The Wall Street Journal has an interesting writeup on how automakers are using next month's Consumer Electronis Show as a launchpad to showcase their latest in-vehicle technologies.

And rightly so. Next year, sales for the booming in-car electronics market are expected to top $12 billion, according to the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) - that's double the level from five years ago.

"Detroit is going to Las Vegas," said CEA president Gary Shapiro. "All the excitement in the home is moving to the car."

Demand is consumer driven, who increasingly want to bridge the gap between their digital lifestyles and the dashboard. And consumers are more likely to spend $600 for in-vehicle gizmos if they're already spending $30,000 on a car.

"Two years ago, CES wasn't even on our radar screen," said Ford Motor Co. spokesman Mark Schirmer. "Consumer electronics have become important because it is what people talk about, and it is part of what they ask about when they are buying a car."

The proof is in the pudding. Ford models equipped with SYNC are selling twice as fast as those without, according to WSJ.

Ford SYNC, which made its debut at last year's CES, will be highlighted at the upcoming show alongside the newly announced navigation system: Sirius Travel Link. Sirius will again be showing off its Sirius Backseat TV service, though no longer under the "prototype" status since it hit the market earlier this year. And while there's nothing official yet from XM, I think we can assume that the company will take the wraps off some new technologies at the show as well.

This year's CES includes a focus on the latest safety equipment, entertainment systems and the integration of digital devices (mobile phones, digital-music players and TVs) with the vehicle. WiMax and other means of internet connectivity will be shown... all spearheaded with a keynote by General Motors Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner

Can't wait.

[Wall Street Journal]
Photo credit: Wired

Following yesterday's post about ICO, an Orbitcast reader sent me this video (below) about satellite-based Mobile TV in Europe.

For those looking to learn more about the potentials of DVB-SH and S-Band (which is essentially a similar architecture to what XM and Sirius are currently using, and what ICO is looking to tap into), this presentation puts it all together very nicely. If you didn't quite fully grasp what it is that ICO is planning, just watch the video and apply it to the U.S.

This was shown at a recent conference where Eutelsat was ‘unofficially’ pushing for an S-Band solution:

ICO Global Communications and Alcatel-Lucent are putting together quite the show at CES 2008, where they'll be demoing mobile high-resolution live television programming to a moving vehicle at the show.

It will actually be North America’s first video broadcast based on the DVB-SH (Digital Video Broadcasting - Satellite services to Handhelds) mobile broadcasting standard.

So what exactly will they be demoing? These will be the first displays of the ICO alpha trial of "mobile interactive media" (or "mim") services.

The ICO "mim" product is a converged mobile media service that provides live and stored mobile TV in vehicles, interactive navigation, and roadside assistance. ICO mim will provide multiple channels of high-quality mobile video to portable, larger-screen (4.5 to 10 inch) devices.

ICO mim will also offer interactive IP data communication services - that's right Internet access and other data applications. Should be pretty interesting stuff to see.

Orbitcast will be live from CES 2008, starting on January 5th, with full coverage throughout the week. Are you going to CES too? Email me.

[Press Release]