. Businesses, academics, government officials and users have
an opportunity to influence and shape the standards-setting process.
CEA’s market driven approach to standards development offers flexibility, efficiency and a timeliness that is unmatched in industry or
government. CEA’s partnership with the American National Standards Institute ensures our reputation as a credible and flexible
standards-making body. By participating in standards development
activities and by implementing industry standards, the government
can streamline processes, trim costs and ensure that federal agencies
have the best technologies and processes available for their needs.
The government will greatly benefit by strengthening their cooperation with voluntary, private sector, consensus standards bodies.
Government participation in the development of industry-led technical standards, and the use of these standards, is in the public interest
and benefits all stakeholders equally. •
March/April 2012
21
CEAnewsline
RETAIL INSIGHTS
Nielsen’s
Michael Fischer
Talks about Change
By Kerry Moyer
M
ichael Fischer is president of Nielsen’s, a privately-held, family-run retailer of consumer
electronics, major and household appliances,
and tires. Nielsen’s is a classic “Main Street
America” storefront and showroom. Since
1923, Nielsen’s has served customers in its Spencer, Iowa community with low prices on products and top notch customer service.
Nielsen’s is a member of the Great Plains Marketing Group division
of the buying group MEGA. Michael is an engaged member of CEA
and participates in CEA Retailer Council activities.
How did you get into retail and
why did you make it your career?
My first selling experience was
when I was 10. I sold subscriptions on my newspaper route.
When I was 17 or so, I got a job
working at a camera store to feed
my lifelong addiction to photography. I’ve worked both retail
and wholesale, but prefer retail
because it’s dynamic and because
I’m entrepreneurial by nature.
Tell us about Nielsen’s and how
consumer electronics fits into
your product mix.
We’re a small-town Iowa
retailer with a diverse product mix. Consumer electronics
helps define our overall position in the marketplace. All
products have become increasingly sophisticated and, we
want to be there to not only
sell those products, but also to
help people get the most out
of them. Without consumer
electronics, it would be much
harder to achieve our objective.
As a retailer, what keeps you
awake at night?
You mean other than not setting
the sleep timer on my bedroom
TV? It’s not the economy—I
22
March/April 2012
went through the farm crisis of
the 1980s—and, at the time, I
never thought it would become
the learning experience it turned
out to be. I tend to be most concerned about big picture things
like government policy
and regulations. The
U.S. can compete with
anyone, anywhere, at
anytime; but, only if
we’re willing to make
the investments in education and innovation.
I’m deeply concerned
that political gridlock
and bad economic policies will
lead to a lower standard of living
and, as a result, less business.
You participate on CEA’s Retailer
Council. How does being a CEA
member benefit your business?
CEA brings incredible value to
its membership. For instance,
I’m a firm believer in using
market research and economic
data to help determine what the
trends are and, as a result, how
to drive our business accordingly. While you can get some
data from suppliers or a buying group, nothing compares
to having the market research
CEA provides. To me, it lev-
els the playing field between
me and my hundred-million
dollar competitors. And CEA
membership comes at a very
affordable price. Then there’s
education—CEA provides retailers like me with a lot of benefits
for a small investment. As an
example, last year I attended
the CEA Retailer Council’s
“Great Ideas Meeting,” which
featured three retail experts
discussing how to improve the
sales process, build relationships, and make more sales and
more loyal customers.
Why are you such a passionate
advocate for the collection of
existing state sales taxes on all
purchases?
I do business in my local community. Spencer is a small town
in Iowa. As a family run business, we have an investment in
our storefront and showroom.
We employ workers
from our community.
I pay and collect taxes.
That’s why I press my
representatives to support the “Main Street
Fairness Act”; because,
it levels the playing field
between Internet retailers and other retailers
like me. We need uniformity
between online and storefront
retailers when it comes to the
collection of existing state sales
taxes. I’ve seen fellow independent retailers, who, after growing tired of having to compete
against “No Sales Tax,” decided
to throw in the towel and leave
the consumer electronics segment to focus on other parts of
their businesses. I was heartened
when I read that CEA’s Executive Board at the end of last year
had adopted a policy position
supporting federal legislation
and the concept of equal sales
tax treatment for all goods and
services, whether purchased in
person or remotely. Thank you,
CEA!
Do you have a tip to share with
other retailers?
One of my favorite quotes is
from Edmund Burke, who
once said, “We must all obey
the great law of change. It is the
most powerful law of nature.”
In business, as in life, to stay in
your comfort zone is something
we all tend to do but to do so in
business is often a fatal mistake.
Stay current. Stay involved in
associations like CEA that will
help you adapt more easily. It’s
simple, but it isn’t easy. By the
way, Burke wrote those words
in 1792, and they’re as true
today as they were over two
hundred years ago. •
2012 CEA Events
LA Games Conference
April 23–24
Los Angeles, CA
CES on the Hill
April 24
Washington, DC
Digital Patriots Dinner
April 25
Washington, DC
Spring Technology &
Standards Forum
May 14–18
Dallas, TX
Producers Guild of America Produced By Conference
June 8–10
Culver City, CA
CE Week
June 25–29
New York, NY
CEA Line Shows
June 27–28
New York, NY
SINOCES
July 5–8
Qingdao, China
For more information on CEA
events, call 703- 907-7600, or
visit CE.org.
CEVision.org
CEAnewsline
Innovation Reigns at the
2012 International CES
Las Vegas may be best known for Elvis but January
also marks the annual International CES show. CES
is an all you can eat smorgasbord for the technology
industry. And for the first time, it was announced at
CES that in 2012 factory sales of consumer electronics will exceed $200 billion annually.
