UK companies and media share their experiences of CES 2010

Like all good things, CES has come to an end for another year. However, it’s left us with an exciting taste of things to come in 2010 and we’re looking forward to all the products we’ve ogled in the past week hitting store shelves.

Prior to CES, we hypothesised over the major announcements and trends to come. If only Vegas offered odds on gadget predictions, we’d be quids-in.

3D TV was the biggest theme of the week, with all the major manufacturers announcing panels. But while 3D TVs are fun, and some promising panels were demonstrated, it’s still an emerging market, which makes all of the models exceedingly expensive.

It seemed every manufacturer had either a tablet computer or ereader at the show – British companies Interead and Plastic Logic both unveiled exciting new ereaders to compete with rival US models. Another exciting emerging technology, the benefits of ereaders are still being debated by book-lovers and techies alike.

While we were on the money with a lot of our guesses, CES also threw a few curveballs our way. Google’s open source operating system, Android – which is primarily seen on mobiles – was seen on everything from tablets, to desk phones and even a washing machine.

But what we were really hoping for and, happily, what we saw, was an amazing presence from British companies. From Internet radio devices from Pure, to the touch screen projector from Light Blue Optics, the UK stood out as a big contender in the consumer technology industry. And of course, our winners stole the show at CES Unveiled, attracting media attention worldwide for their exciting and revolutionary ideas.

There’s so much being announced here at CES, from 3DTVs to tablet computers, from companies big and small, that it’s hard to spot all the hidden gems.

But there’s plenty being announced from British companies and one product that has attracted a lot of attention is the Que e-reader from British company Plastic Logic.

The company, founded by two Cambridge University professors, is challenging existing e-reader manufacturers, including Amazon and Sony, by claiming that their device is “unbreakable”. The difference is, they say, that the screen is made of plastic, rather than glass.

E-readers have been a big deal the show this year, with several announcements and devices launched. However, it’s fantastic to see that a British company is leading the way with new, exciting innovation.

Photo: www.plasticlogic.com

Colin Calder from passivSystems talks about home energy efficiency at the UK Technology stand

Neil Jones talks about the growth of ebook reader market and presents the COOL-ER ereader

One of the main features of the UK Technology stand at CES was a series of thought leadership presentations led by Daniel Dearing from the Electronics Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN) and Stuart Revell from the Digital Communications Knowledge Transfer Network (DC-KTN).

Each day at the show there were several presentation sessions, focusing on four central themes: entertaining, connecting, informing and automating. These presentations featured a selection of UK technology companies, including several of the CES Unveiled competition winners. 

Dearing said: “Our aim was to inform international audiences about the important part UK companies play in the global value chain, with a wide range of iconic, world-leading branded products and technologies from UK companies, such as smart phones, satnavs, ebook readers and netbooks.”

Dearing added: “The presentations were well received and we saw a significant presence from market leaders including ARM, Wolfson Microelectronics, Dialog Semi and Picochip.”

The CES Unveiled showcase saw some fantastic interest from the press. The UKTI winners did an amazing job of showcasing British innovation at the UKTI stand at CES, surrounded by the world’s leading technology companies.

The stand was buzzing all week and our winners worked hard meeting and greeting the press, being interviewed, videoed and photographed. Here are a few of our best bits in the press so far:

Picochip interviewed by Telegraph’s Harry Wallop

Provision profiled by Gizmodo

PassivSystems online at the Daily Mail and ElectricPig

Orbitsound profiled by Geek.com

Picochip, Tenbu, Passivsystems, Ocean blue and trueCall in Reuters’s picture roundup of CES

UKTI met with Jonathan Weinberg from The Sun

Coming soon… we’re looking forward to the next Guardian podcast interview with Steve Williams from UKTI and some great videos on BBC Click next week.

We’re all extremely pleased to see what a presence at CES can do for an up and coming company, and we can’t wait to see what these amazing British companies can achieve in 2010.

Stuart Revell from DCKTN talks to UKTechnologyLIVE about UK innovation in consumer communications