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WAEA 25th Annual Conference & Exhibition
21-24 September 2004
Washington State Convention & Trade Center

KEYNOTE: TRENDS IN CONSUMER ELECTRONICS

"I marvel at the technology that has gone onto the airplane. Passengers inflight are experiencing interactive TV that they don't even have at home," stated Dr. Paul Liao, President, Panasonic Technologies Co., during his keynote address yesterday.

The popularity of DVD "is the big success in digital technology," Dr. Liao said. The uptake by consumers was content-driven, as DVD content was widely released simultaneously with DVD players. Today 75% of movie rentals are on DVD.

Consumers are now turning to DVD recorders, and Dr. Liao projects that DVD recorders will outsell VHS recorders in 2005.

Anywhere
Ever since the transistor radio was introduced in 1954, consumers have wanted to take their entertainment with them. Secure digital memory cards, which are postage-stamp-size flash memory cards, contain up to a gigabyte of memory providing storage for 15-20 hours of content. Dr. Liao said airlines could install a port to insert the memory card on the in-seat monitor or the seat's arm, allowing passengers to view their media onboard without needing a personal player.

Interoperable
Interoperability among all products "is a real challenge," stated Dr. Liao. Consumers want to take content and entertainment from their computers to their cell phones, PDAs, televisions, etc. The solution must make all devices easy to connect and easy to use, he stressed.

The Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) was formed to align industry leaders in the consumer electronics, mobile, and PC industries in developing guidelines for device interoperability.

Environment
Consumers often don't know what makes a device environmentally friendly or how to recycle products that might contain elements harmful to the environment. The European Union projects that by 2006 many harmful elements will be banned from use in consumer electronics.

Satisfaction
Customer satisfaction is growing with the refinement of digital products. Digital cameras are outselling film cameras and offer film-like resolution and zero time-lag. Portable devices are getting smaller and battery life is being extended. Today's true-color camcorders provide MPEG-4 video, still photos, audio playback, and voice recording. "This is changing the way people think of video," Dr. Liao stated.

The Blue Ray disk will provide 50 gigabytes of storage and is the next important development in consumer electronics, Dr. Liao said. Blue Ray recorders are available in Japan that will let consumers record high-definition content from television. In the future, Blue Ray will allow a consumer to connect his home entertainment network to the Internet to access content such as an additional language for a film.

"If we can make products that can capture the moment—that's what it's all about," Dr. Liao concluded.