ELECTRONICS : MOBILES, WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY AND VIDEO THE HIGHLIGHTS OF CES 2007.

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the international electronics fair open to the general public, is held in Las Vegas from 8 to 11 January to present the latest in digital developments. This year's show is dominated by stand-alone and cordless appliances as well as videos transmitted via any medium. The CES, the largest electronic forum after CeBit in Hanover, is attended by 2,700 exhibitors from all sectors of this rapidly expanding industry and the leaders of the world's largest groups.

Bill Gates, President and founder of the world's software leader, Microsoft, was there, as has been his custom for the last nine years, to hold an opening conference on 7 January. The 15,000 visitors also had the opportunity to listen to the managing directors of the world leaders in mobile telephones, Ed Zander from Motorola and Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo from Nokia, the owner of the leading supplier of telecom equipment Cisco, John Chambers, the MD of Walt Disney Robert Iger and even the founding owner of Dell, Michael Dell, during the 200 conferences.

Also during the event, the new innovations yet to be made available to the public will be revealed: mini laptops, all purpose telephone-computers, video walkmen, bigger and bigger flat screens, GPS navigation equipment, home-appliance systems, home-video, embedded electronic systems in cars and futuristic gadgets ranging from humanoid robots to remote control watches. The main attraction, however, will undoubtedly be mobile and cordless products, with laptops the size of books, wi-fi connected apparatuses, telephone agendas linked to the internet capable of replacing computers, etc. The CES has devoted a special section to them entitled "Anywhere, anytime".

ALL PURPOSE MEDIA

Another trend that is in evidence is video and ways to view them using different mediums, from the internet to video walkmen via home television sets. One problem facing professionals is that the CES takes place each year at the same time as the annual Apple Macworld Expo in San...