CES 2010 Overview

Mar - 01 | By: admin-pub | one comment.

Filed under : 1. Jan / Feb 2010, Speed&Sound

Story by Norm Ross

Based on the cover date, it’s a new year and that means off to Las Vegas for CES once again to take in all that is new and exciting in Consumer Electronics. With the economy taking a turn for the worst mid 2008, last year’s CES attendance was way off at only about 90,000 people. I was pleased to see that this year was back up to over 120,000 and the general outlook was that the recession has bottomed out and we are in the recovery phase. Certainly this was evident at the show with over 300 new, first time exhibitors in attendance.

The North Hall of the Convention Centre is where all the best action is – car audio land! This year saw Ford, GM and Kia with big displays showing off their latest in car entertainment and navigation/blue tooth offerings – it was nice to see this along side the aftermarket companies. As I have spoken about before, the automobile manufactures are putting better and better head units in their vehicles, but the poor speaker quality and lack of any real subwoofers leaves lots of opportunities for consumers to upgrade.

Of course iPods are everywhere and Dual had 2 great new devices that work with them. First was a NAV upgrade for the iPod Touch. It has a GPS pack for the back of the Touch that also doubles the battery life. This allows you to hand hold the Touch and get full, turn-by-turn NAV and it comes with a windshield mount for your car. The app to run it is free from iTunes and it’s fully compatible with TomTom, Navigon and other’s downloadable apps if you prefer these. The other Dual piece works with both the iPod Touch and the iPhone and is an inexpensive head unit that foregoes the CD player and in place has an arm that holds the iPod/iPhone within easy reach of the driver or passenger and plays all your loaded music easily. Think easy Navigation here with your iPhone as well!

Pioneer had a great display with their ever-expanding Navigation based head units. New this year was Eco Routing that measures fuel consumption and driving behavior to offer the best route to your destination. They also showed all new models with complete access to your iPod’s music and videos. These have optional, add-on GPS NAV so you can upgrade in the future.

MTX was showing a 2010 Camero with all the stock speakers changed out with their TDX Coax’s and a vehicle specific ThunderForm in the trunk for bass. This show-car was getting lots of great comments on the sound… and still looked completely stock. MTX continues to offer ThunderForms for added bass for the latest models of cars and trucks with six new models at the show.

Escort showed their newest products based on BlacklineGPS tracking technology. There are models for your vehicle, boat and a portable for personal use. These allow you to secure your vehicle or boat and if they are moved or stolen, will automatically send text/emails to you to advise you. You can track where your vehicle or boat is at any time on a map on Blackline’s website; speed and time are also logged. The portable would be great for your luggage, snowmobile, ATV, children, etc.

Till next years report, we will keep you updated on the latest products in each new issue of RPM![PSGallery=1j5suksi3t]