The 2007 International CES has just officially begun, but the buzz has been building for weeks, and the press releases and covers of the show dailies tell the story. This is the year of 1080p, of the final battle between Blu-Ray, HD DVD, and—finally—of mobile integration. For the past few years, each of the aforementioned technologies was nothing more than an idea or a not-so-distant pinnacle of development. Televisions capable of displaying the 1080p standard, a “full HD” picture, are just now becoming more affordable and moving toward market penetration. LCD is pushing plasma aside as companies such as Toshiba are dropping plasma production altogether.

Blu-Ray and HD DVD are in the midst of their format war, with the Sony PS3 and Microsoft’s Xbox 360 at the center of the battle. Blu-Ray backers are calling a premature victory based on sales of the Sony console, but it’s obvious the conflict is far from over as companies on both sides continue to debut disc players that constantly become less and less expensive.

In the realm of mobile electronics, the idea of a do-all device has been around for years but only now is it becoming a viable reality. Most progress has been centered around the cell phone, and coupling a music/video player with the already feature-rich modern mobile phone is the logical next step. There should be big news out of CES this year in this sector, especially in response to the rumored release of Apple’s own foray into the mobile phone market later this week during MacWorld in California.

Now, it’s showtime!