CES 2009 was about making things smaller, thinner and less expensive, finally reflecting the reality of the world around.
While CES in the past has been about who can make the largest television set, or which manufacturers can throw the most lavish, star-studded parties, this year was a decidedly different show. Gone were the boasts about the biggest and baddest in every category, and manufacturers went smaller and thinner with their wares. We saw familiar technology showing up in unexpected places, and unfamiliar tech appearing in unsuspecting products. The big stuff was there, and flashy as ever, but it will clearly be a good year for bargain hunters and mid-range enthusiasts.
The same stuff, for less money
 The best example of this trend came from Casio. At CES 2008, Casio demonstrated its jaw-dropping high-speed recording technology on the Casio Exilim Pro EX-F1. Since then, we'd been asking Casio two questions. When will this high-speed shooting make its way down the line to consumer models? And when will we see the next-generation, EX-F2? At CES 2009, Casio answered the first of these questions, revealing the new Casio Exilim EX-FC100 and Exilim EX-FS10, both of which come with 30fps burst shooting and video recording at speeds up to 1000fps. High-end features, now available in a consumer model.
We think we'll see this across the board, especially in digital imaging, where the consumer market is so ripe for more aggressive pricing and features. In new camcorders from Sony, Panasonic and Canon, we're seeing more impressive consumer-level cameras instead of dramatic improvements to the high-end. The mid- to low-end is getting filled out with more features at the same price, which is the perfect answer to today's economic climate. Folks used to paying $200 for a digital camera aren't going to spend $500 for a much better camera, but they might spend another $200 for a camera that has some of those $500 features.
Everybody loves a comeback
It was the perfect storm for Palm at this year's CES. While Palm usually dominates the much smaller Digital Life show in the fall, that show was cancelled this year, leaving CES as Palm's best option. Apple had their most disappointing Macworld show . . . perhaps ever, so Palm had no competition from a rumored iPhone nano or other Apple kit. Finally, with a lagging economy and an unstable consumer spending evironment, there wasn't much to take attention away from Palm's big announcement. Mostly, though, we really love to see a good comeback. We've been Palm users for a long time, so our frustration has been growing steadily like most Palm enthusiasts. Instead of updating the OS, Palm turned their devices over to Windows Mobile, and as the Palm OS, now the Garnet OS, quickly waned, and as the financial predicaments of the company became more clear, our hope diminished. All the better.
 Then came the new investors. Palm convinced Jon Rubinstein, one of the key architects of Apple's recent success, to join the team and help turn things around. Though we had no idea what we would see when we got our invitation to the Palm event at CES, we had a good feeling, because we love a good comeback story. With the Palm Pre and the WebOS, Palm has created the gadget comeback story of the new Millenium, and we can't wait to get our hands on the new device.
We've seen comebacks before. Apple was a comeback story, and so was Sharp, a flailing company that invested heavily in LCD technology at the right moment, effectively saving the business. But we think Palm could be a model for other companies that are sinking right now, in desparate need of a comeback. While the technology press gushed over Palm's reprise, it was hard not to feel the same sort of anticipation for other companies on the precipice.
Motorola comes to mind. If any company needs a good comeback, its Moto. Microsoft could use a good comeback story, and if it isn't Windows 7, it might be the upcoming version of Windows Mobile. We'd like to see Kodak restored to some of its former glory with some truly innovative products to differentiate the last remaining great American camera manufacturer. Even better, Sony could really use an injection of that Rubinstein magic. There have never been more exciting, accessible products on the market than there are right now, and some of the biggest names in consumer electronics are watching from the sidelines because they can't quite catch the wave. But everybody loves a comeback story, and we think that comebacks will be a big trend in 2009.
Stuff with extra stuff inside
Laptop manufacturers were starting to stagnate. Every laptop produced today is just a collection of the same parts inside a different housing, and the housings weren't so different. Basically, you could pick your parts in advance and know that just about every manufacturer made a version of the laptop you picked out, with nothing special added. This year will be different. This year is about adding more value to existing products, so we won't see bigger and faster laptops stealing the stage. Instead, we'll see interesting additions. Some of these will be obvious, like the instant-on OS that Sony is using for multimedia playback, or the innovative SSD / HDD pairings that Toshiba is bundling on their high-end machines. But some of these will be innovative and different.
 The ThinkPad is no stranger to 'different,' so we were pleased to see that under the Lenovo brand the family is still trying to innovate. The Lenovo W700ds is a laptop with an extra screen built-in. You slide it out from the right side of the machine, and it give you enough space for documents, toolbars, or just getting more done. The Asus G50 prototype we saw also had an extra screen, this time a small touchscreen under the keyboard. But this wasn't for more real estate, this extra screen is actually a miniature computer, running with the Asus G50 side-by-side. We can imagine this device handling simpler tasks like Widgets and media playback, while the larger machine works productively without sparing additional resources.
We like these ideas because they go beyond conventional thinking. Wireless 3G chips and GPS sensors have gotten small enough that they can be included anywhere. We're seeing these features show up now on camcorders and cameras, Internet tablets and just about anything. What we want to see this year is real innovation. We want to see interesting combination we hadn't thought of before, to create useful tools we hadn't imagined.
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