Everything is bigger in Vegas including the 2012 International CES,
owned and produced by CEA. This
year the show broke all records. It was
the most massive CES in the event’s
44-year history with more than 3,100
exhibitors. The show floor spread over
1.861 million net square feet.
The world’s largest consumer
technology tradeshow drew a record
153,000+ executives from business,
government (see page 28), entertainment, automotive and, of course, the
consumer electronics industry. What’s
more, 34,000+ international attendees
trekked to CES accentuating the fact
that the global consumer technology
industry will reach $1 trillion this year.
Executive delegations from thousands of global companies came to
CES to meet with customers. Each
CES attendee has an average of 12
meetings at the show—an efficient
way to network and do business with
a wide range of global executives in
one location. More than 20,000 new
products and services were launched at
CES including the latest in audio, autoCEVision.org
motive electronics, connected home
technologies, digital imaging/photography, electronic gaming, healthcare,
and entertainment and content.
THE SNEAK PEEK
Two days before CES opened, the
Venetian was like a giant hive buzzing with reporters. On Sunday, January 9, CES Unveiled drew nearly
2,000 members of the media to see
78 exhibitors showing some very cool
products. Each year CES Unveiled
gives reporters a pre-show look at
who will be making news headlines
before the show officially opens. They
also get a sneak peek at the product
debuts from the Innovations Design
and Engineering Award Honorees.
What did they see? The world’s
thinnest laptop, solar-powered Kindles, Android-powered TVs, 3M’s
capacitive touch display that can recognize 20 simultaneous touches and
Lenovo’s 27-inch capacitive touch
panel running on a Windows platform—were just a few of the gadgets
on display.
Press day kicked off early the next
morning at 8:00. It also was the largest
in show history, featuring 25 exhibitor
press conferences. During the entire
show, CES hosted a record-breaking
72 exhibitor press conferences.
Product launches included:
• Dish Network: The Hopper Whole
Home DVR Entertainment System
• Ford/NPR: PR smartphone App for
Ford SYNC
• Fujifilm: X-Pro 1 Interchangeable
Lens Camera
• Huawei: Ascend P1 Smartphone
with Dual-Core Processor
• Intel: Lenovo Ultrabook with ArcSoft
Quick Photo
• Klipsh: G42 Sound System
• LG Electronics: 55-inch 3D OLED
TV
• Livio Radio: Livio Connect
• Monster Cable: NCredible N-ERGY
Earbuds
• Netgear: Universal Dual Band
Wi-Fi Range Extender
• Nokia: Lumina 900
• Panasonic: MySpace TV
• Pioneer: App Radio 2
• Samsung: ES8000 LED SmartTV
• Sharp: Aquos 80-inch Display/
Board
• Sony: Android-powered Walkman Z
• Stream TV: Ultra-D, Glasses-Free
3DTV
• VOXX Electronics: Insite Personal
Property Tracking System
More than 7,600 print and online
clips and 4,700 broadcast hits profiling the technology advances at CES
appeared in the news media in January. This year the number of international press that came to Vegas also
surpassed expectations. Some 1,900
international journalists and analysts
from 65 countries (outside the U.S.)
covered the show from top outlets
such as the BBC, O Estado de Sao
Paolo, Xinhua News Agency, Deutsche
Presse-Agentur, La Repubblica and the
Canadian Broadcasting Corp.
EUREKA PARK FOR
START-UPS
Once the doors opened, a popular
new venue this year was a TechZone
named Eureka Park dedicated to small
companies and start-ups with an innovative business plan. The TechZone
grew from an idea to more than 100
companies in a matter of months. It
encompasses the core of CES—
entrepreneurs with an innovative
product or technology can highlight it
to the world and receive coverage that
they can’t get any place else. Many
March/April 2012
23
CEAnewsline
•The Cloud: Whether content is
stored and delivered from the cloud,
or wirelessly transmitted, new ways
to deliver content to devices were on
display. Hardware vendors were promoting cloud-based content solutions,
multi-platform networking, sharing,
and local interaction between handheld devices and the TV.
of the budding entrepreneurs and
fledgling start-ups in this technology
incubator drew venture capitalists and
investors looking for the next big thing
in technology. See page 30.
PMA@CES
Another first for the 2012 CES was
PMA@CES® sponsored by the Photo
Marketing Association (PMA)®. PMA
and CES partnered to create the mostconcentrated exhibits of photo/imaging products and services anywhere.
PMA@CES also featured imagingspecific pavilions from China and from
Germany and conference sessions for
attendees to learn about new innovations in the digital imaging/photography market.
PREMIERE KEYNOTES
CES has long been a key forum for
industry leaders to talk about their
company, products and industry
trends. For 2012, top executives giving keynotes included Microsoft’s
Steve Ballmer, CEA’s Gary Shapiro,
Qualcomm’s Dr. Paul Jacobs, Ericsson’s Hans Vestberg, Daimler’s Dr.
Dieter Zetsche, Intel’s Paul Otellini,
Xerox’s Ursula Burns, Verizon’s Lowell
24
March/April 2012
McAdam, Ford’s Alan Mulally, YouTube’s Robert Kyncl, Best Buy’s Brian
Dunn and an LIT keynote from eBay’s
John Donahoe. Other key executives
from AT&T, Facebook, GE, Google,
Hyundai, Mercedes, Unilever, Verizon
and Walmart also participated in conference keynotes.
WHAT WAS THE BUZZ?
What was trending at CES? Take
a look at a few technology innovations that got people talking including OLED TVs, Android 4.0 tablets,
next-generation smartphones and
3D printers:
•Lighter and Thinner: From LG
and Samsung’s 55-inch OLED TVs to
Ultrabooks, companies are making
devices as light and skinny as possible.
ucts including HDTVs, smartphones
and digital cameras.
