Apple's Presence Felt At CES In iLounge

By Stewart Wolpin On Jan 24 2011 - 6:01am

LAS VEGAS — Even though it is not, nor has ever been at International CES, Apple’s presence at the show was palpable, especially in the large eight-aisle iLounge area in the North Hall.

There was booth after booth of everything iPod, iPad and iPhone: a wide variety of cases, home and portable power and charging products, screen protectors, stands and mounts, car connectors, headphones and earphones, skins, speakers and docks, a universe of Apple accessories and even a few apps.

“We received such positive response from exhibitors [last year],” said Karen Chupka, events and conferences senior VP, CEA, “that we doubled the footprint of the iLounge Pavilion at the 2011 CES, making it the largest display of its kind in CES show history.”

More than Apple products were on display, however. Several booths hosted live musicians demonstrating music and MIDI apps and headphones. Speck has been hosting doppelganger celebrities — Ozzie Osbourne’s lookalike on Thursday and someone in full Kiss make-up pretending to be Gene Simmons on Friday. As per usual, the LuxMobile booth, which featured many hipper brands and club-style accessories from names such as Ed Hardy, featured a fur-booted go-go dancer.

“Everyone coming through here owns an Apple product, so it’s a natural match for us,” enthused Rick Carlson, product and channel marketing specialist for earphone maker Etymotic Research. “Traffic has been terrific.”

Among the more unusual non-go-go dancer exhibits was Sphero, a robotic ball about the size of a baseball ($100) controlled by an iPod/iPhone/iPad, scheduled to hit the market in Q4. The company is encouraging developers to create special Sphero game apps.

Four new brands owned by RFA Brands shared a large space. MyCharge features portable power solutions including battery cases; uDrop cases protect against drops; Recase’s cases are made from recycled products; and, arguably the most innovative product in the area, Powerbag.

Inside each backpack, messenger bag, soft attache case and ladies’ tote was a 3000 mAh rechargeable battery along with a 30-pin Apple connector, as well as full size, micro and mini USB jacks, which keep any and all portable devices charged. There’s also an external AC jack – the whole bag plugs in. All the internal devices charge first, and then the Powerbag’s internal battery gets recharged. All the bags will be $149 each except the ladies’ tote, which will retail for $99.99. All the bags will be available in May.

Powerbag’s City Tote comes with a 3000 mAh on-board battery with charging paraphernalia, will stow an iPad or perhaps a Samsung Galaxy Tab (just performing a readership check), costs about $100 and comes in three colors — we thought the pretty iridescent fabric was a nice touch. Powerbag is still tweaking their lineup, so the bags won’t be ready for a few months yet; let’s hope things don’t change too much.

Voltaic was displaying an iPad case with high-efficiency solar cells for charging the device lining the front

Voltaic’s Spark Solar Tablet case delivers an hour of additional iPad use for every hour charged in the sun. It’s also equipped with a 38 watt-hour battery that Voltaic says is good for a full iPad charge. It will ship in the spring.

Griffin showed the clever Crayola Color Studio iPad app – a coloring book with animated line drawings for your young’un to color in using a special battery-powered iMarker. The child touches the desired color from the rotating crayon wheel and the pen rubs that color on the virtual drawing. Touching the app with a finger or any part of the child’s hand does nothing. Once the masterpiece is colored in, the masterpiece can be emailed, printed or posted to Facebook. It’ll be available in the spring for $30. — Additional reporting by John Laposky