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Digital Media Trends 2009: 
    New Products and Technology (4/09, 2/2009)
    (In Progress)

    by Douglas Dixon

Trends in digital media  products and technology for the new year, from the Consumer Electronics Show 
    (see CES 2009 Summary).

With links to my Digital Media Galleries, recent articles, and Manifest Tech Blog.

See also my presentation on The Growth of Flash


Trends: Hot New Products and Technology


Economy

  • Credit crunch - Can't cut prices to increase demand and clear inventories
  • Line extensions to offer lower-cost products

Portable / Wireless Media: Mobile, Players, Storage

Portable Accessories: Audio, Power

Digital Imaging: Camcorders, cameras

Home Media: DVD, HDTV, Networked

  • Connected Internet and Home Entertainment - Yahoo Connected TV - Widgets
  • Thinner TVs - Hang like frames
  • 3D HDTV

Also: Peripherals and Accessories Gallery

Howard Stringer, chairman and CEO of Sony Corp.:

  • "By 2011, 90% of Sony products will be wireless and interactive with each other."
  • 10 million Blu-ray enabled devices in the U.S. 2008, 28 million BD movies sold, 4X 2007

Trends: Portable / Wireless Media


Mobile Communications

    See the Mobile Communications Gallery
        Mobile media: Mobile phones to PDAs, Portable GPS navigation
        See Flash presentation: Smartphones and Convergence Devices
        See Flash presentation: Netbooks


Portable Media Players

    Touch screen, speaker, Bluetooth stereo, Wi-Fi
    See the Portable Media Player Gallery
        MP3 / video players: Flash & Hard disk, Multifunction devices: Satellite, Games
        See Flash presentation: Portable MP3 Players


Portable Storage

    See the Portable Storage Gallery
        Flash storage: Memory cards, USB drives, Hard disk storage
        See Flash presentation: Flash Storage
        See Flash presentation: Solid State Drives (SSD)
        See Flash presentation: The Future of Storage - Cloud storage

  • Next Jump in Memory Card Capacity - Gallery
        SDXC,
    Sony / SanDisk: "Memory Stick Extended" - 2 TB Memory Cards (blog)
  • USB Flash Pocket Drives - Gallery - LaCie itsaKey / imaKey, Verbatim Store 'n' Go Micro
  • Portable Hard Drives - Gallery
  • SSD To Mass Market
       
    OEM to IT (faster replacement drive)
       
    Larger capacity - 256 GB
       
    Aggressive pricing: SanDisk
        Samsung, Imation, Fujitsu, ASUS, Kingston
  • Storage in the Cloud - Netbooks, LaCie / Wuala - Blog - Future of Storage

Trends: Portable Accessories


Audio / Accessories

    Comfort, Style - in-ear, ear hook, Noise reduction, Kid hearing safe
    See the Audio Accessories Gallery
        Headsets, headphones, speakers, Wireless, Bluetooth

  • Mobile Phone / Bluetooth Headsets  - Gallery
       
    Jawbone / new fit, Joby Zivio Boom (blog), Blue Ant, Motorola H15
  • Headphones / Earbuds  - Gallery
        Monster Turbine, Logitech / Ultimate Ears - MetroFi
        Sennheiser MX W1 - wireless - Kleer vs Bluetooth
  • Portable Speakers - Gallery - LaCie USB Speakers

Portable Power

    Green, power packs, solar, wireless
    See the Power Accessories Gallery
        Batteries, chargers, Adapters, tips, wireless

  • Power Packs
        Fuji Enviro Max Batteries
        Energizer - Advanced Lithium 4x vs Ultimate 8x
        Fuel Cell - Medis - Gallery
  • Solar / Crank - Renewable energy - Gallery
       
    Solio, HYmini
  • Wireless Power - Gallery
        Powermat, WildCharge

Trends: Digital Imaging

  • Photo + video, HD (10+ MP, 720p/1080p)
  • Touch-screen interface
  • Upload directly to Facebook, YouTube; Wi-Fi, GPS tagging
  • Smart: Face finding (sideways), smile, blink
        Auto scene selection / shooting mode
  • Quick power-on, quick ready to shoot 
  • Rugged - Sanyo,  Panasonic LUMIX DMC-TS1
  • Bright colors - light blue, orange, green

