Now that we have a decent idea of what to expect at CES this year, we're left wondering when consumers can actually get their hands on these devices. Thousands of people worldwide will be giving everyone live news feeds (we trust you all will be watching our live coverage) of all the deets or what's going on at the Vegas convention. They'll be teasing and taunting us as they get a premier, first-look at some of the latest technology these companies have to offer.
All of this is sure to tide everyone over for a while, but the unfortunate thing about CES is that it never leads to all of these cool, hip items hitting the market directly after the show is over. The show is just a teaser on a massive scale. So when can we expect some of these devices to actually hit the market? How long will we have to spend drooling after the show is over before we have our own Honeycomb tablet or HTC LTE device in our hands?
Aaron “McTweedy” Baker says we have a minimum of one month before any devices that are announced at CES hit store shelves. Most of them will be a couple months though, hitting anywhere between April and June. Yes, that's right. Some devices are still six months away from launch date, or more. This is all based on how things have played out in previous years, but these things usually don't change.
Take the Thunderbolt and Motorola XOOM for instance. We have a good ideathat both will be at CES, HTC told us in a cryptic package and Motorola teased us with a video. But that doesn't mean we'll be seeing the phone or tablet at our local Verizon store any sooner, because Verizon has also been hinting a few things. One of which, is that their event will be a LTE Android-only event. Not only that, they are referring to this as a “sneak peek,” which tells me these devices are still a ways out from consumer hands. If the Verizon event was going to be simple announcements, they definitely wouldn't be calling it a “sneak peek.” My guess is April, possibly May, before we see the Thunderbolt or XOOM and I'm not alone on that assumption. I wouldn't expect any confirmation of that from Big Red either, as I'm sure their lips are sealed.
With all of that said, I'm still excited for the convention and to see what all it has to offer this year. The biggest thing it will do for me, is help me decide between Toshiba's Honeycomb tablet and the XOOM. At least with these devices still being quite a ways down the road, I have some time to recover from my most recent phone purchases. What devices do you hope to see revealed? Does the “lag time” between announcements and actual release dates frustrate you, too?
Image via PocketLint
