Hen Rene Penning de Vries, the chief technology officer of NXP Semiconductors, talked two years ago about a technology that could tell you whether the milk in your refrigerator has turned bad, many found it hard to believe. But the latest display of products and technologies of the future at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas shows that the day is not too far off when you can actually access internet and watch YouTube on your refrigerator.
Mobile phones and computers constituted the chunk of consumer electronics devices purchased in 2010, according to this year’s edition of Accenture’s Consumer Electronics Products and Services Usage Report. In 2010, BRIC consumers have shown a higher rate of adoption of the newest technologies and a greater willingness to pay premiums for features and enhancements.
This explains why many gadgets with ultra-cool features are making their way to India. Take Samsung’s C9000 series of 3D TVs, for instance. Users can see their programmes on the remote control screen of this TV anywhere in their house.
Also, 2011 seems to be poised for a tablet war. With India being an attractive market for these gadgets, here are some exciting technologies and products to watch out for.
Tablets/Tablet-PCs
Right from the jaw-droppers — the Motorola Xoom to BlackBerry’s Playbook — a line of exciting tech toys are out. LG unveiled its first tablet, which runs on the Android version of Honyecomb. Toshiba also has been showing off its 10-inch tablet running on Honeycomb.
In India, the biggest hit last year was perhaps the Samsung Galaxy Tab, which runs on the Android Operating System 2.2. It offers PC-like web-browsing on its 7-inch display screen, and special customised applications suitable for India.
"With 3G services being rolled out, Indian consumers can download new content faster," says Ranjit Yadav, country head, Samsung Mobile and IT. “As the mobile industry gears up for the convergence era, 2011 will see a further spurt in the growth of smartphones and tablets,” he says.
As of December 2010, the global sales of Galaxy Tab have already surpassed one million units. It may not be running Honeycomb, but it may a take a long time before the Xooms and Playbooks and Asus’s Eee Slate EP121 come to India.
Meanwhile, India’s first 3G tablet PC — the Olive Pad — has also seen considerable interest among Indian users. The Olive Pad, which works on the Android open source platform, supports camera, video call, micro USB port, 3.5G net connectivity and includes features like an ebook reader and smartphone.
According to Sahil Sachdeva of Olive, a number of variants of the Olive Pad can be expected this year. Variants without the smartphone feature is also being worked upon. Olive Pad is expected to see a 10% growth this year, he says.
3D & Smart TVs
3D TVs, which were expected to catch up in a big way in 2010, surely fell short of expectations. But this hasn’t stopped analysts from projecting a 500% purchasing growth rate for 3D TVs in 2011, according to the Accenture report.
Going by what the likes of LG and Samsung are offering, it won’t be surprising to see more and more Indian consumers switching on to 3D and smart TVs. In fact, the latest smart TVs to be offered by LG runs on the ‘point, click, control, simply smarter’ concept.
Its remote has a six-button controller that resembles that of Nintendo’s Wii. If you press the button, a mouse cursor appears on the TV screen, with which you can flip through the menus and surf the Web through a built-in browser.
LG will offer Smart TV features in many of its upcoming 2011 model TVs, but its official launch date is to be announced. “A new range of Flat Panel Displays (FPDs), which include plasmas and LCDs, will be launched by May 2011,” says Rohit Pandit, business head, home entertainment, LG India .
And, there is Samsung’s C9000 premium full HD 3D LED TV, which shows off an ultra-slim profile at 7.98 mm. What’s most fascinating about this TV is its remote control, which features a 3-inch touchscreen.
So, even if you are away from the television screen you can see the live feed on the remote control display through wi-fi, anywhere in your house. This is priced at`4,44,000 in India.
Consumers seem to be expecting a lot of ‘non-traditional’ activities from their televisions. According to the Accenture study, around 21% of consumers were found to search the Internet via their television, and 14% used the emailing facility. If this is a yardstick, the smart 3D series of TVs are likely to catch on in India in a big way.
USB 3.0 Flash Drives
Tablets are likely to flood the market, leading to a surge in demand for flash memory products, especially those compatible with USB 3.0 standards. SanDisk brought out their smallest USB flash drive — the Sandisk Cruzer Blade, which weighs just 2.5 grams.
The drive supports plug-and-play and is compatible with all commonly used computers. The SanDisk Cruzer Blade USB flash drive is available in capacities ranging from 2 gigabytes (GB) to16GB, ranging from `699 (2GB) to `2999 (16GB).
For the ultra-speed drives, Kingston has started shipping its HyperX MAX 3.0 from December. It has a read speed of up to 195MB/sec, and a write speed of up to 160MB/sec, when paired with a USB 3.0 compatible device.
During one of its internal testing, a 10GB movie file was transferred in just 1 minute and 12 seconds to the HyperX MAX 3.0 from a USB 3.0 system. HyperX MAX 3.0 is available in 64GB, 128GB and 256GB capacities. Moving or backing up HD video, RAW images or other large project files will not be difficult at all with this flash drive.
Google’s Chrome OS
Last year, Google had announced its efforts to design an operating system that is built and optimised for the web. It’s a cloud-based operating system that works inside the Chrome browser.
By building an operating system that is essentially a browser, they can make computers faster, much simpler and more secure, according to the Google blog post. All your data would be accessible from anywhere. But the efforts are not complete. Some of the features of Chrome OS may require new hardware, according to the post. They will be launching a pilot programme where test notebooks will be given to qualified users to get feedback.
Chrome OS is designed to work across a wide range of screen sizes and form factors, enabling partners to deliver computing devices beyond notebooks.
Disclaimer: All information on this news has been compiled from their respective official websites or through public domain sites and leading newspapers. Although, we have taken reasonable efforts to provide you with accurate information, but we assumes no responsibility for the accuracy (or inaccuracy) of the Information and would advise you to verify it from the official product provider. We cannot guarantee that the information on this page is 100% correct. If you would like to advertise on our site please contact us
No comments:
Post a Comment