Move over, iPhones and iPads. There are new consumer technologies in town that may prove useful in the enterprise. Rob Enderle, president of the Enderle Group, presents a handful of items unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show that may soon find their way into the workplace.

HzO and Liquipel, two water-proofing technologies touted as solutions for keeping gadgets like iPods dry, could go a long way in extending the life of enterprise hardware as well. "Given that moisture is often what causes electronics to corrode and decay over time these solutions could be the equivalent of a Fountain of Youth, significantly extending the useful life of hardware that operates in moist or humid environments," Enderle writes in a post at CIO magazine. "In tropical areas particularly this could be a godsend."

OnLive Desktop, based on computer gaming technology, is a Windows and Office desktop for the iPad (and for other platforms, down the road). While it is aimed at consumers, offering the kind of "instant action" technology the vendor users for games, it could be a good remote desktop solution. Unlike traditional virtual desktops, OnLive isn't dragged down by high cost, performance limits or the need for dedicated wiring, Enderle writes.

Kinect, the motion interface for the Xbox, lets gamers play without a controller. Windows Kinect, coming out in February, is designed to enable similar functionality with the Windows 7 OS, making it unnecessary to use a keyboard or mouse. With Windows 8, Kinect has the potential to create a touch-like interface on a computer that was not designed with a touch screen, Enderle writes.

For more:
- see Rob Enderle's post at CIO

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