Hasta La Gadget!

The International Consumer Electronics Show kicks off next week, and premature product news releases and apparent leaks have already been rolling in.

While there’s of course a certain amount of surprise in store at the year’s biggest tech showcase, there likely won’t be anything too unexpected. But that’s OK. With the global economy’s lashing of some of the biggest and most successful consumer electronics companies, along with the recession here in the U.S., this seems to invite a more subdued type of affair this year in Las Vegas.

The head of the CEA (the company that puts on CES) told Venture Beat that it will indeed be a smaller show than in years past. Attendance will be down 8 percent to 131,000 visitors this year, according to Gary Shapiro. And floor space devoted to exhibitor booths will also be down slightly, to 1.7 million square feet, from 1.8 million in 2008. The number of exhibitors however will remain the same as last year, about 2,700.

That’s because though some big-name attendees have dropped out–as CNET News reported in November–some new exhibitors have signed on.

When it comes to products, to know what’s in store at the show this time, easy clues can be taken from what many of these same manufacturers were showing at Ceatec in Tokyo in October.

Thin TVs will be big. We just started to see this at CES 2008, and the top-tier TV makers will renew their battle for slimmest set this time. Expect Sharp, Samsung, Hitachi, and Toshiba to compete for thinnest LCD, and a few will try with plasma as well.

…