gadget market  to grow in 2005  the explosion in consumer technology is to continue into 2005  delegates at the world s largest gadget show  in las vegas  have been told.  the number of gadgets in the shops is predicted to grow by 11%  while devices which talk to each other will become increasingly important.  everything is going digital   kirsten pfeifer from the consumer electronics association  told the bbc news website. the consumer electronics show (ces) featured the pick of 2005 s products.  consumers are controlling what they want and technologies like hdtvs [high-definition tvs]  digital radio  and digital cameras will remain strong in 2005.  all the products on show really showed the breadth and depth of the industry.  despite showing diversity  some delegates attending complained that the showcase lacked as much  wow factor  as in previous years.  the portable technologies on show also reflected one of the buzzwords of ces  which was the  time and place shifting  of multimedia content - being able to watch and listen to video and music anywhere  at any time. at the start of last year s ces  the cea predicted there would be an average growth of 4% in 2004. that figure was surpassed with the rise in popularity of portable digital music players  personal video recorders and digital cameras. it was clear also that gadgets are becoming a lot more about lifestyle choice  with fashion and personalisation becoming increasingly key to the way gadgets are designed. part of this has been the rise in spending power of the  generation x-ers  who have grown up with technology and who now have the spending power and desire for more devices that suit them. more than 57% of the consumer electronics market is made up of female buyers  according to cea research. hybrid devices  which combine a number of multimedia functions  were also in evidence on the show floor.  a lot of this is driven by just the ability to do it   said stephen baker  a consumer electronics analyst with retail research firm npd group.  some of these functions cost next to nothing to add.   as well as the show floor showcasing everything from tiny wearable mp3 players to giant high-definition tvs  several keynote speeches were made by industry leaders  such as microsoft chief bill gates. despite several embarrassing technical glitches during mr gate s pre-show speech  he announced several new partnerships - mainly for the us market. he unveiled new ways of letting people take tv shows recorded on personal video recorders and watch them back on portable devices. he disappointed some  however  by failing to announce any details of the next generation of the xbox games console. another disappointment was the lack of exposure sony s new portable games device  the psp  had at the show. sony said the much-anticipated gadget would most likely start shipping in march for the us and europe. it went on sale in japan before christmas. there were only two psps embedded in glass cabinets at the show though and no representatives to discuss further details. a sony representative told the bbc news website this was because sony did not consider it to be part of their  consumer technology  offering.  elsewhere at the show  there was a plethora of colour and plasma screens  including samsung s 102-inch (2.6 metre) plasma - the largest in the world. industry experts were also excited about high-definition technologies coming to the fore in 2005  with new formats for dvds coming out which will hold six times as much data as conventional dvds. with so many devices on the move there were a lot of products on show offering external storage  like seagate s 5gb pocket sized external hard drive  which won an innovation for engineering and design prize. more than 120 000 trade professionals attended ces in las vegas  which officially ran from 6 to 9 january.