Posts Tagged ‘CES’

CES starts naming exhibitors: Nintendo’s back! Logitech already taking home awards.

Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010

Update: 11/24/10 – It appears as though the CEA got a bit ahead of itself, and listen Nintendo as a floor exhibitor. This is not the case, as Nintendo has only booked meeting room space at the 2011 CES.

With the coming holiday season, it’s often easy to forget that just a few weeks past Hanukah and a few days after Christmas and New Years, the largest consumer technology tradeshow happens in Las Vegas. To put a reminder in everyone’s heads, the CES has recently started revealing details about the upcoming circuit and pixel fest this coming January 6-9, 2011.

Over 35 exhibitors are expected to put their best face forward across the 9,800 square foot North Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center. Most notable of this years exhibitors: after a 16 year absence, Nintendo will be proudly displaying products. And while our segment is naturally drawn to the online gaming and gaming related product debuts, the International CES also features just about anything that goes along with gaming, from new hardware and software, to PC and HD gaming, plasma HDTV’s, the latest in surround sound technology, and power conditioning hardware.

“With the gaming market expected to generate $20.3 million in 2010, the International CES is the must-stop hub for innovative gaming products, and will allow CES attendees to experience the future of gaming from an amazing range of innovative companies,” said Karen Chupka, senior vice president, events and conferences, CEA. “The Gaming Showcase at CES will feature the hottest gaming trends for the coming year.

Major exhibitors expected to make a splash at this years CES include: AMD, HP, Intel, Lenovo, LevelUp, Logitech, Microsoft, Nintendo, Nokia, Sony and more. Publishers will also be on hand including DC Comics/Warner and DreamWorks Animation. Completing the circle, top retailers including Amazon.com, Best Buy, and GameStop are all on the CES schedule.

Speaking of Logitech, it appears as though they’ve been on the top of their game this year, as they’ve recently announced that seven of their gaming related products have won 2011 CES Innovations honoree awards. Products include the Logitech Keyboard Controller for Google TV, Logitech TV Cam, Logitech Wireless Solar Keyboard K750, Logitech HD Webcam C910, Logitech Wireless Gaming Mouse G700, Logitech Wireless Headset F540 and the Logitech Wireless Headset G930. In other words…basically their entire catalogue of gaming related goodness has taken some top honors.

“Logitech is thrilled to have seven products elevated as CES Innovation Award honorees,” said Gerald P. Quindlen, Logitech’s president and chief executive officer. “These products represent Logitech’s commitment to driving innovation and giving people new ways to get immersed in their digital world.”

If Logitech’s wins are any indication of the coolness about to drop on Las Vegas, it looks like 2011 could be a very chilly year.

With Microsoft cashing in on the holiday season with their Kinect launch, Sony’s Move already on the market, that leaves only Nintendo left with a game changer. After being absent from the CES circuit for 16 years, there’s clearly a reason why they’ve decided to return. Should we expect to see something breathtaking from Nintendo? We’ll have to wait until January to find out…but I wouldn’t be surprised to see some big waves from Nintendo.

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Sony rolls out impressive numbers at CES 2010

Friday, January 8th, 2010

Sony has spent much of 2009 not only slimming down it’s flagship console the PlayStation3 in both size and price, but ratcheting up their virtual world hosted on said platform: Home. And while not exactly first on the scene with lower prices, or a slimmed down version of it’s previous self, Sony’s work has been rewarded, especially this past holiday season. At yesterday’s presentation at the Consumer Electronics Show held this year in Las Vegas, NV, Sony revealed sales numbers for this past holiday season. During the traditional consumerfest that occurs between the American Thanksgiving holiday and Christmas, Sony moved nearly 4 million PS3 consoles worldwide. To put this in perspective, looking at year-over-year numbers, Sony increased sales by 75 percent.

At the end of the day, this upswing in sales, combined with increased efforts to make ‘Home’ a serious part of the package bodes extremely well for Sony. As with size and price, Sony’s Home hasn’t exactly lived up to the hype. It’s already been through a few iterations, but it seems as though Sony might very well now be on the right path. They recently drove the “we’re serious about Home, MMO’s, and microtransactions” flag into the ground with the launch of Sodium One. Early reports have indicated that players have taken to Sodium One, which again, bodes well for Sony. They’ve now got an attraction within Home that has not only generated a bit of press, but is also getting the people through the door.

