CES to spotlight digital evolution

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Game Developers Conference in March, the same event where Gates revealed plans for the current Xbox in 2000.

"I'd be surprised if they unveil a lot of details about the next Xbox in January," Rosoff said. "There's still a lot of room to sell software for the existing console. The longer they can keep consumer excitement focused on their current platform, the better it is for their business."

Microsoft popped the cork a few months ago on its biggest consumer electronics interest, the Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 operating system and related products, Rosoff noted.

The company may have a few new Media Center add-ons or partner alliances to reveal at CES, but mainly Gates will deliver a greatest-hits set on Microsoft's vision for the digital home, Rosoff predicted.

"I'm expecting he'll use it as an opportunity to highlight the whole 'digital media anywhere' message," Rosoff said.

Taste of Sonoma
The rivalry between chipmakers Intel and AMD will also play out at the show. Both will tout new chips for notebooks and will likely outline plans to bring so-called x86 chips into consumer electronics products such as DVD recorders and set-top boxes. Both are developing chips tweaked for this market.

Intel CEO Craig Barrett will deliver a keynote speech in which he'll discuss Intel's efforts in mobility and the digital home and offer a preview of the chipmaker's latest platform for notebooks, code-named Sonoma. The new mobile technology is expected to be unveiled in the middle of the month and some notebook manufacturers, including Sony, will be demonstrating units using Sonoma.

Barrett may also trot out a celebrity guest or two. Last year, actor Morgan Freeman announced he would release a first-run movie on the Web in 2005. Intel may also further sketch out plans to unite Hollywood with tech.

Although it will have a two-story booth at the show, Intel will probably be more low-key this year. Last year, it unfurled plans to make TV chips; eight months later, it canceled those plans.

Texas Instruments, which has become a dominant player for chips in projection TVS, will have several products on the floor. CEO Rich Templeton will speak at the event.

Also noteworthy
Tempe, Ariz.-based Brillian, which manufactures rear-projection high-definition televisions, will show off its LCOS TVs, which it had to delay in 2004.

On the digital-imaging front, Canon and other major manufacturers likely will have a few new video camcorders to show, said Chris Chute, an analyst for research company IDC. Video and still-camera manufacturers may also display new wireless capabilities for hooking cameras to PCs and other devices.

But major camera releases are usually saved for the Photo Marketing Association conference in late February, Chute observed, making CES more of an opportunity to showcase items already on the market.

A Hewlett-Packard representative said the company will hit on similar themes at this year's CES as it did during the 2004 show. Last year, HP announced plans to deliver digital-entertainment products, including television sets, and unveiled its digital music partnership with Apple. The announcements led to the unveiling of products such as the Apple iPod from HP music player and a 42-inch plasma-screen television.

Apple will likely be holding off any major announcements until next week, when the annual Macworld trade show will take place in San Francisco. Apple is widely rumored to be releasing a flash memory-based version of its iPod portable music player.

Chipmaker Freescale will be demonstrating a cell phone using Ultra wideband, a wireless-networking technology connecting electronics devices. Alereon will show a version of the technology as well.

CNET News.com's John Spooner and Michael Kanellos contributed to this report.