Electronics Show Leans Toward The Esoteric

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January 05, 1999 (9:55 AM EST)

By Andy Patrizio,

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is usually an enormous gadget store for technophiles, but this year's show will feature few products destined to hit mass-market success anytime soon.

New digital formats such as DVD and HDTV are sure to be headliners. But from all indications, most gadgets lean heavily on the convergence concept, with a number of vendors showing off home-networking wares and a slew of interactive cable and satellite-dish technologies.

ADT Security Services, Digital Security Products, and ITI are unveiling advanced home-security systems; Open TV and TiVo will show their interactive television products; and ShareWave, Diamond Multimedia, and Avio said they are hoping to cash in on the home-networking market.

But demand for these types of products is still limited to early adopters. "The market has to create its own interest," said Sean Kaldor, research analyst with International Data Corp., in Framingham, Mass. Sophisticated products such as home networks encounter resistance from consumers already overwhelmed by electronics. Also, few consumers are ready to rewire their homes.

After years of trying to introduce home-networking products, vendors are catching on. Diamond's HomeFree Wireless product promises no wires or cabling to join two or more computers. HomeFree Wireless, which costs $200, includes two PC peripheral cards with a range of up to 150 feet. Another package, called the Combo Pac, has one PCMCIA card and one PC card to connect a laptop and desktop computer together, and is expected to sell for $230.

Avio Digital MediaWire extends beyond computers to distribute digital music and video as well as telephony, connecting everything from a home theater to stereo components, a digital phone, PC, and home-control and automation technologies.

After a lackluster debut in 1998, HDTV will get another go around, with more vendors showing HDTV sets and price cuts in the 10 percent to 20 percent range. HDTV sets range from $4,000 to $15,000, so the discount should help move them into homes.

Also expected to get a huge push at the show is the MiniDisc, the struggling 6-year-old format developed by Sony, Kaldor said. MiniDisc had been touted as a digital substitute for cassettes, which wear out and are easily damaged and provide lower-quality sound. On Thursday, Digital Video Express, developer of the oft-maligned Divx format, will release its much-anticipated sales figures for 1998. Digital Video Express and its parent company, retailer Circuit City, will announce unit sales of both DVD and Divx, to combat rumors that Circuit City was under-stocking DVD players to boost Divx sales.

The Divx sales figures could be better than expected, said Kaldor, but DVD sales figures are expected to be two to three times higher than Divx.