LAS VEGAS – American United Capital Inc., CEO Joe Siegel, attended the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show held at the Las Vegas Convention Center in January. An estimated 140,000 people participated at the three-day event.
The International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is a major technology-related trade show held each January in the Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas. Not open to the public, the Consumer Electronics Association-sponsored show typically hosts previews of products and new product announcements.
Siegel attended the event looking for opportunities to fund.
Many tablets were introduced in 2011's show, such as the Motorola Xoom tablet, which won the Best of Show. Many 4G phones were also unveiled at the show, including the LG Revolution, Samsung Infuse 4G, HTC Thunderbolt, Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc, Motorola CLIQ 2, Motorola Droid Bionic, and Motorola Atrix 4G.
3D TVs were introduced by many industry giants, such as Mitsubishi's 92-inch model of its 2011 line up theater-sized 3D Home Cinema TVs. Toshiba also unveiled its Glasses Free 4K 3D TV prototype. Samsung announced the Plasma 3D HD TV series named D8000 and LG introduced the LED 3D TV of its Infinia Nano series.
3net, a 3DTV channel co-owned by Discovery Communications, Sony, and IMAX, was also previewed.
Other trends from the CES included, home automation and connected appliances. General Electric has been working on smart appliances for years, and more importantly, it has been pouring resources into getting those appliances connected within a smart home and the smart grid. The company showed plans for a connected home back in 2009, and it has been investing in smart grid technology consistently, including awarding financial prizes for good ideas. GE is inching closer to its goal of seeing a home fully equipped with smart technology, and unveiled just such a connected home at CES 2011.
In the automotive sector, Ford Sync continued to innovate, while Hyundai displayed a demo of an augmented-reality interface that's projected onto the windshield as you're driving.
The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) is the owner and producer of the International CES. CEA is the preeminent trade association promoting growth in the $186 billion U.S. consumer electronics industry. More than 2,000 companies enjoy the benefits of CEA membership, including legislative advocacy, market research, technical training and education, industry promotion, standards development and the fostering of business and strategic relationships. All profits from CES are reinvested into CEA's industry services.
