http://www.freshbaked.com Electronics and Computer News http://www.freshbaked.com Greg Hill {1D0D446D-5FA6-4FF5-9382-36F4995D3C8B} Tue, 27 Nov 2012 14:47:00 MST A lot of smartphones and tablets flew off of retailers shelves over the post-Thanksgiving weekend, as the Consumer Electronics Association listed those toys as the top two sales categories. Contrast this with the estimated $41 Billion in 2008 (http://money.cnn.com/2008/11/30/news/economy/holiday_shopping_sun/index.htm) for a 6.6% increase over 4 years for a lackluster growth of only 1.65% per year. This is particularly sobering when you consider that CNNMoney described 2008 as "the weakest economic climate in decades". http://www.freshbaked.com/pages/2010/Article001.htm Greg Hill {58F373E8-E9FA-4EB5-A6B4-4040DFE7B351} Sat, 23 Oct 2010 09:30:00 MST Apple's latest MacBook Air is thinner, lighter, and cheaper than ever, but has a larger battery due to the space being saved by using flash memory instead of a hard drive. http://www.freshbaked.com/wordpress/ Greg Hill {F8B63D18-E8FA-4578-B782-DD4F51B3305D} Wed, 05 Jan 2011 07:30:00 MST Consumer sales drive the world economy and electronics, approaching a trillion dollars in 2011 , drive consumer sales. And when it comes to electronic gadgets, the current phenomena is the consumerism of the workplace, which means that people want to be able to use the same gadgets at work that they are already using at home: smartphones, digital cameras, game controllers, flat panel monitors, touch panel devices, to name but a few. All of these things have applications in the workplace and a tremendous potential for increasing productivity and stimulating innovation. The benefits to business are phenomenal and do not fit the old paradigm. It used to be that businesses were on the leading edge when developing technology. The enterprise would provide the equipment, train the employees on its use and purpose. Now, the employees already have the devices and know how to use them - it is up to the enterprise to adapt and take advantage of the potential. And it is not just devices - the whole Internet 2.0 - social media communication phenonmenom is flooding into the workplace along with a new generation of mobile and social-aware hardware and software. Organizations must embrace and control the changes or lose the hearts and minds of their workforces and their customers. That is why CES is the most important conference in the world, because in Las Vegas in January the wise leader will find the future in the booths and demonstrations and presentations. The items and trends that capture the imagination at CES will find their way into the consumer mainstream in the coming months and affect the way customers and employees will behave in the months and years ahead. Visionaries who observe the future at CES and can follow its path forward will be on the cusp of the wave of the future while others will only be able to react to it after it happens. Revised 10/15/2011 by Greg Hill ©2011 FreshBaked.com® http://www.freshbaked.com/pages/3DTV.htm Denver Baseball Observer {55AFEFA9-ECEE-4C8C-A3D1-46ED5DAE1284} Mon, 27 Dec 2010 19:41:59 MST Three Dimensional High Definition Televisions (3D HDTV) were one of the most hyped products at CES last year, if not the most hyped. But being the biggest item at CES does not always translate into sales numbers. http://www.freshbaked.com/pages/2010/Article002.htm Denver Baseball Observer {789B68E0-4713-4905-B844-5313A3E345A3} Mon, 02 Aug 2010 19:41:59 MST They are breaking new ground in whatever they do. Innovation is the common thread among all of the companies from Colorado showing their wares at the grandest electronics trade show of all, CES in Las Vegas. Whether they are pushing the envelope in conventional industries, like Boulder Amplifiers demonstrating the highest quality and most expensive ($25,000) CD player in the world, or going places no one else has gone before, as in the case of Gamma Two’s robots, the Colorado companies at the show were unified in presenting something new and exciting. They also have another thing in common: success at CES. Every representative I talked to said they had a positive experience at the 2010 CES and planned to return the following year. And for most it wasn’t a new experience either, with the average Colorado company attending for over 10 years with some boasting that they had been attending for over 25 years. Aside from familiar brands like Hewlett-Packard, Dish Network, EchoStar, OtterBox, CaseLogic and Pentax, most Colorado companies would probably not be familiar to the average person. Many of them, like the Jeff Rowland Design Group and Boulder Amplifiers will probably never be widely known outside of the their niche market, in this case high end audio equipment. But that doesn’t mean that every one of them isn’t a great story and a uniquely successful business, the type of small to medium sized high technology companies that drive the Colorado economy. Colorado companies at the CES show fell into 12 categories: Accessories, Audio, Cameras, Cases, Computers, Furniture, Home Networks, Merchandising, Power, Recycling, Robotics, and Video. Each week another Colorado attendee will be profiled, followed by other interesting companies in the state that were not at CES, but probably should be. We will begin with the Accessory Category that includes Boulder company Nite Ize and Golden’s Epilog Laser.