More than 30 suburban companies anchored CES
More than 30 companies from the suburbs will wrap up their exhibits today at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Featured companies include Elk Grove Village-based Etymotic Research Inc., maker of high-tech ear phones; Elk Grove Village-based iSafe, maker of smart backpacks; Arlington Heights-based Ace Computers, Arlington Heights-based Bang & Olufsen America Inc., maker of high-end TVs and sound systems; Skokie-based Musical Artisans with audio components, Itasca-based Paro Robots USA, a maker of robotic animals used in therapy, among others.
In addition, Lincolnshire-based LG Electronics America, which has operations in Buffalo Grove, and Libertyville-based Motorola Mobility also anchored the trade show.
And Moto partnered with Verizon Wireless, which has its Midwest headquarters in Schaumburg, to announce new Droid devices, including the purple colored Razr. It also debuted its Connected Home Gateway for smart homes.
“These are innovative and should let the company continue to grow,” said Jeff Kagan, an independent technology analyst attending CES.
“Motorola Mobility has been struggling over recent years to recapture their past success,” said Kagan. “They have made a dent in that journey with the Droid and Verizon Wireless, but are struggling against the industry leaders like Google Android and Apple iPhone.”
LG offered some new TVs and other products as well.
“Do you wish you carried two wireless phones, one for business and the other for personal? Do you use your wireless phone for both business and personal reasons?” Kagan said. “Seeing this as an opportunity, LG Electronics built something that lets users have two different Android operating systems on one device. They showed off the first mobile devices with VMWare Horizon Mobile Manager 4G LTE technology. This keeps personal and private information separate. This sounds like a great idea if it is easy to use and switch back and forth. Whether there is a market or not is another question, but one step at a time. This looks pretty cool.”
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