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TechRadar: It won’t be too long before CES 2011 is upon us. Taking place from 6-9 January 2011 in Las Vegas, CES sets the tone for the tech year.

Apple may not be present, but just about everyone else is – from the electronics giants such as Sony, LG and Samsung to the tiniest software companies. CES covers the whole gamut of technology, so you’ll also find Microsoft and Nvidia alongside names such as Kodak and Polaroid.

CES, or the Consumer Electronics Show, is the place where the industry meets, does business and – most importantly for you – launches new kit. TechRadar will be there in force to bring you the latest news and hands-ons from the event, but what can we expect to see there?

Last year, 3D was the main theme alongside every single company talking about the environment. This is a slightly odd thing to hear in Vegas, which is possibly the least environmentally friendly location known to man. Expect those companies who haven’t yet gone big on 3D – such as Sharp – to go fully 3D this time around.

We’ll also see plenty of universal glasses available – specs you can use with various 3D TVs, not just those from one manufacturer. And expect a lot more hype behind 3D Blu-ray.

The movers and shakers at CES 2010

Traditional LCD will seem like old technology at CES 2011 – it’ll be LED all the way. Movement on the next-gen OLED tech has been slow so far, with only Sony, Samsung and LG really demonstrating anything of worth.

Sony has had its 11-inch on-the-market XEL-1, Samsung with an OLED laptop and 40-inch TV demos and LG with the UK’s larget OLED TV, which clocks in at 15 inches. Expect far more to come at CES from various manufacturers.

Highlights from CES 2010 included Samsung’s LED 9000 series and the first look at the Toshiba Regza Cell television – though we’ve since learnt that the Cell is yesterday’s news and will be replaced by the new Cevo processor.

As well as connected TVs, there will also be plenty of other connected devices – we’ll surely also see a plethora of Google TV devices. Google TV will come to the UK in 2011.

GOOGLE TV: Will CES 2011 be where Google TV really takes off?

In terms of computing, we’re expecting lots and lots more in the way of tablets. Dell has not been too secretive about its desire to produce larger siblings for the Dell Streak, so expect more from them.

Likewise HP – we’d predict that the leading PC manufacturer won’t be too far behind with a tablet-based device. Lenovo also had plenty of Snapdragon-based devices at this year’s CES. Will we see more at CES 2011? Will it be the LePad?

But the most interesting part will be the operating systems these guys end up using. Will the buzz continue to be around Android (which Google says isn’t yet ready for tablets anyway) or will we see something new from Microsoft or will the Redmond giant just hope for the best with standard Windows 7? And what of Chrome OS – it’s all gone quiet on that front.

We’re also expecting plenty of announcements from Intel and Nvidia, so watch this space for more.

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AVRev.com: In-Stat has released a report predicting increased proliferation of Wi-Fi, driven by consumer electronics devices usually found in the living room. 

Wi-Fi is already commanding the mobile device and home network markets, and In-Stat sees the signs for a transition to the living room. 

Game consoles are already experiencing an attach rate of 80%, and DTVs will likely be another major factor in increasing the presence of Wi-Fi.

The largest sector of the market that is Wi-Fi enabled is still mobile devices, however. Notebook PCs, portable media players and cell phones/smart phones will sell hundreds of million Wi-Fi capable units by 2012.

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PC World: The future for consumer electronics looks bright and high oil prices will help the industry, according to Hans-Joachim Kamp, who spoke at IFA in Berlin last Wednesday.

“Because of high oil and gas prices, we will again see a cocooning effect,” said Kamp, CEO of Philips in Germany, Austria, Switzerland.

“Instead of spending money on expensive vacations abroad, consumers will spend their money at home, buying, for example, flat-screen TVs”, he said. Price erosion has made it possible for almost everyone to upgrade, and there is still a large untapped market.

“There are still 170 million old CRT TVs in Europe,” said Kamp.

But some of the numbers don’t look that good; the overall market in Western Europe is expected to shrink by 2.4 percent during 2008. The reason for that is mainly a weak market in the U.K. The U.K. consumer electronics market value shrank by 11 percent during the first half of 2008.

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HiddenWires: At the start of 2008, there were very positive signals about the continuing success of Consumer Electronics. The uncertainty of the first three weeks of December was quickly forgotten as a very strong performance in the post Christmas sales period meant that turnover for the whole year reached £8.9 million (€11 million), representing an increase of 7.6% over 2006 according to GfK.

Not for the first time, it seemed that sales of TVs knew no bounds, as the already impressive total registered in 2006 (just over 7 million), itself an all time record, was effortlessly surpassed as 8.8 million products were sold in 2007. However, it seems inconceivable that there will be a further increase of more than 22% in 2008 (or 15% in value) which was the principal contributor to the CE market’s overall wellbeing last year.

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CNet: Despite intense competition, price cuts and a shaky economy, it’s going to be another good year for the electronics industry, predicts Sony’s Stan Glasgow.

