Bill Gates, Microsoft chairman

The 2005 CES (Consumer Electronics Show) Exhibition held at the beginning of January in Las Vegas attracted a total of 70 Korean companies. Majors such as Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics, and Daewoo Electronics demonstrated their digital technology capability as much as it is possible to do so. In particular, some of the world's most famous CEOs attracted the public gaze by publicly commending Korean products at firsthand. No less a personage than Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, MS chairman, attracted attention by personally introducing products by Samsung Electronics as well as LG Electronics in a Jan. 5 keynote address. He demonstrated the LG Electronics LRM-519 DVD recorder, Reigncom's iRiver H-10, and a Samsung Electronics digital music player. Mr. Gates said that if excellent software and equipment are combined, such products could add new dimensions to life and work.

Inttel chairman Craig R. Barrett

On the following day, Intel chairman Craig R. Barrett described the company's 'digital home' strategy, citing LG Electronics' state-of-the-art LCD TV which can operate anywhere in the home, through wireless connection to a PC, as a good example of technological innovation. This common theme of this year's event by far and away was 'convergence,' with demonstrations of computers, telecommunications, and household electronics products operating on an integrated basis. Flat TVs took center stage among the suite of digital household electronics products offered by Korean firms. Internal Protocol TV (IPTV) a key elements in next-generation home-network technology, Mobile DVRs, voice-filtering digital TV, and hyper-slim DVD recorders were just a few of the outstanding systems and products on display. Other big crowd-gathers reflecting the latest in Korean technology at the CES were ground-wave DMB receivers, phones and satellite DMB phones, megapixel EV-DV phones, 3G WCDMA terminals, Bluetooth phones, and 3D game phones. The following are the latest products that prominent worldwide companies have presented at CES 2005.