CeBIT is Coming!

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Alright, so the news that's just starting trickle out now should start to flow quite heavily next week as CeBIT - the world's largest technology conference - gets underway in Germany.

Yeah, baby.

Just so you don't miss a thing, here's the Google News Search for CeBIT ordered by date. Just continually click on that link through out the week. Hell just make it your temporary home page. ;-)

Let's see, looks like Reuters already has a preview story running:

AMSTERDAM/PARIS, March 7 (Reuters) - From camera phones to wireless computer connections, the freshest crop of gadgets in years will be unveiled to mainstream buyers at next week's CeBIT trade fair, but few may be in a spending mood. ...

"We're going to see camera phones from every manufacturer and many other weird and wonderful mobile devices as manufacturers struggle to drive the replacement market," said analyst Ben Wood at market research group Gartner Dataquest.

Starting next Tuesday and running into the following week, CeBIT will welcome some 6,500 exhibitors -- down from 8,000 two years ago -- and attract more than half-a-million visitors to a sprawling high-tech metropolis made up of more than 24 aircraft-hangar-sized halls. ...

The CeBIT fair grounds, a teeming city unto itself, will feature fast wireless Internet access over short-range radio networks, giving visitors a taste of how an entirely wireless city would work.

These so-called Wi-Fi connections are due to receive their biggest boost ever next week as chipmaker Intel Corp. formally unveils chips that will allow most notebook computers manufactured by year-end to reach the Internet without wires.

Such wireless Internet access networks on laptop computers and other devices promise to become commonplace in cafes, hotels, airports, schools, offices and public places -- pretty much wherever computer users congregate -- in the coming year.

While the latest network gear and entertainment gadgets from Silicon Valley, Japan and China will feature prominently, the bulk of the show remains a celebration of German industriousness. Two vast halls will be given over to heavy-duty printers, a strength of Europe's largest economy. ...

EYE CANDY

Some of the biggest hopes are pinned on a host of handsets for the latest generation of mobile phone networks that can handle not just voice but Web data, photos, even moving video.

Camera phones, used to snap and send pictures and video, are the hot growth segment in the otherwise slow-growing mobile phone market of 410 million units a year. Dozens of such camera phones will be on display.

Some 18 million camera phones were sold in 2002, compared with just a few million a year earlier, and Japanese and other Asian suppliers are showing the way, challenging the leadership of Finland's Nokia, which makes more than one in three handsets.

Japanese manufacturers like Sharp 6753.T , NEC 6701.T , Fujitsu 6702.T are currently racing to bring out the first million pixel camera phone, crossing the crucial threshold from poor quality pictures to decent snapshots for photo albums.

Analysts are looking for market leader Nokia NOK1V.HE to introduce a low-cost version of its camera phone line. "That is where we need to kick-start the market," said Daiwa Europe analyst Matthew Lewis. Nokia also looks set to push out new keyboard-based voice and data phones for business users.

U.S. software giant Microsoft MSFT.O is expected to trumpet the news that Motorola MOT.N , Samsung Electronics 05930.KS and Siemens SIEGn.DE , respectively the world's number two, three and four handset makers, will introduce Microsoft-based computer phones aimed at business users.

Oh boy! Let the gadgets begin!

-Russ

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