Sizzle from CES
With the Consumer Electronics Show replacing Comdex as the technology event of the year, it has become the place to unveil new products and services. Some of the things to catch my eye this week include:
- Motorola's new iMotorola wireless devices that synchs with Apple's iTunes store. With all the talk about wireless data, I think music will emerge as the hottest part of the fast-growing market as wireless devices morph into MP3 players. Surprisingly, the music industry has totally missed out on the ringtones phenomena although there are signs it will attempt to play catch-up with the launch of ring-tunes.
- Verizon is rolling out a new high-speed wireless network and plans to offer video-on-demand, 3D gaming and music-on-demand services. I get music and gaming but video - whether it's streamed or downloaded - doesn't do as
much for me because it is bandwidth intensive and probably a premium-price, niche service. Om Malik has an interesting posting on how new video services are starting to be rolled out as 3G slowly becomes a reality in North America.
- In a keynote speech, SBC CEO Edward Whitacre said the carrier's IP-TV service will go after the cablecos by offering hundreds of TV channels over its high-speed network. SBC is investing a staggering $4-billion to get into the triple-play business while Verizon also has a multi-billion dollar network budget. Both carriers have adopted the more expensive fiber to the curb approach.
