Google’s Nexus One mobile phone may or may not prove to be that elusive “next iPhone”, but the timing of tomorrow’s expected announcement is certainly significant.

Just 24 hours later Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, will address the annual International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The best three years lie ahead, Mr Ballmer told The Times in a recent interview. The idea is that as fields such as television, computing, music, video, telephony, video gaming and photography mature their digital formats, fewer devices will be needed to store and play content.

Portable devices — the MP3 players, digital cameras and mobile phones of the mid-Noughties — have already merged to become today’s smartphones. At this year’s electronics show we can expect digital convergence to invade our living-rooms. Manufacturers are working on internet-capable television sets that can be switched from broadcast to internet catch-up services such as the BBC iPlayer as easily as changing channels. By the end of the decade, many experts predict, internet TV viewing will overtake broadcast viewing as the primary means of television consumption.

The jury is out on domestic 3D TV, which requires special glasses as well as special sets. It may be revolutionary — but having just replaced their old TV with a flat-screen, consumers may not be keen to fork out for a 3D set.

Great things are expected in eBooks. Electronic publishing and e-ink reached the mainstream last year. Now there is a race to produce a colour eBook device with go-anywhere wireless and maybe internet, video or games-playing ability.

The big story of last year, however, was the netbook, and we will see smaller, lighter, and more powerful models at the show. The netbook’s biggest competitor is the smartphone. This year, experts say, smartphone sales will overtake sales of traditional mobiles.

SOURCE: Times Online

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