CEATEC Illustrates Changing Market.

This paper presents the author's observation on the 2004 CEATEC show held in Chiba, Japan. The longest line at the show as Toshiba and Canon's theater for their special electric devices flat-screen technology. And I saw and took many pictures of all the Blu-ray decks at manufacturers' booths as well as shots of proposed high definition digital video disc decks at that format's show display. But the change in worldwide distribution was the real surprise. For instance, the 70-inch SXRD display of Sony, which debuted at Custom Electronics Design and Installation Association in September 2004, was shown as a technology piece at CEATEC because it is not shipping yet or may never ship in Japan due to its large size and the relatively small homes there. The worldwide embrace of digital technology and increased competition for traditional Japanese consumer electronics makers from China, the Pacific Rim, Europe and Silicon Valley, California are two major reasons for this distribution change. Still two things in Japan do not change: the courteous hospitality of people and the passion and love they have for baseball. About the latter it was somewhat disconcerting to see gigantic high definition television images of Hideki Matsui and the rest of the New York Yankees being broadcast live from Yankee Stadium and shown at the NHK Broadcasting booth.