CES 2011 is the one where the phone in your pocket starts flexing like a computer. Motorola takes the stage and unveils the Atrix 4G, the first smartphone with a dual-core processor, Nvidia’s Tegra 2, and it does not stop there. Slide the Atrix into a laptop dock and it powers a full desktop. It is an ambitious, slightly mad idea, and it feels ahead of its time.
Tablets and 4G arrive in force
Motorola also shows the Xoom, the first tablet built on Android Honeycomb, Google’s first version of the OS designed for big screens. This is the real answer to the iPad, and it will not be the last. Meanwhile 4G LTE is the phrase on every booth and every carrier banner. The pieces of a much faster, much more capable mobile world are all on the floor at once.
The trend for the year ahead
Multi-core mobile and 4G are here, and the gap between a phone and a computer starts to close fast. Expect the year to be a horsepower race, more cores, more speed, and the first serious wave of Android tablets trying to take on Apple.
The Atrix laptop dock is the kind of swing I love, the right idea maybe a few years too soon. Even if it does not land, the direction is unmistakable: your phone is becoming the main computer in your life.
Part of 20 Years of CES Through My Lens, my year-by-year diary of the show.