•3D Printing: 3D Systems’ Cube
and Makerbot Industries’ Replicator
debuted printers that enable data files
to become physical objects via 3D
printing technology.
•Haptic Technology: Numerous
products showed a strong emphasis on the user interface, intuitive
remote control and navigation,
exploiting on-screen graphics,
motion control and voice and gesture recognition.
•Customizable Accessories: Headphones, cell phone cases and other
accessories are now more personalized to reflect consumers’ styles.
•Smart Devices: TVs, health and
wellness products, in-vehicle electronics, and home appliances show Internet connectivity now is a vital feature
on CE devices.
•Digital Imaging: Flexibility in digital
imaging was evident in digital cameras with interchangeable lenses,
waterproof and Internet-connected
designs, new light-field cameras and
smartphone-like features.
•3D: Whether it was autostereoscopic 3D (without glasses), 3D with
glasses or 2D content converted to
3D, 3D is a major theme with prod-
•Connected Cars: Innovation continues with new features such as Internet radio, in-car apps targeting safety
issues and location-based services.
•Windows and Android Smartphones: With Microsoft’s Windows
8 coming out this fall, at CES new
Windows phone-based mobile devices
were shown from Nokia, HTC and
Samsung. Google’s Android mobile OS
smartphones, many featuring Android
4.0, included Motorola’s Droid Razr
Maxx and the Droid 4, LG’s 4G LTE
Spectrum and Samsung’s 5.3-inch
Galaxy Note among others.
•Tablets: Windows-based tablets
including NVIDIA’s Windows 8 prototype and Android 4.0 (Ice Cream
Sandwich) devices were everywhere.
Key differentiators: processors, price,
higher-resolution displays, glassesfree 3D and gaming-focused devices.
•Digital Health: Health care is
becoming more efficient with tablets
to record medical data; cloud-based
solutions for storing, archiving, accessing and retrieving medical records; and
consumer medical devices with apps
to monitor blood pressure and glucose, etc.
•Content: Media partnerships and
new deal announcements were a
major theme at CES.
CEVision.org
CEAnewsline
Trending @ CES: The
By Mark Chisholm
NEW PRODUCTS ABOUND
AT CES
CES was teeming with dazzling new
devices and technologies. Pulling from
CEA staff reports, Vision has compiled
a list of some of the new devices we
think will make their way from the
show floor to your local (or virtual)
store in the near future.
Nearly every CE company from
Accenture to Zeikos was on hand
showcasing their latest consumer
goods and services. The following are
a few highlights:
•LG Electronics displayed a 55-inch
3D OLED TV that is four millimeters
(mm) thick and weighs 16.5 pounds.
The OLED screen delivers more vivid
colors than traditional HDTVs and
utilizes passive 3D glasses technology, similar to the 3D glasses used
in movie theaters, which are much
lighter and more affordable than the
active glasses currently required to
view most 3DTVs.
•Dish Network unveiled Hopper, the
industry’s smallest and most energyefficient whole-home DVR entertainment system. Hopper allows users to
record six HD programs at once, and
features PrimeTime Anytime, which
records all four network primetime
shows every night and stores them
for eight days.
Intel’s Nikiski is one of more than
four dozen new ultrabooks and
features a see-through touchpad,
Ultrabook
Transistors—they’re often thought of as the fundamental building blocks of modern electronics devices, and at CES,
they were building one of the hottest new categories in computing: Ultrabooks.
In his keynote, Intel President and CEO Paul Otellini offered attendees a theme for his presentation: “Transistors
transforming people’s lives.” And judging by the number of Intel-powered Ultrabooks on the show floor, they’re about to
shake things up. This emerging category of lightweight laptops features high-performance in a small form factor without
sacrificing battery life.
The Ultrabook category is defined by a number of factors. Typically in the 13- to 14-inch screen range, these ultra-thin
laptops are also ultra-light. Most weigh in at roughly three pounds, and measure less than 20 millimeters (mm) at their thickest
point. Most feature solid state drives (SSDs), though many offer a hard disk drive (HDD) alternative, or a combo setup option.
Not only does Intel hold the Ultrabook trademark, but Intel technology is the foundation for these laptops. Ultrabooks
are based on Intel’s Consumer Ultra-Low Voltage (CULV) computing platform (most recently the “Arrandale” and “Sandy
Bridge” processors), featuring integrated graphics and low-power consumption. The category is the industry’s Windowsbased response to lightweight computing previously available in the Apple MacBook Air or ARM-based tablets.
A number of computer makers already have Ultrabook models on the market, such as Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo,
Samsung and Toshiba. These Ultrabooks are powered by Intel’s Core i5 line of processors, and normally feature 4GB of
RAM and a moderately sized SSD. Otellini said that there are 15 models on the market and more than 60 models in the
pipeline.
Acer’s 13-inch Aspire S5 weighs less than three pounds, awakens from sleep mode in 1.5 seconds, and measures
only 15 mm’s at its thickest point. In addition to supporting USB 3.0, the S5 also includes a Thunderbolt port. The Thunderbolt interface was developed by Intel in collaboration with Apple, and allows for file transfer speeds of up to 20Gbit/s.
The Aspire S5 is expected to arrive in the second quarter.
During Intel’s keynote, Jeff Clark, vice chairman of Dell, introduced the XPS 13 Ultrabook. That’s only six mm’s at its thinnest,
18 mm’s at its thickest, and weighs only 2.99 pounds thanks to its carbon fiber base. While the XPS is smaller than a MacBook
Air, its 13-inch display (protected by Gorilla Glass) is equivalent to that of the Air thanks to a reduced bezel.
