Anticipating the Consumer Electronics Show

Rob Enderle pens a column for Technology News on his expectations about the upcoming CES in Las Vegas later this week. Enderle writes about the prevailing themes and trends he sees for the show such as high-definition TV, GPS and automobiles and how other companies will attempt to address and counter the Apple factor.

On the topic of cell phones and accessories, Enderle writes:

If there is one area that may attract more interest than iPods it will be cell phones. Many think that if there is anything that can dethrone the iPod it is a cell phone, and the three companies that have the potential to create such a device are Motorola, Palm and HP. The Motorola Razr was the hot phone this year and next year the Q is supposed to move in and take over. Palm will be showcasing the new Treo 700, built in partnership with Microsoft. There are a number of other vendors that will be standing up to show their version of the next big thing as well.

With memory capacity approaching 5 GB, music and even video will be increasingly common. While I still doubt I'll ever regularly watch TV on my phone, clearly the phone builders have faith that I will, because the video feature will be all but standard. In addition, look for a massive number of Bluetooth headsets and accessories, building on some of the amazing things firms like Plantronics did last year with Bluetooth and executive Bluetooth headsets.