The Consumer Electronics Show, or CES, is the largest consumer electronics conference in the United States. Electronics vendors come from around the world and gather in Las Vegas, Nevada, to show off the latest and greatest developments in technology. Every year is a showcase of the most recent innovations in digital imaging, electronic gaming, wireless communications, digital video, high-performance audio, home entertainment, mobile electronics, broadband and the Internet. Since its start, the show has grown and gathered a large following of attendees and vendors. In January 2001, there were well over 100,000 attendees from 125 countries and 1,700 exhibitors at the show. In the recent 2011 show, there were over 140,000 attendees and 2700 exhibitors displaying their products from all around the world. The overall growth of this show illustrates the influence and new role of electronics in our ever-advancing society.

It is truly astounding to see how far technology has advanced in just a decade. It doesn't seem that long ago, but on October 23, 2001, Apple announced its official release of the first iPod only months before CES. Technology has made massive leaps and many gains since then and it's truly amazing where it's heading. At the 2001 Consumer Electronics show, Nokia won a CES innovation award for their 8890 and 8200 series mobile phones. These phones were some of the first to have features such as voice dialing, predictive text input, customizable backgrounds, down-loadable ring tones and picture messaging. It was only ten years ago, but at the time; these features were considered to be cutting edge. The technology of the Nokia 8890 and 8200 doesn't come close to the capabilities of the new Phones showcased at CES 2011.

This year at CES 2011 was no different when it came to leaps and gains as new innovations in mobile technology and Tablet PCs took the spotlight. In 2001, it would have been hard to imagine the power we now possess in the palms of our hands. The latest smartphone's are practically small computers and tablet PCs have the potential to replace laptops and computers altogether. This year, new 4g phones like the HTC Thunderbolt, LG Revolution and Motorola Droid Bionic were unveiled and plan to run on Verizon's new 4G LTE network. This 4G technology offers faster levels of data transfer than ever before and gives the ability to live stream HD movies and download countless hours of audio files. The new developments made in tablets and Smartphone's has opened the door to a new way to do mobile business and communicate.

Mobile phones and technology has become an integrated part of our society and has come a long way since the huge bricks of the 1980s. Technological advancements have changed the way we live and contributed significantly to our way of life. By looking at the differences between CES 2001 and CES 2011, it's clear our technological expertise is advancing at an astronomical rate. These new technological advancements quickly become integrated into our social structure and change everything from the way we talk to enabling businessmen to be more efficient and mobile. Were learning more about new technology everyday and its going to be interesting to see how advanced and integrated it becomes in future years.