by Anton Shilov
01/03/2005 | 11:30 PM
The world’s largest trade event for consumer electronics – Consumer Electronics Show – is to kick off in Las Vegas, Nevada, in three days from now. This year, however, the event will be crowded not only by traditional CE companies, but by an overwhelming number of PC hardware companies, who streamed into the show this year.
<%BANNER[article]%>Consumer Electronics Show that is held annually in Las Vegas, Nevada, traditionally was focused on consumer electronics and various home gear. This year, however, a plethora of companies whose primary market is PC hardware headed to the show to showcase their latest products. The move may mean either rapid ongoing convergence between computing and home-entertainment equipment and also the lack of Comdex computer exhibition, where those companies could showcase their latest developments.
PC Gaming Companies Head to CES
In addition to leading developers of microprocessors and visual processing units, such as AMD, ATI, Intel Corp. and NVIDIA Corp., who have been working hard to converge PC and CE, certain companies oriented on PC gamers will also present at CES, including rather unexpected, such as ABIT, a maker of high-performance mainboards, eVGA, the company mostly known for its graphics cards, OCZ Technology, a maker of memory modules, XGI Technology, a designer of graphics chips and some others.
“As a leading manufacturer of quality motherboards, graphic cards and server products, ABIT’s full product line, as well as a few surprises, will be on display. At the show, we will introduce our latest foray into the realm of PC Gaming,” ABIT told X-bit labs.
“Be present for the unveiling of innovative high performance power supplies as well as exciting new proprietary memory technology,” says an invitation to a CES event from OCZ Technology.
“From January 6th to 9th 2005, XGI will be attending the CES to inform you with the most advancements of XGI graphics solution. In CES, we will provide information on current XGI products, future product plans, corporate overview and strategies,” said XGI.
“eVGA will be showcasing its latest graphics, TV and video technology for the PC that powers systems for high-performance gaming and mainstream computing applications. We will be rolling out new products as well as a new corporate look and feel,” eVGA informed X-bit labs.
Microsoft Xbox 2 – Main Intrigue
Whatever any other market players are going to announce, the main headliner of the CES is Microsoft Corp., who reportedly planned to introduce its highly-anticipated Xbox 2 console in Las Vegas, Nevada.
A report over a web-site claimed late October, 2004, Microsoft Corp. was likely to introduce its Xbox 2 gaming console in early January, 2005. The announcement was expected to be carried out by Microsoft’s chairman Bill Gates during his speech a day before Consumer Electronics Show 2005 kicks off.
Earlier in 2004 a report over another web-site suggested that Microsoft would use its X04 event to announce the ‘Xbox Next’ console in mid-September, 2004, and on CES or Game Developer Conference the software giant would show off a working model of the next-generation gaming machine presumably called Xbox 2. It was explained that the demonstration in about 6 months time before the commercial release of the product was conditioned by Sony's and Nintendo's intentions to expose their PlayStation3 and GameCube 2 consoles in mid-2005 at E3 exhibition and Microsoft's desire to attract maximum attention to its forthcoming technology.
However, Redmond, Washington-based software giant did not reveal anything on the matter of the next Xbox during the most-recent game-shows. Right now various observers and media expect Mr. Gates to announce the Xbox 2 during his speech a day before CES 2005, on January 5, 2005. Still, other analysts believe CES is too early for the Xbox 2.