The consumer electronics industry demonstrates product “life-cycle” with a vengeance. Recent changes seem to be more incremental than revolutionary, yet there are some astonishing changes happening in the consumer electronics market.

While no quantum leap in concept or technology is apparent, improvements of all sorts are occurring. In the world of computers and peripherals, the drive for smaller, faster and cheaper continues.

One category that seems to be showing particular change is video products, specifically displays and projectors. From plasma displays to LCD projectors, to flat screen LCD televisions, quality and features abound while prices are tumbling from nose-bleed heights. Many are still more precious than my moth-eaten wallet can possibly sustain, but there a many gadgets (much to my long-suffering spouses displeasure) that are both affordable and enjoyable.

A large screen plasma HDTV-Ready 50”monster carries a price tag in the $4500 to $5500 range on a good day. A 27” LCD TV is priced at $1000. This stuff still is not in the “commodity” range in the opinion of your humble servant. If you want a “home theater” experience combining the top of the line entertainment systems, you can shell out tens of thousands for a killer setup with powered drop-down screen, hi-resolution projector, Dolby sound, and deep upholstered recliners.

Or you can go the poor-mans route as I did with a small projector, telescoping movie screen, and small powered speakers. All together an expenditure of about $1500 will let you view your favorite DVD in pretty darned fair style. Considering I am getting just a teensie bit hard of hearing and my eyesight is perhaps not as sharp as it used to be, el-cheapo works fine for me. The only downside (if you consider it a downside, which I don’t) is I can’t tune TV channels into my projector. Since I don’t watch much that passes for TV these days, that is no loss.

Microsoft has offered what is probably one of the few “revolutionary” products in it’s “Windows XP Media Center 2005” offering. Media Center PC’s, when coupled with your big-screen TV becomes “WebTV on Steroids.” Wireless enabled, you can sit in your easy chair and with the use of wireless keyboard and mouse, enjoy all the functionality of your computer, including Internet, word processing and all the computer productivity tools you are used to. While the resolution of TV screens are not as sharp as computer monitors, you can certainly perform routine operations such as reading and sending emails. If it becomes an issue, you can actually add a regular computer monitor for those applications requiring the higher resolutions.

Printers are continuing to evolve in functionality, quality, and price. Color laser printers that just 3 or 4 years ago could cost as much as $2000 to $3000 for “entry level” printers, can now be had for a 10th the amount, and have more features to boot. Color laser printers already configured for network connection as a standard feature can be obtained for less than $500.

Multifunction laser printers are becoming more common and more capable. With built in paper handler/document feeder, color scanner, fax and laser printer, this small all-in-one configuration becomes a very useful tool in the Small Office-Home Office (SOHO). The document feeders on these printers are much improved, as is the quality of the printed page. It is not a stretch to say that the improvement of these printers over the past few years is phenomenal.

Computers continue to evolve, of course, especially the micro-computer/PDA. The convergence of function is apparent with devices that turn your PDA into a cell phone, and cell phones that incorporate more and more functions of a PDA.

USB drives are gaining capacity at an astonishing rate, and micro hard drives can also be connected via USB ports. USB drives the size of your thumb enjoy capacities in the gigabyte range. Transferring and backing up files becomes almost trivial.

VCR tapes can now be played in the same device your new DVD movies are played, with the dual function VCR/DVD machines now very affordable. Perhaps even more startling is the plummeting price for DVD recorders that allow recording of old family VCR tapes, new tapes from your small format video camera or even television shows.

While none of this is dramatically new technology or particularly surprising in some respects, what impresses is the rate of improvement and quality of the devices coupled with dramatic reduction in cost of ownership. Devices that you could almost not even imagine just a few short years ago are passé today. Look for much more of the same in 2005.