By Peter Nowak, CBCNews.ca

LAS VEGAS - Previous Consumer Electronics Show (CES) expos have been marked by a television arms race of sorts - a competition to see who could make the biggest LCD or plasma display. That race seemed to culminate last year with several makers producing screens above 100 inches.

But this year, nobody is really talking about size. At least not that way.

If this year's CES is any indication, the new arms race is all about thin. Rather than competing solely over who can deliver the biggest screen, the major makers are now scurrying to make the thinnest screens possible.

LG looks to have the lead so far with an LCD to be released this year that is only 1.7 inches thick.

Conceptually though, Pioneer takes the cake from what I've seen at the show preview briefings so far this weekend. The company unveiled a prototype "Kuro" TV that is only 9 millimetres thick, which is thinner than an iphone or "last month's issue of Wired magazine." Although that model won't be available in 2008, it's pretty clear that thin is the new big.