Photos: Going from fridges to upscale phones

The Ibiza music player from Haier. It can play videos, show pictures, play stored music, and receive music streams from Rhapsody. You need to be near a Wi-Fi hot spot to stream tracks. You can also customize the user interface.

This is Haier's first attempt to get into the U.S. market with a music player. Not familiar with Haier? It's China's largest appliance maker--and it's pushing hard to get into the U.S. Some might scoff, but Samsung was in the same boat 10 years ago.

At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Haier was figuratively and literally in the shadow of the big-name manufacturers. Haier's booth was squeezed between Sony's huge booth and the snack bar at the end of the Central Hall.