The annual Consumer Electronics Show is always a headline-making event:
- Toyota (NYSE: TM) announced the Entune in-dash system that works seamlessly with Bluetooth-enabled smartphones to make dinner reservations, buy movie tickets, and scour through hundreds of Clear Channel radio stations.
- Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) revealed that it has sold 8 million Kinect motion-based sensors in its first two months on the market, and the camera accessory now even picks up eyebrow gestures.
- Tablets replaced the netbooks of 2010.
- Smart TVs replaced the 3-D televisions of 2010.
History isn't always kind to the products unveiled during the show, but CES is often the birthplace of buzz and optimism. With the slow crawl out of the recession, pent-up demand for gee-whiz gadgetry is tremendous.
Let's see whether the rest of the year lives up to the early January hype in Las Vegas.
Briefly in the news
And now let's take a quick look at some of the other stories that shaped our week.
- Starbucks (Nasdaq: SBUX) is updating its logo, ditching the "Starbucks" and the "Coffee." Maybe it's just me, but I figured the siren would be the first to go.
- THQ (Nasdaq: THQI) entered into a multiplatform licensing agreement with Mattel (NYSE: MAT). This obviously won't be the first time that Barbie and Hot Wheels will be turned into video games, but this deal also includes mobile apps and social-networking diversions. Play on.
- AT&T (NYSE: T) is accelerating the deployment of its 4G LTE network, breaking into new markets later this year. The entire deployment won't be ready until 2013, giving Verizon (NYSE: VZ) another two years of attack ads to launch.
Until next week, I remain,
Rick Munarriz
See a stock in this story you'd like to follow? Add it to My Watchlist, which will find all of our Foolish analysis on it.
