LAS VEGAS -- They may not know it yet, but the public wants its digital television. Or so Sony Corporation president Howard Stringer told a packed house of several thousand in Thursday's keynote address to the Consumer Electronics Show.
"There have been many fits and starts on the road to digitization," said Stringer, standing under an elaborate steel lighting latticework on a stage once graced by Elvis.
"But the logic and promise of digitization has proved absolutely compelling. If we can give the consumers the simplicity and ease of use which they want and deserve, there will be opportunities and rewards for everyone," he said.
Stringer's speech at the aptly Star Trek-themed Las Vegas Hilton was part call to arms and part appeal to retailers, manufacturers, and the tech industry at large to support a campaign to push the new wave of digital consumer products, most especially DTV.
DTV in all its variations, including top-end high definition television (HDTV), is the reigning buzz at CES this year. The trade show is the world's largest, with over 1,800 exhibitors and 90,000 attendees. More than 20 manufacturers are showing off new DTV models.
Digital TV promises sharper, clearer pictures and sound. After years of hype, the first sets only hit stores late last year and still carry astronomical price tags.
But the technology is primed to spread: Nationwide, there are already nearly 50 stations emitting digital broadcasts, and the FCC wants to phase out analog broadcasts by 2006.
Viewers seem to be at the ready. "The No. 1 thing customers say to me is, 'Tell me about that HDTV,'" said John Schoellman, a TV salesman from Bryan, Texas, reverently watching a giant-screen HDTV on the convention floor.
But Schoellman acknowledged that prices will have to drop by almost half, to below $5,000, before they catch on in a big way.
Stringer acknowledged that the switch to DTV will be a gradual one. "Color TV took 10 years to win consumers' attention, and HDTV will, like color, ease its way into the national psyche," he said.
Industry insiders agree. "Christmas of 1999 will be the consumer launch date for DTV," said Darrell Issa, chairman of the Consumer Electronics Manufacturing Association, in his introduction to Springer.
CEMA predicts sales of 10 million DTVs by 2003. But selling that many DTVs along with other well-hyped new products, such as digital video disks (DVDs) and digital camcorders, will require unprecedented cooperation among retailers and manufacturers. They will have to agree on a common technical architecture that will allow different companies' products to interoperate. Then, for instance, a Toshiba DVD player could run Sony Playstation software on a Panasonic DTV.
Stringer called for manufacturers to accept the standard, called HARVi, that a consortium of major companies -- including Sony, Sharp, and Toshiba -- are developing.
"Let's not turn the fast track to digital networks into a slow motion replay of the indecision and competing interests that hampered DTV," he implored.
The idea of a corporate colossus like Sony calling for universal adoption of a system it is developing provoked some skepticism on the convention floor.
"I wonder if there's a Machiavellian plan to dominate the market here, if they're trying to do a Microsoft-type thing," said one telco executive who asked not to be identified.
Stringer sees DTVs as the centers of new home networks of interconnected digital appliances, which will "offer relief to people oppressed by VCRs and remote controls."
E-commerce, said Stringer, will play a crucial role in boosting sales of new digital products. All the divisions at Sony, from electronics to records, fear that a shift to Web-based sales will jeopardize their relationships with real-life retailers.
"Watching the performance of Amazon.com, we all worry that on the Internet, he who hesitates is lost," Stringer said.
