Hybrid gadgets to fuel revolution

Eric Auchard

LAS VEGAS: Computer monitors with mechanical arms, wristwatches and binoculars that play music and phones disguised as cameras are just some of the technological innovations propelling the digital electronics revolution forward.

This week's Consumer Electronics Show, the biggest annual gadget showcase in the United States, featured scores of devices that ignore the classical distinctions separating consumer electronic from computer and communications products.

"A lot of this is driven by just the ability to do it," said Stephen Baker, a consumer electronics analyst with retail research firm NPD Group Inc. of Port Washington, New York. "Some of these functions cost next to nothing to add them."

Some hybrids start out as accessories or peripherals -- niche products meant to complement a popular computer, television or phone. Others are mainstream products that heap additional features to keep consumers interested.

Plunging prices and increasing miniaturization of components means buy one feature and get three or four other functions for free.

The trade-off which product designers must weigh is whether additional features bring unnecessary complexity for the user, Baker said.

"Some of this is convergence because they can," Danielle Levitas, an analyst with IDC, said of gadgets that may go one features too far. "You have to market it under some mainstream category or consumers won't understand what it does."

In this topsy-turvy world made possible by the increasing interconnection of everything digital, crossbreeding is limited only by the imagination.






For example Aigo offers a range of watches that story everything from music to photos to computer files. The timepieces, from China's Beijing Huaqi Information Digital Technology Co. Ltd., boast 3D stereo sound and a built-in microphone voice recorder.

A watch capable of holding 40 songs retails for about $100.

Taiwan's BenQ -- an acronym that stands for Bring Enjoyment and Quality to Life -- plans to make a big splash in the U.S. consumer market in 2005 with TV displays, computers and cellphones.

In April, BenQ will debut a mobile phone disguised as a digital camera designed as a "first phone" for people in their early teens. The colorful Z2 line is half the size of a deck of cards and contains a 1.3 megapixel camera and a music player.

"It doesn't look like a phone at all," Al Giazzon, BenQ's Americas marketing chief, said in an interview.

BenQ also offers a zany-looking computer monitor with five hydra-like adjustable arms that can be arranged around the screen. One offers a mirror, another a light. There is also an arm with a Web camera and a microphone.

Meanwhile, Daka Designs Ltd. of Hong Kong plans to introduce in April a compact $25 stainless steel whiskey flask with a digital display that tells drinkers what cocktails they can mix, drawing from a built-in database of 500 recipes.

NOT JUST FOR NICHE PLAYERS

Conglomerates, not just niche accessory makers, can play the hybrid game too.

Korea's LG Electronics, one of the world's biggest TV and appliance makers, showed high-definition 50- or 60-inch flat-panel screens normally sold separately that throw in a TV tuner and a digital video recorder as well.

Panasonic has added secure-digital memory card slots that allow consumers to view photos from digital cameras straight on their TVs, without a computer, while Panasonic TVs boast new video recorders and improved audio.

Similarly, Japanese electronics maker Canon, Inc. offers connectors that allow its photo printers to bypass computers and hook up directly to TVs, allowing consumers to pick and choose which snapshots to print.

"Taking advantage of high-definition TVs to view digital pictures seems like a great idea," said IDC's Levitas.

Suppliers of components are also getting in on the act. SanDisk Corp. a leading maker of microelectronic memories used in digital cameras and other gadgets, is offering a cigarette-lighter sized digital audio player that plays up to 240 songs in MP3 audio compression format and allows the user to listen to 20 preset FM radio stations.

A new version of the product with replaceable memory is due out in March. It stores up to one gigabyte, or a billion bits of data, and will cost $199, a SanDisk spokeswoman said.

Additional reporting by Franklin Paul and Ben Berkowitz in Las Vegas