Tech fair woos average consumers

HANOVER, Germany -- Sharp design and simplicity are in. Acronyms are out, along with data transfer speeds, kilobytes and megabytes as marketing tools.

At this year's CeBIT technology fair, computer and telecoms companies are trying to muffle the jargon -- aiming their pitches at people indifferent or even hostile to geektalk who still love the gadgets.

"The consumer is not buying these acronyms, the consumer is buying solutions," Rudi Lamprecht, head of Siemens' mobile phone division, said as he introduced his company's new phones.

Instead of offering earfuls of data-delivery details, Siemens preferred to show off such eye-pleasing gizmos as the rugged M65 cell phone. The phone's gray and orange rubber and plastic exterior and removable metal frame help shockproof it.

The M65 doubles as a bike computer, sitting in a cradle on handlebars and displaying -- and recording -- speed and distance. The company gave no price.

The shift in focus at the fair, which runs through Wednesday, comes as the tech sector looks ahead to modest growth after three difficult years.

To find new customers, companies are looking to tap the potential for computer-powered home entertainment in the living room instead of the wire-strewn computer nook.

"The mega-shift is that we are now able to bring the benefits of computer usage to someone who is just focused on entertainment," said Sharad Gandhi, Intel Corp.'s director of corporate brand marketing for Europe, Middle East and Africa.

So the show featured equipment such as Sony's Network Media Receiver.

The size of a paperback book, the device uses wireless networking technology to enable users to tap PC data such as digital photos or to surf the Web with their feet up on the sofa using a remote, not a keyboard. The wireless connection means a boxy server can be stashed somewhere else.

The computer and media receiver sell for $3,400 in Europe; no word on whether it's headed for the United States.

Then there's Fujitsu-Siemens' new Scaleo C, a plain-vanilla metallic box with a small yellow display on the front and one big control knob: Part personal computer, part home entertainment center, the Scaleo avoids computer-like behavior such as that annoying boot- up wait to play MP3 files, CDs or the radio.

But its stereo component-like exterior hides an 80-, 160- or 200- gigabyte hard drive, enough to store lots of digital photos or downloaded video. It's going to sell for $730 to $1,220, sans monitor or keyboard, beginning this spring in Europe; it's not coming to the United States.

"It looks like a home entertainment device, because it's designed to truly be in the living room," said Amy Flecher, a company spokeswoman.

Sony Ericsson showed off new camera phones that position the shutter button so people will intuitively hold the device horizontally, like a camera, rather than straight up like a mobile phone.

Making the phone simpler and more inviting to use as a camera generates more data transmission of photos, which means more revenue for the system operators who are the manufacturer's prime customers.

Another adaptation of tech for computer-free areas of the house is Nokia's Image Frame, a $488 picture frame that can receive pictures from a camera phone. When you return from a vacation, a shot from your trip can be waiting for you in the frame.

The frame is wireless and has its own phone number. A shorter- range version can receive the pictures from an infrared signal instead.

Nokia miniaturized the picture frame idea in the $365 Medallion II, a digital locket worn around the neck that can be fed pictures by infrared.

More morphing of entertainment and computers arrives in the TwinHan Technology Ltd.'s VisionPlus digital terrestrial USB box, a digital television receiver that pipes TV into your laptop on the road. Since it connects to the laptop USB port, it needs no external power, just a small antenna.

The company warns, however, that it will use enough power to shorten battery life, and digital TV has yet to reach all of Europe and the United States.

And it wouldn't be CeBIT without someone doing something for the sake of showing they can do it. Maxon Telecom's MX-C160 itty-bitty mobile phone is about the size of a matchbox.

Nonetheless, it's got a color display, polyphonic ring tones, and standby time of around 150 hours. Cost will be around $170, with availability in China and Europe but not the United States, said company spokesman Y.D Song.

But why a phone so small?

"People like small," Song said.

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