Five Things That Will Be At CES [With CES Almost A Week Away, Expect Lots Of Ultra-Thin Laptops, 4G Phones and Tablets To Rule The Show Floor]

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We’re quickly closing in on the new year, and after that, the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada. The show is one of the largest in the world and for the first time ever, TFTS will be there live from the show floor, bringing you all the latest and greatest goodness for the coming year. We’ll tell you the five things that we expect to be in abundance on the show floor (aside from sweaty, tired tech journalists and booth babes).

3D Technology

It was there last year, and it’ll be there again. Remember that this time last year, epic sci-fi film Avatar was setting all sorts of records in the box office. It also restarted the 3D craze in the United States. HDTV manufacturers are still looking for ways to keep HDTV prices high, and look for 3D to be that reason in 2011. Toshiba and Sharp are pioneering glasses-free 3D tech in Japan, so look for them to make big waves in Vegas.

Tablets

Another thing that’s carrying over from last year. Last year, Apple tablet rumors were at an all-time fever pitch. Later that month, the iPad was introduced, but at the time, nobody knew what the Apple tablet would look like, or be like. That left everybody scrambling to have some sort of tablets on display. 12 months later, we’ll still see more tablets, but they’ll be a little more polished, and they might actually come out in 2011. After the iPad, Dell Streak, and Samsung Galaxy Tab, the industry has a slightly better idea of what works, so look for better tablets this year at CES. HP/Palm is also expected to unveil their first webOS tablet (PalmPad) at Vegas next week.

Set-Top Boxes / Digital Media Extenders

Devices that let you playback digital content on a TV have been around forever, but Roku, Boxee, Western Digital, the Apple TV and others are making this a hot space to be in this year. Look for set-top boxes to be in abundance this year at CES as the world makes another step towards replacing our physical media with digital media. Movie streaming services like Netflix, VUDU, iTunes or Amazon and their ilk are required on devices like this.

Ultra-thin Laptops

Look for companies to show off their PC versions of the MacBook Air this year. We’ve seen these ultra-thin laptops in years past, namely the Dell Adamo series of laptops, but the new MacBook Air may cause more interest in this market for PC manufacturers. I expect ASUS will have something up their sleeves, too.

4G Phones

Expect “4G”, and a lot of 4G. Okay, so Clearwire/Sprint’s WiMAX network  at the actual event may be shotty due to bandwidth constraints, but 4G-mania amongst some of the exhibtors. Although a lot of phone companies choose to skip CES in favor of other shows like MWC and CTIA, Verizon and T-Mobile will both be there, and they’ll both likely be plugging their 4G networks like crazy. Motorola will be there, too, perhaps showing off a 4G Droid for Verizon. Fan favorite HTC isn’t attending, but other major phone manufacturers like Samsung and LG will be there in force. Microsoft will also be there – a 4G WP7 phone would be completely unexpected, but an awesome surprise.

There you have it – the five things we expect to see at CES when TFTS travels there live to report to you from the show floor. Anything you want to see introduced there? Tell us about it.

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