Lenovo also displayed a number of Ultrabooks including the IdeaPad U310, U410 and Yoga models—the latter of which
is a tablet/Ultrabook hybrid. While not officially sanctioned as an ‘Ultrabook,’ the IdeaPad Yoga weighs only 3.1 pounds and
measures 17 mm’s at its thickest. Most interestingly, the Yoga features a screen that flips all the way over to act like a
tablet. The Yoga, expected in the third quarter, will run Windows 8 and feature a 13-inch touchscreen.
At CES, most Ultrabooks were based on Intel’s 32-nanometer (nm) Sandy Bridge chip architecture. Yet many devices
soon will be based on Intel’s 22-nm architecture, known as Ivy Bridge.
When Intel’s Otellini spoke of transistors transforming people’s lives, he most certainly had Ivy Bridge in mind. The 22nm Ivy Bridge processors are the first to use tri-gate, or 3D, transistors. In the 3D arrangement, the transistor’s ‘gates’
are stacked on top of each other, allowing for higher speed and less power consumption. Ivy Bridge brings a number
of improvements to Ultrabooks. First, Ivy Bridge uses 50 percent less power when operating at the same performance
level as Sandy Bridge. No need to dial it back, though: Intel asserts that a 20 percent increase in CPU performance and
30 percent increase in GPU performance are achievable.
In addition, Ivy Bridge processors support DirectX 11, OpenGL 3.1 and OpenCL 1.1, opening the door for Ultrabook
gaming without the need for a discreet graphics card. Intel also demonstrated how an Ivy Bridge powered Ultrabook
could be used to both wirelessly stream media content to capable TVs, and speed payment at online checkouts using
built-in near field communication (NFC) technology.
When Otellini says that Intel has a “line of sight” on a 14-nm fabrication process, the future looks even more promising. So keep on the look-out for Ultrabooks that are thin, portable and energy efficient. •
March/April 2012
25
CEAnewsline
Akon, Eliza Dushku,
Rick Fox
Ludacris
touchscreen and keyboard all folded
compactly into a clamshell less than
20 mms thick.
•With six of the top 10 car manufacturers participating in this year’s
show, it was possible to confuse CES
with the Detroit Auto Show which
revved up the following week. Many
car companies rolled out new and/
or improved in-vehicle technologies,
including voice-activated GPS, streaming in-car social media and rear-seat
entertainment systems. Cadillac’s
Cue, for example, seamlessly integrates the smartphone into the car,
with an in-dash display system that
mimics the tablet experience. Ford
unveiled the official car of CES—the
2013 Ford Fusion Energi. The new
hybrid is capable of reaching 100 miles
per gallon.
•Specialty glass producer Corning
introduced Gorilla Glass 2, a harder,
thinner and more scratch resistant
glass that could pave the way for the
production of thinner and sturdier tablets and smartphones.
26
March/April 2012
•Tobii Technology showed new
eye-tracking technology that allows
users to scroll, play and navigate
using their eyes and without touching a mouse. And 3M Touch Systems
debuted a multi-user, widescreen
touch table that allows for 60 touch
points and up to four split screens.
•Nokia launched its first 4G LTE Windows phone—the Nokia Lumina 900—
available through AT&T. Notable features
include an impressive 4.3-inch display
and rear- and front-facing cameras to
create a “rich media experience.”
While big name companies garner a
lot of media attention at CES, smaller
and midsize firms dominate the show
floor. Here’s a sample of some of the
new products from the heart of CES:
•Salt Lake City-based HzO has found
a way to protect gadgets from potential water hazards. HzO’s WaterBlock
nanofilm waterproof coating is applied
to devices on the production line, protecting the delicate inner workings.
The company has successfully tested
WaterBlock on a host of smartphones
and tablets, including the iPhone, the
iPad and the Amazon Kindle Fire.
•After-market automotive and
iDevice accessories manufacturer
Scosche showed off the backSTAGE
pro II headrest mount, designed for the
iPad 2, that attaches to the headrest
of any car. The mount syncs with IR
headphones and conventional headphones, and it charges the iPad while
connected. 50 Cent
CES a celebrity magnet
Hollywood stars, sports legends, musical icons and entertainers
were at CES to promote the innovative products and technologies
shaping consumer technology.
• Actress Eliza Dushku represented the Entertainment Matters at
CES program.
• Fitness trainer Jillian Michaels was at FitnessTech.
• Will Smith and Kelly Clarkson made appearances at Sony’s press
conference.
•Rapper 50 Cent talked about his audio company SMS
Audio and was joined by Paul “Pauly D” DelVecchio.
• Justin Bieber appeared with TOSY Robotics to unveil
their new entertainment robot.
•At Intel’s keynote, will.i.am announced Intel’s Ultrabook
Project.
• Justin Timberlake appeared at Panasonic’s press conference to announce a joint venture between Panasonic
and MySpaceTV.
will.i.am
• Dennis Rodman, NBA Hall of Fame player, represented Paltalk.
• LL Cool J demoed a track he created using Boomdizzle, playing it
back on a Dolby technology-enabled laptop.
• NBA legends Robert Horry and John Salley, and chef Allison Fishman were at the Haier America booth.
•Actor Greg Grunberg and actor/singer Wayne Brady joined OnStar
for their Tweet House sessions, the official social media track for CES.
• Zeikos USA Inc.’s trademark iHip brought Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi,
from Jersey Shore, former NFL linebacker Carl Banks and urban music
pioneer Jose “Hyde” Cotto.
• Ludacris showed off Soul by Ludacris headphones. • Panasonic hosted Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment’s
second annual Directors’ Panel with John Glen, Martin Campbell
and Michael Apted along with former Bond girls Olga Kurylenko and
Caterina Murino.