Electronic Theatre ImageNot coincidentally, VEEMEE, an independent creator of branded and original content for platforms and virtual worlds, yesterday launched The London Pub for PS3 Home users. Priced at €4.99 the virtual watering hole and hangout features a mulit-player darts game, a roaring open fire to chat by, comedic beer taps, crank phone calls, and hand dryers that don’t dry your hands. Kirk Ewing, Creative Director at VEEMEE comments, “It’s always nice to inject a bit of humor into the games industry. In a virtual pub you can get all the banter but obviously none of the booze. Also offering a real world tie-in, VEEMEE has partnered with Unicorn, makers of fine dartboards, and will be giving away 30 real Eclipse Pro Dartboards within the first 30 days of the London Pub’s opening, and tops the pub darts leader board on PlayStation Home.

Late last year at Sodium One’s introduction, Sony rolled out some Home user numbers, touting a decent 10 million users. With a lot of wrapping paper now making it’s way to the incinerator, there’s sure to be a whole new onslaught of Home users, as they plug-in, fire-up, and (hopefully for Sony) start enjoying home so much that they’re ready to make a microtransaction. Or two. Or 10 million.

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New, legal, iTunes alternative App Store premiers at CES 2010

Thursday, January 7th, 2010

While it’s waned in the overall ‘must see’ show of the year, the CES (Consumer Electronics Show) is still alive and kicking. This year’s CES, held in Las Vegas has already had a notable highlight, and just on it’s opening day. The mind behind one of iPhone’s earliest hit apps, Steve Sheraton of Hottrix (iBeer), announced a fully legal iTunes app store alternative.

YourAppShopTitled YourAppShop, Sheraton says that the platform was created out of the frustration he, and a majority of other developers have faced in the past of Apple’s highly restrictive (and time consuming) approval process. Sheraton seeks to bypass the middle man with YourAppShop, and allow developers to ship directly to consumers.

“For years, developers of all sizes have been denied access to the world’s largest app store for a variety of reasons thanks to a lengthy and convoluted corporate process,” Sheraton said. “These policies have hampered certain labels from creating personalized, branded apps. Your App Shop is a brilliant opportunity for companies with content not allowed on iTunes or those that just want to bypass Apple completely.”

The YourAppShop platform will provide developers with a ‘one stop shop’ solution that will allow developers and companies to reach customers with specific, targeted apps. On the other end of the spectrum, users can access these apps in very much the way the do now, however, instead of going to the App Store found within iTunes, users visit yourappshop.com to access apps. Apps are then downloaded for free and are available immediately via a cloud based admin. This method will allow for both on and offline content delivery. Notably, the platform also offers a integrated micropayment system that allows users to use the similar ‘one click purchase’ method familiar to iTunes App Store users. No word yet on the availability of microtransaction monetization for developers, but if the project is a success, I wouldn’t be surprised to see this be one of the first features added to the lineup.

YourAppShop isn’t a project that’s been born overnight. It’s already been tested and based on technology used by two genre specific app shops – the Premier App Shop, and store for magic trick apps, and the Sex App Shop, do I even need to describe this one? Incidentally, the Sex App Shop has already seen 2 million downloads since it’s launch.

“It’s amazingly simple for content owners to sign up, create an app and repurpose their content with our technology,” said Maria Gara, owner of Premier App Shop LLC. “The Premier App Shop was created out of our own need to find an alternative to iTunes. This means we did all the hard work so others can enjoy the benefits of having their own licensed, branded app store with the content they want, delivered when they want it.”

While market competition is always a good thing, there IS a word to be said about Apple’s approval standards. The App Store is already an overcrowded party, with special award ceremonies and spotlight features needed to help consumers separate the wheat from the chaff. And there seems to be arguably, quite a bit of chaff in the silos already. By letting just about anyone into the iPhone party, is YourAppStore simply letting poor quality/gimmicky apps in the front door? If the safeguarded iTunes App Store is already packed with useless apps, how will YourAppStore guarantee the same experience, without the corporate bureaucracy? And if they don’t…would you want YOUR business’ app swimming in a sea of mediocrity?

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