What Will the Story Be at CES 2011?

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) will descend on Las Vegas next week as 100,000+  attendees will get a glimpse at some of the new gadgets and gizmos that companies like LG, Sony, Motorola and Samsung plan to offer later this year or in the future.

Each year, certain products garner more attention than others and draw the biggest crowds, clogging up the narrow convention center aisles.  I've been to CES seven-times and have seen all sorts of products that became staples of our lives and even more that we never saw again.

Here's what to expect this year.

Tablets, tablets, and more tablets.  With the success of Apple's iPad, and the Samsung Galaxy Tab, look for a HP-Palm product running webOS, RIM’s PlayBook, the much talked about Droid Xoom and countless other pretenders to the throne.

3D TVs and Content.   Prepare yourself for much lower cost active-shutter 3D glasses, big drops in 3D TV prices and lots of stunning content for both.  Customers main complain about 3D televisions has been the lack of content to watch.  We might even see how we can convert out regular DVDs to #D capable DVDs.  That sounds interesting.

Superphone Smartphones.   Smartphones are all going multi-tasking while improving both single- and multi-threaded application performance. These phones will offer 4G as well, providing what may be the biggest single bump in performance ever, and giving us an early look at what might be in the fifth-generation iPhone.  Mobile phones are where it is all happening and handset makers are racing to showcase the latest innovations.

Smart TVs.  Hoping to steal some of the attention from smartphones, Smart TVs will be at the show this year, in full force.  The vast majority of which will be DLNA compliant. These TVs have been quietly getting better all this year, and advance press materials I've received have me impressed.  Watch for them to be wrapped with products like Skifta, which allow you to seamlessly move your content from any source to any player, be it a DLNA-compliant TV or stereo.  Ease of use will be a key for this product.

Auto innovations.  Head on over to the automotive pavillion this year and you'll see what you may soon be doing in your car.  Expect to see  in-car hotspots, and some incredible sound systems ane touch screens that will allow you to control your life from the dash of your car.

More e-book readers.  Thought you saw it all last year when it comes to e-book readers?  Think again.  Will the next generation of e-book readers offer video, or also act as tablets?  E-book readers continue to be a popular category of consumer electronics.

Who knows, maybe something we've never herd of will steal the show this year.  By this time next week well be on electronics overload, but we'll have some idea of what to expect in the coming months.