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IDG News Service - Thinner laptops, 3D television and e-book readers are expected to be among the highlights of this year's International Consumer Electronics Show that begins in Las Vegas on Thursday.

The event, which serves as an annual kick-off for the world's electronics industry, is expected to attract around 110,000 people, on par with last year. The show will be noticeably smaller than 2009 occupying only the Las Vegas Convention Center complex and not, for the first time in five years, the nearby Sands Expo. Organizers are painting the move as in response to attendee feedback but the poor economic conditions are likely also to blame.

Visitors to the show will get to see 80 new laptops, desktops and netbooks based on redesigned Intel chips that integrate the graphics processor alongside the CPU on a single piece of silicon. That makes the new chips more compact and power efficient than predecessors and should translate into sleeker netbooks with longer battery life.

Laptops and desktops based on 17 new Intel dual-core chips will also be on display. The chips, which are considered a significant upgrade over Intel's existing Core 2 processors, should draw less power while improving graphics and system performance. They also support native 1080p high-definition video so users can play Blu-ray video without the need for a separate graphics card.

The flood of new chips isn't giving Intel total dominance at CES.

So-called "smartbooks," which are low-cost Internet-centric laptops that run on competing Arm-based processors, will also be launched. Smartbooks are challenging to become an alternative to Intel-based netbooks but their reliance on the Linux operating system puts them at a disadvantage to Windows-based netbooks.

Away from the computing sector, some are already calling this year's show the "3D CES," as makers of TVs, Blu-ray players and other equipment prepare to show off new 3D-compatible equipment that could appear on store shelves by the end of 2010.

Electronics vendors will promote 3D as a more dramatic leap forward than the recent move to HD. They hope it will compel consumers to go out and buy expensive new TVs, though it's far from clear whether that will be the case, given that many people have only just spent thousands of dollars on large flat-screen televisions.

Many in the industry hope the James Cameron 3D film, "Avatar," will excite mainstream interest in 3D movies. "Many of us expect 'Avatar' to be the tipping point," said Pat Griffiths, senior director of technology for Dolby Laboratories, at the recent Digital Living Room conference in Silicon Valley. The film opened over the holidays and has already grossed more than $1 billion worldwide.