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The Consumer Electronics Show officially starts on Tuesday, but the pre-show press conferences have already begun. These point to the most mobile-oriented event yet, and a carefully stage-managed theme of tablets versus ultrabooks. This does not necessarily tell us what will be the key commercial gadgets this year - CES 2010 went crazy for the smartbook (remember that?), 2011 for the Android tablet. But as the first major show of the year, CES does set the tone and subject for discussion, and most mobile device players will showcase their offerings in the context of the 'post-PC' product categories.

Acer got in first with a pre-show launch of ultrabooks, though disappointed with only hazy tablet plans; AT&T will be holding a developer meeting today and previewing Windows 8 tablets; but behind the news releases - as usual at the major events which Apple boycotts - lurks the rising tide of rumors about the most important tablet contender, the next iPad. The latest chat surrounds a dual launch this spring, with a smaller, lower cost model targeted at the Kindle Fire, and an 'iPad 4' boasting such delights as a RetinaDispay screen.

Back in the real world. AT&T is expected to use its CES conference to solidify its strong relationship with Microsoft by promising Windows 8 tablets as well as an increased support for WP7 devices, especially Nokia's upcoming launch. Qualcomm will also take part in the summit, with a specific session billed on Windows 8/LTE tablets running on its Snapdragon architecture. This will confirm the chip vendor's pole position to lead the ARM-based side of the W8 market, as well as demonstrating how Microsoft's new Metro user interface will run on ARM platforms.

Meanwhile Acer will be an early player in more conventional Intel-based W8 slates and notebooks, but the firm badly needs a compelling mobile roadmap, after spending most of 2011 reshuffling its management and strategies to achieve this. There were few signs of it at its CES conference. The company unveiled the Timeline Ultra and Aspire S5 ultrabooks, and some promises about its cloud services, but attendees were disappointed that there were no concrete W8 or tablet announcements.

Acer led the netbook segment, which is in sharp decline, though the ultrabook will be a natural successor once its price comes down, as will the cloudbook (Acer was also early into Google's platform in this category, Chromebook). However, much of the focus in the hybrid market between handsets and PCs is on tablets, and apart from showing a brief teaster for the promised Iconia Tab, in a video, of a slate with a very high resolution screen, Acer was short on firm details, even of who will supply the quad-core processor.

"Acer is back on the right track," proclaimed company chairman JT Wang as the firm showed off its new ultrabook, which will ship in Q1 and is distinguished by a CD drive. And the Aspire S5 claims to be the world's thinnest ultrabook. Wang said he expects to have four ultrabooks on sale by the second quarter and to unleash W8 models in the second half. The company aims to differentiate its products from the expected crowd of CES launches with its AcerCloud service for syncing files across multiple Acer devices, a clear nod to the strategies of web players like Amazon, Apple and Google.

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