Glasgow, president of Sony Electronics, said that orders from retailers are strong once again this year. Consumers are snapping up high-definition TVs, but also digital cameras and video cameras.

Consumers also know that regular TV is going away.

“I still think the biggest thing going on is the analog shutdown in 2009,” he said.

Other notes from Glasgow:

-Sony has released a slim 11-inch OLED TV in Japan, but it will take time for the technology to become a mass market phenomenon. “The yields are difficult. The technology is difficult,” he said. Blue light, in particular, can be difficult to control on OLED TVs. “It is going to take a number of years” before OLED TVs become mainstream,” he said.

-Expect the Japanese giant to be more open to outside ideas. Sony has said this for years, but this time they really mean it. The latest Sony Reader and some of its MP3 players come with slots for SD cards as well as cards based around Sony’s Memory Stick standard.

-Blu-ray will win. But I guess you expected that. Sony is one of the big backers of the Blu-ray format.

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Slashgear: It is refreshing to see that Ford is paying attention to the consumer electronics market. They have crafted a system for cars to communicate with music players and cell phones.

The new system called Sync will allow the driver to control their music player with either buttons on the steering wheel, or with voice recognition. Also, if you’re one that gets a lot of text messages, the system will also read those aloud for you.

Sync will be available as an option on the Ford Focus this fall for €290. Nine other cars will have it as an option by the end of the year.

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PC World: Flat-screen televisions, computers and other hi-tech gadgets will use nearly half of a typical British household’s total electricity by 2020, an energy conservation body said in a report on Wednesday.

Britain’s Energy Saving Trust (EST) said consumer electronics will overtake kitchen appliances and lighting as the biggest single drain on domestic power.

Its report, “The Ampere Strikes Back,” said new devices are often more power-hungry than earlier models and many are left on standby rather than being switched off. Some don’t even have an “off” button.

“Not only are there many more devices in the typical home, but many of them are in a permanent state of readiness to swing into action,” the report says.

In 1982, only three percent of homes had a personal computer compared to 60 percent today. Similarly, printer ownership has shot up to 58 percent from 0.7 percent.

Houses often have more than one TV and people are buying more large screen sets that use more energy, the report says.

By 2020, televisions on standby will consume 1.4 percent of all domestic electricity, the report predicts.

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Heisse: Sales of consumer electronics are moving more and more online. According to statements by the Nuremberg-based market research institute GfK so far this year 10 percent of all flat-screen TV sets, 15 percent of receivers and 17 percent of camcorders have been bought online. This trend was having serious economic repercussions on physical specialized shops, the institute observed. There was no way to stop the growing trend toward buying items online, the CEO of GfK Marketing Services Werner Winkler declared.

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Heise: the Dutch electronics group Philips was able to more than triple its net earnings in the third quarter. Whereas group net income in Q3 2005 was 1.4 billion euros, the equivalent figure for Q3 2006 is 4.2 billion euros.
However, Philips’ net earnings were boosted significantly by the sale of its Semiconductors division to KKR, an investment company. Without this one-off injection of cash Philips’ net income from its continuing operations amounted to a mere one million euros. (…)
Philips’ Consumer Electronics division, on the other hand, took a beating: its sales shrank by 5 percent and its operating income plunged q-on-q from 164 to 54 million euros. In addition the poor showing of the LCD joint venture LG.Philips LCD put a dent in the group’s Q3 balance sheet.

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AVzombie: According to research from market analysts GFK, sales of consumer electronics are booming in Western Europe, and the UK is leading the sales rush (25% of European technology sales). Germans were the second highest spenders (19% of ticket sales), and France third (17%).

Overall, Europeans spent 18 percent more year on year on high-tech goods, with flatscreen TVs the most popular items. By the end of the year, it’s estimated that we will have coughed up a massive 44 million euros on tech products.

Fore more details, please check GFK.

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VNUNet: Consumer electronics sales are booming in western Europe – consumers have spent some 18 per cent more in the first half of 2006 than in the same period last year, according to a new report on consumer spending from GfK.

The sector is benefiting from consumers investing more money in expensive and higher value consumer electronics products. GfK is predicting that Europeans will have spent €44bn by the end of the year.

In western Europe, 61 per cent of total sales in the industry during the first half of 2006 were generated in the UK, Germany and France. The greatest proportion, 25 per cent, was attributable to the UK.

This was followed by the German market with a share of 19 per cent and France with 17 per cent. The remainder is spread across seven other western European countries in which GfK collects data.

Sweden tops the growth charts with sales up 23 per cent compared to the first half of 2005. Sales were up year-on-year by 20 per cent in France and 18 per cent in the UK.

TVs are the strongest growth driver in consumer electronics and sales are up 35 per cent on the first half of 2005. The main reason is consumers increasingly turning away from traditional CRT sets and switching to flat-screen LCD or plasma models.

Sales of LCD TVs were up 125 per cent. TVs with 32in screens and over were particularly popular, with one in three consumers buying a set of this size.

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