Each year around January, the world waits in anticipation to see what big electronics companies have in store for the coming months in terms of the latest in computers, gadgets and home entertainment.  The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is akin to “Disney Land” for all gadget aficionados with  a handful of new solutions grabbing a predominate portion of the media’s attention.  This year the buzz centers on Google’s Nexus One, a new smart phone deemed by many as the “iPhone Killer” (doubtful it will knock iPhone off its perch – but we shall see).  Flying a bit under the radar at this year’s show yet gaining tremendous traction in the real-world marketplace are solutions for blending the Internet with television.

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Just as gift cards have started becoming a tool of necessity for those lost in the digital age, 2009 has also seen the rise of broadband connectivity as the common “cool” factor of breakthrough gadgets and services.

Engadget, a popular consumer electronic blog, reported that without a doubt the next big thing in HDTV’s is Internet capabilities with LG Electronics unveiling a new TV with built-in Netflix streaming support and Toshiba shipping its own line of web-enabled sets as well. The electronic and gadget manufacturers are not the only ones with broadband on the brain; cable TV providers themselves have begun exploring new on-demand web-based movie and television services to compete with popular portals like Hulu as consumers head straight to the Internet to watch favorite shows at their leisure.  Just recently, Comcast rolled out the beta version of their new Fancast XFINITY TV service which opens all of their television/movie content to their subscriber base as well as providing a platform for future offerings such as programming your DVR through the Web.

We look towards 2010 like a kid waiting for Santa on what new technologies are around the corner that will make our lives more productive, more connected or just more fun. 2009 however will always be remembered with an air of significance as the year consumer electronics enabled with Internet capabilities truly came together with the pervasive nature of broadband as the glue.

Let’s make transparency meaningful.

Even though you can hazard a guess when you’ve walked a mile or poured a pint, there’s definitely something abstract about downloading a gig for most people. Take the case of a man who was billed $66,000 dollars by his service provider for downloading what amounted to three movies?  “I would leave my PC on all night, believing that all traffic was included,” he noted. Clearly this guy thought he was on an “all you can eat” bandwidth plan when it actually included 600 megabytes per month and every additional kilobyte cost another 2 cents. Sure this is an extremely rare and sensationalized case but brings up a valid question – where do we draw the line on assuming we are dealing with informed consumers when it comes to broadband?  Should the average consumer need to understand the difference between a kilobyte and a gigabyte?

The fact is that most folks understand the quality of their broadband experience in a very application specific way.  Quality is not about bits and bytes, it’s about clear phone calls, lively online gaming, sharp video and yes, speedy downloads.  There’s an excellent opportunity for broadband providers to communicate the value of their monthly package tiers by breaking them down into easily digestible measurements in language everyone can understand. For example: a 100-gigabyte data tier would be suitable for subscribers that send out 20 million e-mails, or upload 10,000 photos or download 50 movies or 25,000 songs. Amazing what 100-gigabytes offers!

In the end, most consumers will be most satisfied when their service provider sends them a monthly bill that helps them understand their individual online usage patterns and gives them the opportunity to move to the plan that best meets their needs.   Most of us can look to the voice plans we have for our mobile phone to know that its not all that far fetched of a dream.