LG splashes on the high design

LG's booth at CES is gigantic, it just goes on and on including every CE gadget under the sun. It's classily decked out with designer furniture and glossy white and black plastic and glass everywhere (kind of like their products actually). They are definitely using design as their ticket into the big leagues (and presumably bigger margins), a great example of using design to pull up a brand.

This is small-d design though, for the most part - very nicely executed styling and materials and finishes, but broadly speaking they are styling treatments of existing form-factors, not real re-thinking of the broader user experience. Nothing wrong with that, of course, not every product is a paradigm buster, but it would be nice to see them stretch a bit more.

LG's booth

Another 'neighborhood' of the booth

LG is partnering with audiophile maven Mark Levinson

Very nice large plasma, but fingerprint-y