See the full list of celebrities at CES at CEVision.org.
CEVision.org
CEAnewsline
Snooki
•If you’ve ever worried that you left
the house with the iron plugged in, Belkin has you covered. Their WeMo Home
Control Switch allows household electronics to be controlled from outside
the home. The WeMo plugs into standard outlets and lets users turn devices
on and off using a free smartphone app.
Best of the Crop
The International CES Innovations
Awards honor outstanding design
and engineering advancements
across 32 CE product categories,
including two new trend-focused
categories: tablets, e-Readers and
netbooks, and software and mobile
apps. The Best of Innovations Showcase was on display at CES. To see
Vision’s coverage of the winning
entries, visit: CEVision.org.
ESPN Makes Waves at CES
•In other CES news, Lytro won the Last
Gadget Standing SuperSession competition, beating nine other finalists.
• ESPN’s “SportsNation” with Colin Cowherd and Michelle
Beadle became ESPN’s first studio program to be broadcast in 3D live from the show floor.
•The LG 55EM9800 55-inch OLED TV
won CNET’s Best of Show award.
• Guests were invited to watch the BCS National Championship, live on ESPN 3D, at the Las Vegas Hilton Theater.
•Razer’s Project Fiona won the People’s Voice online voting award.
• Attendees were treated to a boxing match in a regulation
ring on the CES show floor when ESPN presented a live
edition of Friday Night Fights from Central Hall, telecast
live on ESPN 3D.
Entertainment Matters at CES
Back for a second year, Entertainment Matters at CES
is designed for Hollywood’s film, television and digital
communities and was sponsored by Variety and Ericsson.
The Screen Actors Guild was an associate sponsor of the
program. Actress Eliza Dushku served as the ambassador
for the program and contributed to Spike TV’s broadcast
coverage. Highlights included:
• Spike TV: The Official Entertainment Television Partner
Spike TV had an exclusive partnership to telecast live
coverage from CES giving tech fans more than 12 hours
of CES coverage across multiple platforms—TV, online,
mobile and social. • IAWTV Awards: The International Academy of Web Television (IAWTV) held its inaugural IAWTV Awards at CES
to celebrate 33 digital entertainment categories honoring
Web series and online talent.
• Technology & Engineering Emmy® Awards: The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS)
presented the Emmy® Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Engineering/Technical Development.
• Next-Generation Program: This invitation-only, custom
experience for Hollywood’s next-generation of leaders is
designed to introduce this community to CES.
• Red Carpet Program: This VIP program is open to select
executives, directors, producers and talent as a guide to
the best in technology and content.
CEVision.org
Social Media Stats at CES
To get the word out about the latest CES products and technology
advances, social media was used
extensively. The CES Tweetup took
place on day two, where colleagues
who network together through Twitter
could meet in real life.
• Hashtag #CES: used 118,608
times, reached 1,039,535,646
• @intlces: 5,059 mentiones
• Youtube.com/cesonthetube: 98,879
views, 781 new subscribers
• Facebook.com/internationalces:
25,940 visitors
• 1,333,600+: Facebook users
• 860: CES Tweetup
Reach is larger than Twitter users: a hash
tag may be used multiple times.
2013 News
The 2013 International CES is only
nine months away. CEA is reviewing requests for keynotes and will
be making announcements in the
coming months. Stay tuned! •
For updates on the 2013 International CES visit CESweb.org
March/April 2012
27
TECH POLICY
NEWS FROM WASHINGTON ] • [ BY MICHAEL PETRICONE
Pro-Tech Policy at CES
I
n January, an unprecedented group
of top government officials experienced the world’s largest consumer technology tradeshow, the
International CES including CEA’s
Innovation Policy Summit. This executive
conference brought together experts from
the public and private sectors to examine
the critical policy issues impacting the tech
industry, such as online privacy, spectrum
availability, digital copyright and environmental regulation.
This session featured government leaders including FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval,
Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), Senator Dean
Heller (R-NV), Representative Marsha
Blackburn (R-TN), Representative Gerry
Connolly (D-VA), Representative Darrell
Issa (R-CA), Representative John Shimkus (R-IL), Representative Cliff Stearns
(R-FL), Representative Lee Terry (R-NE)
and FCC Commissioners Mignon Clyburn
and Robert M. McDowell. Also, several
ministerial level officials and commissioners from Canada, Columbia, Egypt,
Iraq, Jordan, Korea, Lebanon and Oman
attended CES.
The Innovation Policy Summit explored
policies to effectively drive innovation and
economic growth, and how best to navigate
the changing regulatory landscape.
In a SuperSession with CEA President
and CEO Gary Shapiro, FCC Chairman
Julius Genachowski stressed the importance of broadband, particularly wireless,
in the future of consumer electronics. “The
demand for spectrum has grown because
people love these products,” said Genachowski, stressing the need for Congress
to pass incentive spectrum auction legislation. “We need to get it done now.”
After touring the show floor, Genachowski noted the “endless rows of innovative new products,” addressing fitness,
education and healthcare, among other
purposes. The session also covered net neutrality, antitrust issues and Genachowski’s
broadband-driven agenda at the FCC.
U.S. Chief Information Officer, Steven
VanRoekel announced a new roadmap
to accelerate federal adoption of mobile
technology with the goals of
decreasing government operating costs and increasing the
mobility of the federal workforce. He also unveiled a new
website, National Dialogue on
the Federal Mobility Strategy,
where the public can submit
and vote on ideas.
