The Consumer Electronics Show can look like a circus, a flea market or a fraternity rush, but it’s best viewed as a venture-capital pitch. But instead of suit-clad investors, the audience is anybody who might throw down a credit card at an electronics store.

The companies introducing their wares at CES may act like they know how well these new gadgets will fare in the market, but often their predictions are no more accurate than the perpetually sunny forecasts of tech start-ups. Witness the failures of such past CES debuts as Microsoft’s bulky SPOT Smart Watch; the mutant formats that were DVD-Audio, SACD and DataPlay discs; and Internet appliances such as Sony’s short-lived eVilla.

So, what to make of this year’s crop of CES debuts and upgrades? Which might be remembered for more than an early arrival in the CES Hall of Shame?

To read the rest of this report by Rob Pegoro in The Washington Post, see:
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/08/AR2010010803775.html