Complicated installation was a deterrent to earlier devices, so with this one the only setup is sticking it in the cigarette lighter, and briefly training it to the sound of the user's voice. Hit the call button and say the person's name, and the device dials it.
"Before, if you wanted a Bluetooth phone device in your car, you had to spend a day at a mechanic's, you had to be very motivated," Parrot said.
There was also the usual rash of eye-catching gimmicks, including the 170-euro (US$187) transparent, lighted computer housing by German company Pearl, which caters to a fad among gamers of showing off their computers' innards at computer-game competitions.
Siemens and the Dutch company Alva BV offered usability of a more serious sort -- what they say is the first cellphone for the blind. It uses a strip of moving dots that form Braille letters so people can read the phone display.
The device, the size of a small book, combines technology already used by the blind for note-taking with a tri-band cell phone, a PDA function and SMS messaging capability. The companies hope to sell 4,000 over the next five years; it lists for 3,950 euros (US$4350), though many purchasers will have some sort of public subsidy available to defray the cost.
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