CES News
eBay President and CEO
John Donahoe
28
March/April 2012
Midweek brought the Leaders
in Technology dinner with top
technologists, entrepreneurs
and policy makers instrumental in furthering technology
innovation. After a welcome
by Governor Sandoval, eBay
President and CEO John
Donahoe gave the keynote
address. Donahoe highlighted
the “new normal” for retail,
in which consumers engage
where, when and how they
FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn
shop across channels. Donahoe made news
when he proclaimed his company to be a
mobile commerce leader, revealing that
eBay reached $5 billion in mobile GMV
and PayPal reached $4 billion in mobile
payment volume in 2011.
Also during a CES press conference,
Representative Darrell Issa (R-CA) and
Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) spoke against
the then-pending legislation Stop Online
Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Preventing Real
Online Threats to Economic Creativity and
Theft of Intellectual Property Act of 2011
(Protect-IP). They proposed the OPEN
Act to fight rogue foreign websites without
causing collateral damage to the innovators
driving our economy. •
CES on the Hill will be held
on April 24, 2012, at the House
Office Building-Rayburn (B-357)
in Washington, DC. The Digital
Patriots Dinner will be held the
next night on the 25th, where
David Rubinstein, best known
for founding the Carlyle Group,
Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) and
Congressman Jason Chaffetz
(R-VT) will be honored for their
contributions in advancing technology and innovation.
CEVision.org
BY MURRAY SLOVICK
] • [ DEFINING THE DIGITAL WORLD
CES: Handheld Devices
S
sive, power-efficient
requirements of nextgeneration mobile products,
Exynos 5250 can process 14 billion instructions per second at
2.0GHz.
Qualcomm, another ARM
licensee, offers a family of dualcore processors known as Snapdragon S4. In his CES keynote,
Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs demoed
Microsoft’s Windows 8 platform running
on a prototype tablet powered by the Snapdragon S4. With the S4, Qualcomm aims
to provide a more home theater-like user
experience, including 3D graphics processing and Dolby 7.1 surround sound. Jacobs
says there are 300 devices using Snapdragon and another 350 in development.
TI’s OMAP4470 is the latest version of its
dual-core 4460 ARM chips inside Android
tablets such Motorola’s XyBoard and Toshiba’s Excite X10. Slated to appear in tablets
and phones this year, the new chip is rated
at 1.8GHz, 20 percent faster than the 4460.
TI has also tweaked the memory circuitry
to squeeze out more performance and 4470
includes a faster GPU (graphics processing
unit).
The seven-inch AsusTek Memo 370T
tablet, named best tablet at the 2012
CES by CNET, is powered by NVIDIA’s
Tegra 3, a quad-core ARM Cortex
A9-based mobile processor providing up to three times the graphics performance of the company’s
Tegra 2, with up to 61 percent less
power consumption. The processor
implements a new, patent-pendMurray Slovick
ing technology known as Variable
All at CES
Symmetric
Multiprocessing (vSMP) that
Designed for high-end tablets, Samsung’s
newest 2GHz dual-core Exynos 5250 includes a fifth CPU ‘companion’ core
application processor is based on the designed for work requiring little power.
ARM Cortex-A15 core. ARM Holdings During such tasks, the Tegra 3 processor
is a semiconductor intellectual property completely shuts down its four high-perfor(IP) supplier. Its business model involves mance cores and uses its companion core
designing and licensing IP – the stuff that instead. For high-performance tasks, the
provides instruction to chips – rather than Tegra 3 processor disables the companion.
manufacturing and selling semiconductor
Not to be left behind, Intel, developer of
chips. Intended to meet the graphic-inten- multi-core CPUs for PCs, is taking a different
martphone. Tablet. Laptop. While
consumers try to figure out which
one (or how many) to carry on the
road, technologists understand
that despite their different form
factors they are all computers. As such,
product performance in all three categories
is determined by processor type and speed
as well as display size and resolution. Let’s
look at technical developments for these
defining components as demonstrated at
the recent 2012 International CES.
PC processors previously were single
core architectures and performance was
increased by boosting operating frequencies and using smaller manufacturing
processes to pack more transistors into
the same chip area. However, this led to
big increases in power consumption and
wasteful heat. The solution was to go to
multi-core architectures, which deliver
higher performance while limiting power
consumption; most desktop and notebook
PCs today use either a dual- or quad-core
processor and consume less power than
their single-core predecessors.
Processors for smartphones and tablets
are following suit. According to Sravan
Kundojjala, senior analyst with Bostonbased Strategic Analytics, smartphones
with multi-core applications processors made up 17 percent of smartphones
shipped in 2011. “Samsung, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments (TI)
and NVIDIA will benefit from this
growth and account for almost all
multi-core smartphone processors
shipped in 2011,” he says.
CEVision.org
TECH SPEAK
approach.. Mike Bell, vice
president and general manager of the Mobile Wireless
Group at Intel noted that
“our single-core chip is
competitive with dual-core
products from our rivals,”
and used CES to launch its
Atom Z2460 processor. The
32-nm chip is more power
efficient than previous
Intel offerings, consuming
less than 800-mW when
working full blast. Intel
also announced a design win with Lenovo
and a partnership with Motorola Mobility. Motorola will begin shipping devices in
Q22012 using Intel Atom processors and
the Android platform.
The Display is Key
Since it determines the quality of the user
experience for consumers, the display is
arguably the most important hardware
component in tablets and smartphones. The
latest devices offer In-Plane Switching (IPS)
LCD displays, the same screen technology
used in top-shelf desktop monitors and also
employed by Apple in its iPad and iPhone.
With IPS, liquid crystals are aligned horizontally to the screen rather than vertically,
always lying in the same plane (hence the
name). The result is a wider viewing angle
and better image contrast. On the downside
IPS needs two transistors for every pixel
instead of one, and that means that more of
the transparent area of the display is blocked
from light transmission, so brighter backlights must be used.