Digital Photo Cameras

    See the Digital Photo Cameras Gallery
        Photos beyond megapixels, Accessories: Tripods, frames
        See Flash presentation: Digital Cameras

  • Face + smile finding (Sony)
  • Face recognition - remember settings (Panasonic)
  • Wireless - Gallery - Sony DSC-G3 (blog) with Web browser, Wi-Fi -Eye-Fi card (blog - video)
  • Instant prints - Gallery - Dell Wasabi, Polaroid PoGo Camera + photo printer

Digital Video Camcorders

    See the Video Camcorders Gallery
        Personal video goes HD, DV / Tape, DVD / Disc, Hard Disk, Flash
        See Flash presentation: Digital Camcorders

  • Flash growing (smaller, rugged), Hard drive (HDD) popular for capacity -- Hybrid formats
            disc (mini-DVD) going, Tape (DV) phasing out
  • Longer record time - Sony 240 GB hard disk drive, up to 101 hours of HD video (LP mode)
        Panasonic 32 GB memory, 12 hours of HD video (HE mode)
        Sony 16 GB memory, up to 11 hours of SD video (LP mode)
  • Longer optical zoom (50X) -- optical and digital stabilization - Panasonic 70X
  • Surround sound recording - Dolby Digital, 5 mics - Panasonic - Sony zoom mic
  • Highlight Playback - Intelligent Index - detects zoom, pan, scene change, sound level, faces (Panasonic)
  • Flash camcorders: Smaller, HD
        Sony, Canon, JVC, Samsung - 25 degree angle
        Sony 2009 - Webbie HD cameras - Panasonic 2009
  • Pocket Camcorders (Gallery) :HD, photos
        Flip HD, RCA Small Wonder - Webslinger HD, Kodak ZX1, Creative Vado / HD, DXG, Sony Webby
  • Pico / mobile Video Projectors (Gallery): Brighter, speakers - 3M, Optima, Samsung

Trends: Home Media


High-Def DVD

    See the High-Def / DVD Gallery
         CD, DVD, Blu-ray, HD DVD, Optical disc trends

  • Blu-ray Disc players - Panasonic DMP-B15 portable, Samsung BD4600 player - thin, wireless
  • Integrated Blu-ray Disc - Sound bars
  • Interactive Disc: Digital Copy (article)

HDTV

    See the Consumer HDTV Gallery
        High-def TV: Widescreen, flatscreen, Video projectors

  • Connected Internet and Home Entertainment - Yahoo Connected TV - TV Widgets, BD-Live, DLNA
  • Thinner TVs - Hang like frames - 
        JVC future ultra-slim TV,  7mm thick, 5 kg (11 lps), hang from magnetic plate
  • Backlight: Sony  Wide color gamut cold cathode fluorescent backlight (WCG-CCFL)
  • 240Hz motion - Sony Motionflow
        Crisp and detailed fast motion sports and movie action scenes
        Quadruples frame rate of conventional LCD televisions, interpolates three new frames
  • Green TVs (Sony) 
        Reduce power consumption more than 40%, Exceed Energy Star 3.0 requirements
  • 3D HDTV
  • Wireless video - DisplayLink
  • Unified remotes - Logitech, Audiovox 
  • Flat antenna for digital / HDTV - Audiovox
  • Home Theatre in a Box (HTIB) - 2.1, sound bars, wireless sub

Home Networked Media

    See the Home Networked Media Gallery
        Home Networked Media, PC / TV / CE Media Capture / Transfer, Media Servers: Backup / archiving


Also: Peripherals and Accessories Gallery

  • ezGear ezSpace UFO - 6-outlet surge protector
  • LaCie - Flat Cable
  • Logitech - diNovo Keyboard, Air Mouse, Notebook Lapdesk
  • Verbatim - Speaker keyboard
  • PakSeat Backpack with Built-In Seat

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