It felt as if the whole world attended the Samsung CES 2011 press conference in Vegas this week. The queue snaked around the block, filled with tech enthusiasts eager to see what the biggest technology company had to offer in 2011.
Unlike Sony, who used film stars and circus performers to wow the crowds, Samsung let its gadgets hog the limelight – showing off a jaw-dropping talbet/laptop mash-up and the most beautiful TV at the show so far, which boasted an 0.2-inch superthin bezel.
Speaking about its flagship 3D TV, the 8000 series, Samsung's executive vice president said: "We have been able to reduce the bezel size and add an inch to the picture without increasing the size of the TV."
So this means that Samsung has managed to pinch an inch, with the 8000 series' screen measuring a cool 51-inches.
Samsung's motto this year is all about being smart: smart design, smart experiences and smart connections.
Possibly the smartest tech of the lot on the Samsung stage was its tablet-laptop hybrid. The 10.1 inch tablet runs Windows 7 and has a slide out keyboard that snaps in to place underneath the screen, creating a laptop chassis.
The idea is a sound one and the way it works is utterly impressive.
Samsung didn't let its other tablet, the Galaxy Tab, go without some changes. The Korean company will now offer a Wi-Fi only version of the tab.
While we would have liked to have seen a different sized Galaxy Tab, this small change will suffice.
The company also wants to go Apple bobbing with the launch of the Galaxy Player. Like the iPod touch it is a phone without phone functionality. What you do get is an Android based media player that has access to Android Market and its apps.
Apps were very much the order of the day with Samsung. It announced that it expects the connected TV market to grow threefold in 2011, with its app store at the forefront of this.
To show how dedicated the company is to apps, it gave an app developer $200,000 on the stage as recognition to the app they created for Samsung's connected output.
Couple this with the thinnest ever 3D Blu-ray player, redesigned 3D glasses that look the business and the Samsung notebook 9 series – a premium laptop made of a new metal called duralamin – and Samsung looks to be the one to beat in 2011.
And the company kept teasing that something even bigger will be announced on Thursday. Quite what this will be is still very much a mystery.
