In Consumer Electronics, 3-D and All Things Wireless

The electronics industry saw sales drop by 8 percent last year. This year, smartphones, digital tablets and 3-D TVs could get the public buying again. Transcript of radio broadcast:

25 January 2010

VOICE ONE:

This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Faith Lapidus.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Bob Doughty. This week, we look at the newest devices demonstrated at the recent International Consumer Electronics Show. The show offered a look at what could be the most popular electronic products this year.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

The Consumer Electronics Show is the world's biggest technology trade show. Industry representatives and reporters gather at CES each January to see the next, must-have electronic devices for the coming year.

This year, the show took place between January seventh and tenth in Las Vegas, Nevada. A record three hundred thirty businesses attended for the first time. These can be manufacturers or suppliers who sell products from other companies. In all, there were over twenty thousand new products from more than two thousand five hundred businesses.

The Consumer Electronics Association produces CES. It is the largest trade show of any kind in North America -- with over one hundred thirty thousand square meters of exhibition space.

VOICE TWO:

The electronics industry is hoping a new crop of products will help it recover from an eight percent decrease in sales last year. The biggest attention-getters were the latest 3-Dimensional high definition televisions.