CeBIT 2006
By John Latta, WAVE
0612 3/24/06
Hannover, Germany
March 9 - 11, 2006
Halls 10, 18 and 21 are empty. In 4 years we have not seen
such a light opening day. Many of the aisles were near empty. Sony did
not come. Hall 27 which is Digital Living by CeBIT was pathetic. We are
left wondering – is CeBIT obsolete when other large trade shows
are dying? At one time, an all-in-one trade show which covered banking
to PCs to phones to security to smart cards may have had a purpose but
no longer.
Germany has had a history in staging massive trade events
including IFA and Photokina, but these were based on shows every 2 years.
This year, IFA goes annual and will compete with Photokina. In the consumer
space, CeBIT is attempting to compete with CES, and doing a very poor
job. In fact, one speculation is that CES has drained the pipeline of
new product announcements at CeBIT's loss. With the globalization of
products and their reporting on the Internet, one can only question the
merit of any more than one major event by sector a year.
Samsung Rolls
Samsung is very proud of their string of first products
in the cell phone market. This continued at CeBIT.
A slim HSDPA phone which supports 1.8Mb\s. It can play
DVD quality movies. There is also a 2mp camera.
A phone with UWB. But the data rate is only 13Mb\s. Samsung
stated this is due to the limitations of the UWB chip set and the limited
processing capability of the processor in the phone.
Showing mobile WiMAX up to 120km\hour. A chart indicated
that Samsung's implementation will support triple play to mobile devices.
The ability to link multiple phones with WiFi Ad Hoc
networking. This allows for multiple player games based on each player
being a node on the network for other phones. Examples were shown of
as many as 5 hops.
A 10m pixel camera phone. This includes Bluetooth connectivity,
music and video player and auto-focus and flash in the phone. There
were also 5mp and 7mp phones in the booth.
Technology at CeBIT
The WAVE went looking for technology at CeBIT. We found
a number of interesting examples.
Panasonic Demos 103” Plasma HD 1080p Display
There is only one word for this – awe. It pushes
the limit of available content to fully experience the capability
of the display.
Nvidia Shows Quad SLI
Combining the output from 4 7900 GPU chips Nvidia
showed 30f/s on a 2560 X 1600 display. The output from each card
would dynamically adjust across the screen based on the rendering
load. The visual quality was stunning.
Rdw (RedDot Wireless) Has MaxBand which combines 802.11
and 802.16
MaxBand is a baseband and PHY chip for both 802.11 and
802.16. Shown in the booth was a wireless bridge which interfaces to
a WAN with 802.16 and then outputs to WLAN with 802.16. The PA and RF
portion could be provided by such vendors as Maxim or Atmel. The chip
is to sample in June. It is expected that it could go into base stations
in 18 months. The target would be deployments in rural areas of Europe,
Asia and Africa.
The chip also supports 802.16e, based on OFDMA, which is
the mobility specification but no products are certified yet.
One target for this chip could be AMD based processors
to create a complete wireless capability.
Cisco/Linksys Highlights KISS Products
KISS was acquired by Cisco in September 2005. This Danish
company was showing for the first time how its products integrated with
the Linksys product line. The theme of the booth was Digital Living.
Three products were being shown:
Media Mate, 250€, which is new at CeBIT, due May
2005,
DP-600, High Definition Media Player, 399€
VR-558, DVR & EPG, 699€
These products are focused on IP delivery. KISS has its
own media service with delivery over the Internet. KISS has been working
with Microsoft on its IP television efforts.
The problem with media, above the bandwidth required by
audio, is that wireless is not reliable enough. So when KISS works with
IPTV providers the home distribution technology is wired or powerline.
The cable interface on its media boxes is analog only as
CA is not supported.
ASUS Wireless Home Products
ASUS exhibited the following:
WL-500gP
It has BroadRange with an embedded media server that
is claimed to have 3X the coverage of 802.16g. There is the
ability to automatically download media from the Internet. The media
server supports both video and audio.
WL-600g
Wireless ADSL2/2+ with a home gateway, wireless router
with support for USB printers. Also included is WMM and WDS. Security
includes the ability to NAT and an SPI firewall.
WL-799gE
Wireless storage router with the ability to automatically
backup a PC. A wizard to easily set up large size internet photo
albums and message boards. Compatible with iTunes to allow management
of music stored in the WL-700gE. BroadRange support for 3X coverage
of 802.11g.
From the Floor
Man Power International – MP3 Recording Watch
Man Power was showing a stylish MP3 recording watch. It
also supports WMA. There are two methods of charging the battery: USB
cable or AC adapter. The watch is claimed to water resistant.
Chic Technology – Skype Multimedia Keyboard
Chic Technology has combined a high end keyboard, which
has a display, with Skype support, Model TKM 131.
Tablets Abound
The WAVE noted a number of tablets as input devices.
UC-Logic Technology was showing its LaPazz D-Note Series.