New iterations of IPS technology filtering down from PC monitors promise
to resolve the brightness issue. Samsung
uses its proprietary Super PLS (Plane Line
Switching) technology to maintain good
viewing angle performance while boosting
throughput (brightness) by a reported 10
percent. LG Display’s take on enhancing
IPS is called e-IPS. Because transparency
is increased via e-IPS, the company says it
can reduce backlight intensity as you need
less light to achieve the same luminance. As
shown at CES, processor type and speed as
well as display size and resolution are making great technical advances. •
March/April 2012
29
C4 TRENDS
VIEWPOINTS ON CE EVOLUTION ] • [ BY SUSAN SCHREINER
Entrepreneurs Connect at the
2012 International CES
E
ureka Park was a new concept
for CES this year designed to
give cutting-edge, early stage
companies and entrepreneurs
exposure to potential investors and B2B industry partners, including
those interested in joint ventures or licens-
ing deals. There was plenty of innovation
as well as a strong entrepreneurial spirit in
Eureka Park which mushroomed to about
100 companies and was sponsored by
the National Science Foundation (NSF),
Startup America Partnership, CNET, and
UK Trade and Investment.
Innovative Solutions
Many of the exhibitors have NSF grants
like KWJ Engineering (kwjengineering.
com), which is developing solutions for
gas detection by integrating sensors into
smartphones, medical wireless devices and
other safety and military applications.
“Eureka Park was good for us, and the
biggest tradeshow we’ve done,” according
to Edward Stetter, vice president and CFO.
“We’ve made some really good contacts at
major companies who are looking to add
capabilities into their wireless platforms.”
Modular Robotics (www.modrobotics.
com), a spin-off from Carnegie Mellon
showcased Cubelets—the equivalent of a
robotic Legos construction kit for kids. Sold
30
March/April 2012
Eureka Park
is a new concept
for CES designed to give cuttingedge, early stage companies
and entrepreneurs exposure to
potential investors.
as a six-block starter kit, the Cubelets are
pre-programmed 1.5-inch blocks, each able
to move, sense nearby objects and display
light. The way they are stacked determines
what the final robot will do. Snapping a
battery block on top of a motion-sensing
roller block, for instance, will create a robot
that automatically moves when the lights
go on/off. “It’s about changing the way
children learn and see the world,” says Eric
Lundby, a software developer.
Another company, Emota.net of Mountain View, Calif., an NSF grantee, showcased gesture controls embedded in a
stuffed penguin to demonstrate how social
networking technology can become more
emotionally engaging. The ambient technology allows everyday objects to be used
as a communications tool. For instance,
it can help to keep isolated seniors active
or grandkids connected with their grandparents using simple interfaces including
the TV. “Our product has broad emotional
appeal to anyone, and Eureka Park has
been fantastic,” according to Paul To, CEO
and founder. “As a startup, we made connections with prospective investors and
potential corporate partners who can help
us go to market,” he says.
Uncle Oswald Is My Hero (uncleoswald.
com) is a two-man design team giving
new life to discarded telephone handsets
by transforming them into an ingeniously
simple, external speaker system for iPods
and MP3 players. Kim Justin and Lee
Jinsop, the two founders, say they hope
to license their design, and had conversations with other audio vendors. “The number of people that we’ve met at Eureka Park
and elsewhere at CES has been fabulous.
It’s great for us because that means when
the product finally comes out in commercial quantities, we know it will be popular,”
says Justin.
PerSuede Audio’s (persuedeaudio.
com) Rebel Tower all-in-one iPhone/
iPod speaker is a stylish, fashion-forward
speaker covered in synthetic cowhide in
various patterns including zebra. Brad Pfeiffer, co-founder says, “The speakers smooth
out the high-frequencies for a subdued
sound sans tinny high notes.”
These speakers, launched at CES, were
under development for four-years, and
this ‘single-point’ audio system comes with
some impressive specs. Inside the triangular-shaped tower cabinet design is a compact, ultra-high performance 2.1 speaker
system including AstoundSound DSP technology, and a 120 Watt Class-D Amplifer.
The engineering team was headed by an
alum design engineer and musician who
previously worked at Samsung and Sony.
Startup, Scrible (scrible.com) of Redwood City, Calif., showcased a program
to turn a browser into an editor that can
digitally annotate, save, organize and share
information from the Web as well as a version for the iPad.
Health and Power Innovations
Eureka Park companies working in
the health and medical arena included
Energetic Health and Research Center;
HMicro; Marista Wellness Network; Medken; Rehabtek; and SpringActive with its
robotic prosthesis. For example, Innovega
repurposed traditional contact lenses, creating iOptik, special lenses that integrate
personal media, social networking and
mobile computing into our everyday reality
ala Steven Spielberg’s 2002 film Minority
Report.
Putting motion sensing technology to
work in the health care sector, the Institute
for Disabilities and Research Training Inc.
showed the AcceleGlove, equipped with
accelerometers to track hand movements.
Also a slew of companies are working on
power management, charging and more
efficient battery solutions, such as Anthem
Grand, Current Werks, MiserWare, nVolution, Perpetua Power Source and QM
Power. •
CEVision.org
BY STEVE KOENIG
] • [ INDUSTRY RESEARCH
Global CE Retail Sales
Surpass $1 Trillion
MARKET INSIDER
Mobile PCs, tablets and wireless
phones—will account for an
astonishing 50 percent of retail CE
sales this year.
