One of the interesting stories at this week's 2010 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas will be efforts by manufacturers to define a clear role for screens that are bigger than the ones on cell phones but smaller than those on laptop and desktop computers.
Our contingent of editors, product analysts, and testers expect to see a lot of announcements, and much buzz, in at least three types of device that offer small-to-middling screens–that is, measuring 5 to 10- inches. Like many promising new products, these come with caveats, some of which I've noted.
E-book readers. The explosion of digital reading devices that was promised for 2009 may actually happen in 2010. CES attendees will finally see some of the readers that were announced in 2009 but have not yet reached the market, including the Alex and the Plastic Logic Que. A host of other devices will also be on display, including the Sprint Skiff, the first reader to be sold by a wireless company—as opposed to a hardware manufacturer or bookseller.
Caveats: We might be surprised, but we don't expect a lot of groundbreaking features from the new entries; reading on color screens is still at least a year away, for example. And some of the devices we'll see are yet to acquire retail distribution, and may not do so even later in the year. Finally, while e-book readers retain some clear advantages over reading on a computer screen, the new readers may have some of their thunder stolen by some other new mid-sized-screen devices, such as tablets and so-called smartbooks, that claim to be better for reading than their predecessors.
Tablet computers. These devices typically have a 7-plus-inch touchscreen, Wi-Fi and/or wireless connectivity, and a virtual keyboard and/or a physical one that folds into or under the screen. A host of companies are expected to announce new tablets at CES, ahead of the widely rumored launch of an Apple tablet, which some recent reports dub the "iSlate" and say is scheduled for a late January launch. And some will be significantly low in price, including an already-announced $200, 7-inch-model from Freescale that will run on either the Android or Linux operating systems.
Caveats: The supposed rise of the tablet is a semi-perennial theme at CES, with veterans recalling show after show in which Bill Gates hail the devices in his show-opening keynote address, only to have them continue as pricey niche products for business users in the year that followed.
Netbooks. These pint-sized (mostly 10- and 12- inch screen) laptops are already best-sellers in these tough times, due to prices (and weights) that are lower than most laptops, and a size that's significantly smaller. CES will see the launch of more powerful netbooks, countering criticism that some netbooks have processors that are too feeble for demanding tasks. Conversely, expect also to see a number of devices, including some of the tablets, billed as smartbooks, to align them as much with smart phones as netbooks. Such devices will run less demanding operating systems such as Linux and Google's Android.
Caveats: The so-called smartbooks, like the underpowered netbooks now on the market, raise questions about the appeal of a device that may, for example, be unable to run Microsoft Word.
—Paul Reynolds
