I went to Sony's CES press conference yesterday (Sunday), which was on just before the Gates show. It was remarkable for the vast number of new products shown, albeit some of them -- such as the Rolly -- were already on sale in Japan.
The new offerings included five "premier models" of Vaio notebook PCs, some noise-cancelling headphones with "artificial intelligence," a new Mylo, two satnav systems. three mobiles (W760 slider, W350 matchbook design, Z555 with gesture control), 16 new camcorders including five HDC models, TransferJet (which, amusingly, didn't work), an Alpha DSLR, a PD-ROM drive, and some Bravia TV sets with Digital Media Extenders (DMex).
Sir Howard Stringer rounded up with "the next champion product" that will set a standard for others to follow: OLED TV.
Sony first showed an OLED TV last year, but this year, said Stringer, it had an 11 inch model you could buy today in the SonyStyle store in Las Vegas. Not for sale was the 27 inch prototype on the Sony stand.
The OLED screens look amazing: they have a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio and are only about 3mm thick. When you see one, you will want one. Whether you will buy one is another matter. Sir Howard neglected to mention either the expected lifespan of OLED devices, or their cost.
Once again, Engadget's Ryan Block blogged the press conference live, with lots of pictures. It also has a very short video of the jaw-dropping 27 incher.
