The world’s biggest gadget-fest opens in Las Vegas tomorrow, with 140,000 people expected to attend and 2,700 exhibitors covering an area equivalent to 35 football pitches.

This year, the emphasis at the International Consumer Electronics Show will be on media. On Monday, for example, Bob Iger, the chief executive of Walt Disney, is expected to unveil a new social networking website aimed at pre-teenagers.

The site will lead Disney’s attempt to sharpen its sluggish online presence by targeting the “tweenage” market — users too young for rival sites such as Facebook but who nevertheless want to create their own webpages, watch videos and interact online with their friends.

Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, the chief executive of Nokia, will try to launch a new mobile phone with a credit card function. The gadget’s Near Field Communication technology will also allow users to download small pieces of information via radio waves from tags that can be placed in advertisements. These can connect to related websites where people can buy featured products.

Not to be outdone, Sony Ericsson, a rival mobile phone maker, is expected to unveil a watch that can field calls, check e-mails and play music. New Media Life, of California, will offer the world’s “first and smallest” wireless internet television, with satellite reception and a 3½in screen.

Yahoo! will launch a new mobile search service. Google, its arch rival, will be a notable absentee from the show.

A host of smaller companies is expected to promote the first devices to use ultrawideband (UWB), a short-range version of broadband that can be used to link television sets, set-top boxes, computers and telephones in the home.

However, the real emphasis is likely to be on technologies that have already been released but are yet to make their mark, such as the battle between HD-DVD and Blu-ray DVDs.

Bill Gates, the chairman of Microsoft, heads the list of speakers with his traditional eve-of-conference speech tomorrow. He is expected to push Vista, the latest version of Microsoft’s Windows operating system, which will be released to consumers this month.

The software developer will also promote its Zune music player, a rival to Apple’s market-leading iPod, and its range of mini-computers, dubbed the Origami project. They are competing with Mylo, of Sony — a handheld gadget that can play games and make calls over the internet via Skype, the telephony service owned by eBay.

Microsoft, together with Intel, the world’s largest computer chip maker, is also vying for a slice of the market for connecting household devices such as computers, set-top boxes and television sets. Apple will give further insight into its iTV device, which links televisions to iTunes, its online music and video store, at the parallel MacWorld event later in the week.

Cisco, better-known for business technology, will also pitch hard. Its Linksys division has unveiled an “iPhone” internet telephony system. John Chambers, its chief executive, is expected to outline his broader strategy in consumer electronics in a speech on Tuesday.

Hewlett-Packard, the computer group, is expected to push its MediaSmart high-density televisions, which include a wireless internet function.

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