Convergence: a buzzword spouted by Silicon Valley tech evangelists

" Convergence is no longer just a buzzword spouted by Silicon Valley tech evangelists passing around the investor-funded collection plates" writes Simon Tsang from The Age, Australia. It's not exactly about convergence in the newsroom, but we can pick up some ideas in this well-documented paper about the recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. it reminds us that every minute dedicated to home entertainment (Playstation, Ipod...) is a minute lost for reading newspapers.

Title: Best laid plans
By Simon Tsang, The Age, Australia, January 31, 2004

Excerpts from the article.

Microsoft-powered Hummer vehicles, TVs with "Intel inside" and Hewlett-Packard selling Apple iPods - has the digital world gone completely mad? These and other announcements were made at the recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas - the year's first major pointer towards trends in consumer technology.

So what's in store for 2004? When it wasn't sidetracked with mundane issues, such as security and copy protection, this year's gadget-fest was all about home entertainment...

...Can't show digital photos on your TV set while simultaneously streaming your MP3 music collection wirelessly? What's wrong with you! While previous years have been all talk about the living room going digital, this is the year that it will actually happen, according to industry pundits such as Carly Fiorina, Hewlett Packard chairman and CEO.

"Everywhere we look it's increasingly clear that we are entering an era where every process and all content is becoming digital and mobile and virtual," Fiorina said in her keynote address at CES. "What matters now is making it all work together in a way that creates simple and enjoyable digital entertainment experiences at an affordable price."

Convergence is no longer just a buzzword spouted by Silicon Valley tech evangelists passing around the investor-funded collection plates. Previously unrelated technologies have now matured to the point where they work well enough together to create new super-appliances for the lounge room. And when you leave your house, you can take it all with you. Portable video players, hand-held broadband-based TVs, smarter smartphones and higher capacity music players are all due for release in the coming 12 months...

... It was Sony, however, that stole the show for portable digital technology, launching a range of new products aimed at the mobile entertainment market.

Most interesting was the LocationFree concept that combines a broadband terminal and TV tuner in a portable wireless display.

"It's a location-free TV that's perfect for those without a laptop PC or who simply do not want the hassle of complicated hook-ups", says Timothy Baxter, a vice-president of marketing at Sony.

The 30cm LCD screen connects wirelessly to a base station that has all the necessary broadband and AV inputs. Users can access email and web services through an onscreen keyboard.

Digital music players will also be popular throughout 2004 as the next wave of iPod wannabes hit store shelves.

They'll have an uphill battle on their hands, though, with Hewlett-Packard just having announced that it has signed a license deal with Apple to sell iPods under the HP brand name.

iTunes and links to Apple's online music store will be installed in HP computers, making it more difficult for any newcomers to the digital music competition..."

The whole article on The Age> website.