CES points way ahead for 2013 consumer tech

Every year in early January electronics companies congregate at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), eager to show off the products they hope will capture the imagination of buyers and the world’s media, while catapulting them to leading their industries.

The trade show, which begins next week in Las Vegas, has been running for over 40 years and has allowed the world its first glimpse of products that have come to be ubiquitous in homes around the world, including the video recorder, plasma TV’s, the Microsoft Xbox and tablet computers, while promoting growth in the US consumer electronics market of nearly $195bn.

Gadgets expected to be revealed next week include Samsung’s latest attempt to dominate the smartphone market with their Galaxy SIV, Fujifilm’s new X200 high-end camera, and a range of smart televisions that are seeking to revolutionise the way we all watch TV.

While many industry experts make grand predictions about which products will be in everyday use by the end of the year, there have been many misfires. Google unveiled their GoogleTV products at last year’s show, with many expecting them to be the must-have gadget throughout the year. However, one year on and sales have been unremarkable, with only a handful of hardware makers, including Sony and LG, offering the service.

Over the course of the next week there is likely to be a great deal of talk about many new innovations, from new TVs to augmented reality glasses. How likely they are to go mainstream remains to be seen.