The CE Product Mix
Media reports frequently chart the success
of the BRIC markets, but the GfK Digital
World analysis reveals market growth in
these economic areas is far from consistent. In fact, growth rates in global regions
anchored by the BRIC markets differ significantly. In 2012, double-digit growth
is forecast for the Emerging Asia-Pacific
region (including China and India), while
growth in Central-Eastern Europe (including Russia) is predicted to slow to nine
percent, down from 18 percent in 2011.
But to truly understand global CE market
opportunities, it’s important to look beyond
geographical comparisons to examine differences in the CE product mix.
This is where the GfK Digital World analCEVision.org
devices in favor of the latest soluysis gets really interesting and the
tions. Here, market opportunities
opportunities spring forth from the
data. Let’s start by confirming that
for products ranging from portable
consumers’ enthusiasm for mobile,
navigation to MP3 players are limconnected devices is not limited to
ited as consumers advance directly
the developed world. The analysis
to smartphones.
shows these products—including
In addition, the CE sales composiSteve Koenig
mobile PCs, tablets and wireless
tion picture of regional markets can
phones—will account for an astonishing signal priorities. Once again looking at the
50 percent of retail CE sales this year.
MEA region, we find the highest concentraThe result of staggering worldwide sales tion of wireless phones accounting for 37
of smartphones and other mobile con- percent of retail CE sales this year. Why?
nected devices is a consumer spending Clearly, communications infrastructure is
squeeze on older, more mature categories needed to foster business and economic
like MP3 players or printers. In other prod- development in this area.
Perhaps by now you can better answer
uct categories like TVs, unit sales declines
in developed economies are off-setting the question I posed at the beginning of
this column and you may have thought
growth in emerging economic regions.
Viewing worldwide retail sales of CE of some questions of your own. Contact
products through the twin lenses of CEA market research at [email protected] to
regional and product data exposes even learn how you can get answers from GfK
more insights. For example, the analy- Digital World. The best part is CEA memsis articulates how emerging markets bers receive a discount on the cost of this
like the Middle-East and Africa (MEA) research. Are you ready for your cue to join
are leap-frogging whole categories of CE the global CE sales stage? •
March/April 2012
imagewerks/Getty Images
G
lobal CE retail sales are projected to grow five percent
this year to hit a new alltime high of more than $1
trillion. But do you know
which CE devices are selling where and
most importantly why? If not, then you
could be missing some substantial business
opportunities. The good news is CEA members can now turn to GfK Digital World,
a ground-breaking new analysis of global
sales produced by GfK in partnership with
CEA market research.
For today’s CE marketplace, literally ‘all
the world’s a stage’. Segmented into seven
global regions, GfK Digital World reveals
how CE revenues are steadily growing
among emergent economies like Brazil and
China. Ascendant economic regions today
account for 46 percent of global retail CE
sales, up from 37 percent in 2008. Small
wonder manufacturers and retailers alike
are keen to take advantage of abundant
opportunities intrinsic to emerging markets. However, few have the knowledge to
understand the scope of these opportunities leading to risky, or worse, uninformed
market plays.
31
JUST THE STATS
THE LATEST INDUSTRY NUMBERS
Global Tech Spending
Trends Impacting Global Growth
CEA members can now access GfK Digital World, an analysis of
global retail sales compiled by GfK in partnership with CEA market research. As can be seen below, emerging economies are helping to drive growth, and push global tech spending to new limits.
Growth areas such as smartphones are helping to offset declines
in other product categories.
TECHNOLOGY
Global Tech Device Spending to Hit $1 Trillion in 2012
2010
$922 bn
Economic
Recovery
2008
$ 912 bn
2011 Est
$993 bn
Economic
Problems, Product
Strength
ECONOMIC
2012 Fcst
$1,038 bn
Emerging
markets
add to
opportunity,
value
+5
+8
–10%
CONSUMER
Embedded
Internet
Connectivity,
mobility,
convergence,
personalization
drive global
demand
Connectivity
Evolving human
machine
interface (HMI)
Content
built-in
Broadening
sales
channels
+12
2009
$824 bn
Global Recession
Price
deflation
Source: CEA, GfK
Compositional
product
shifts
Emerging Economies Driving Growth
Source: CEA, GfK
Global Tech Device Retail Sales Revenue in Billions of USD
Developed
Emerging
Smartphone Is Main Growth Driver; Tablet Building
63%
60
2008
2010
37%
40
2008
2010
4
4%
4
8
7
1%
4%
4%
9
8
14
15
15
12
13
15
15
14
10
Source: CEA, GfK
32
March/April 2012
2012
Fcst
46
2012
Fcst
7
15
Tablet PC
Digital Still
Camera
14
Desk PC
Mobile PC
8
LCD TV
16
13
7
9
12
18
22
2008
2009
2010
2011 Est
2012 Fcst
19
54
5%
4
Mobile Phone
Smartphone
Source: CEA, GfK
CEVision.org
WHAT IMAGE ARE YOU MAKING WITH CUSTOMERS?
The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA)® has partnered with SERVICE
800 to launch CEA’s Digital Imaging Service Excellence Benchmark – the
most effective way to measure and compare customer satisfaction and
service results within the Digital Imaging Industry.
Based on actual service transaction interviews with your customers, the
benchmark provides customer feedback data and tools that are critical for
service improvement:
• Simple access to ongoing daily customer feedback results
• A monthly benchmark allowing measurement against competitors
• Real-time alerts for closed-loop resolution with end-customers
• Statistically-accurate measurements that allow real comparisons
To participate in CEA’s Digital Imaging Service Excellence Benchmark,
contact Jan DeMatteo at 952-253-6129 or [email protected].
CEA members enjoy significant discounts! For CEA membership
information, visit CE.org/membership or email [email protected]
For more information, visit CE.org/DigitalImaging.

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