It's been nearly a month since CES has passed. In the wake of the consumer electronic industry's largest trade show, it's common to see lists that rank the winners and losers from the massive presentations and product unveilings at the show.
However after the show, a more sobering reality can set in. For example, while many products might look like blockbusters, sticky issues like their pricing or delayed releases can make them duds in the long run. Now that there has been time to reflect on different announcements and actually gather information, let's look at which companies gained the most.
Close to best in show
After CES, the knee-jerk reaction was to place either NVIDIA
One of the announcements Moto made that got investors' hearts racing was its Xoom tablet. The Xoom appeared to be the strongest competitor yet for the iPad, going toe-to-toe with the iPad on technical features and also promising a future upgrade to Verizon's speedy LTE network. However, in the wake of CES it was reported that the Xoom would be priced at $700.
Fans of Motorola might defend the Xoom's pricing as being in-line with its capabilities. After all, a 32 GB iPad with 3G access costs $729. However, the beauty of Apple's pricing system has always been that it starts at very low entry-level prices. This pricing model anchors consumers to the $499 entry price point for the Wi-Fi-only model and $629 for the entry-level 3G model.
Undercutting the iPad by $29 based on storage specifications isn't enough for Motorola given that consumers still anchor pricing expectations down to Apple models with less storage. The Xoom will still likely sell well, but given its status as the best looking tablet running Google's new Honeycomb operating system at CES, its pricing model deflates the Xoom's potential to be a runaway success.
NVIDIA had a good showing at CES. It was featured in numerous tablet wins. However, despite its Tegra chip's dominance in tablets, the company was still unable to gain significant traction in smartphones. Its notable wins included one LG phone and two phones from Motorola. With Android manufacturers coalescing around Qualcomm's
One stock that fell
One company that was surprisingly quiet at CES was Marvell
Marvell has a long-standing relationship with Research In Motion, so if any ill will from Marvell's inability to win the PlayBook filters down to winning BlackBerry processor designs, it'd be a major blow to the company. Other than its loss in the PlayBook, it was a quiet CES for the company. Marvell might be able to get a pass since its new Tri-Core processor design has been sampling to manufacturers for far less time than its competitors from Texas Instruments and NVIDIA; it simply isn't ready for prime time yet. However, if the company doesn't start showing better traction by midyear, it could spell trouble for Marvell's processor ambitions.
Best in show
In the end, the best in show had to be ARM Holdings
What are your thoughts on which companies have the most momentum headed into 2011? Leave a comment in the box below and let us know.