This included a 12 X 9 work space, with 1024 pressure sensitivity and
2000dpi resolution.
http://www.uc-logic.com/
ACECAD Enterprises showed MyScript Notes on its
DigiMemo A501. This is a standalone device which captures all that
is written on a paper tablet. Then when connected to a PC is will download
what has been captured. The unit runs on 4 AAA batteries which last
100 hours.
http://www.acecad.com.tw/
Hanvon exhibited the WhizKid learning Pen Tablet. This
is directed to children in China learning the alphabet. In addition
to supporting Chinese writing it supports cartoon drawing and stories
and games.
http://www.hw99.com/english/products0204.asp
Pegasus Technologies Digital Pen uses a clip which attached
to a pad of paper. Using a special pen it allows the user to write
into any table and then connect to a PC USB port. The device has 100
dpi resolution.
http://www.pegatech.com/
Ubiquitous Commodization
We were surprised to observe an increase in the number
of China suppliers on the floor.
There is a surge in products such as MP3 players, handheld
media players, Skype phones, VoIP phones, Bluetooth products especially
ear pieces and anything related to the iPod.
Most of these companies are not high volume producers but
just looking for an OEM contract. But it is also a testament to how commoditized
the market for small size technology devices has become. Thus, getting
products designed and produced is not the issue - it is about getting
to market and capturing share.
Logitech Announcements
The press event was opened by Guerrino De Luca, President
and CEO while most of the presentation was given by the recently hired
Gerald Quindlen, SVP Sales and Marketing. Major points made include:
Harmony has become a major growth driver in the company.
This has happened in the short span of 2 years since Logitech acquired
Harmony. It has allowed the company to enter the living room. The product
has done well in the US and sales are picking up in Europe. It was
stated that Harmony had redefine the category of universal remotes.
It has picked up 50% of the $ sales in universal remotes. The best
market in Europe is Germany. Logitech was to associate Harmony with
the growth of flat panel televisions in Europe. Already on the list
of buyer preferences, the flat panel TV has passed automobiles in Europe.
The Harmony is based on our Smart State Technology. At CeBIT, Logitech
is introducing two new remotes 785 for $249 euros and 755S for 129
euros. The former has a color screen.
Web cams are another area of growth. This has been driven
by the wide adoption of broadband and video services with the major
portals. Sales of web cams grew 44% in the last quarter. Logitech introduced
4 new web cams for the value sector of the market, all of the eyeball
design. Prices range from 19.99 to 39.99 euros.
Audio has become an important category. The white mm50
portable speakers for the iPod has the highest sales rate of any product
of the company. At CeBIT, Logitech announced a black companion speaker.
The company also announced noise canceling headphones which are priced
at 1/2 of most in the market today - retail pricing will be 149 euros.
In support of the surge in audio, the company has announced a wireless
music system. There are two models: one for the speakers already in
the home and another for iPod music and its output anywhere in the
home. Later this year there will be many more audio products announced.
Announced was a niche mouse product - MX610. This is
a left hand mouse which has laser, cordless and BT. It was stated that
Guerrino De Luca has been asking for this for 7 years. Notebook mobility
is another important area to the company. 4 new mouse were announced:
MX610 left hand cordless, G7 laser cordless mouse with LAN case, MX400
precision laser mouse and V150 laser mouse for notebooks.
A new iopen was announced but no details given at the
news conference.
WAVE Comments
CeBIT remains a premier exhibition. But when 3 halls go
empty and Sony and Philips do not exhibit, one is left wondering. An
attempt to go into the digital living room is a flop – CeBIT is
not a CE show no matter how it is packaged.
If one mentally subtracts in the PC space, the commodity
suppliers from Asia, and the gamers, CeBIT looks hollow. It lacks direction
in the information technology market. One of the reasons is the increasing
competition between CE and PC, and CeBIT is weak in CE. While CES can
play to both CE and the PC, CeBIT is just not doing this. It could well
be that CeBIT will become just a German show and not the international
venue it has been.
Some technologies stood out. Display technology is on a
roll. The Panasonic 103” 1080p PDP was impressive. Yet, the WAVE
saw no OLED displays. The nVidia Quad SLI demo was also impressive. With
$2000 in display cards in a PC one wonders how far this can go. For an
avid PC gamer, there is no need to turn the heat on in the winter.
When it comes to cell phone technology, Samsung seems to
be leaving the competition in the dust. When they showed ad hoc WiFi
networking on cell phones for game play, we could only wonder how far
this could go. With one of the first implementations of WiMAX mobility,
802.16 is showing progress. Samsung’s high megapixel cameras were
looking more like cameras with cell phones attached to them.
As a home distribution media, wireless is down. In spite
of its leadership roll, Linksys, via the recently acquired KISS, confirmed
what stood out at IPTV World Forum – not a single carrier will
use wireless for home media distribution. It is just too unreliable for
mass distribution.
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