You Simply Cant See All the "Great, Not-So-Great Stuff" at CES posted: 26/01/2019 Men suffer more from imagining too little than too much." - P.T. Barnum, "The Greatest Showman," Chernin Entertainment, 2017
Sometimes we think weve been attending CES since before we were born.
O.K., thats an exaggeration.
But we cant remember when the holidays - Chanukah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, whatever - werent sidelined to make good products/services look great and great ones look stupendous for the worlds biggest consumer technology unveiling event.
Many of the exhibitors spent all their Kickstarter, GoFundMe cash or maxed out their credit cards to show off their exciting breakthrough, innovation leaps.
This years forces of tomorrow were 5G, autonomous vehicles, AI, AR/VR, robots, content everywhere, smart everything filled every square foot of the venues, including a couple of bathroom stalls.
Yes, another exaggeration; but logistics and information overload were insane:
Yes, another exaggeration; but logistics and information overload were insane:
4,500 plus exhibitors
250 conference sessions
1,100 speakers
1,200 plus startups from 50 plus countries
180,000 plus attendees
What CES has proven is that every company is a technology company. And its a great place to be seen, have your message heard. Even folks from Proctor & Gamble (P&G) had a strong presence as did John Deere and Bell Helicopter.
John Deere (l) showed off one of its massive farm systems at CES while Breadbot introduced its automated breadmaking system that will probably appear in local grocery stores, ensuring you get really fresh bread but probably not farm fresh.
CES has become such an influential/influencer magnet that organizations like TU Automotives Consumer Telemetrics Show (auto stuff), MESA (Media & Entertainment Services Alliance) and dozens of others embedded a mini-show in the event.
Smart companies leaked their news before CES, so people could determine what sessions/companies they just had catch.
Not so smart folks embargoed their news until the first day of the show when thousands of break-through announcements also hit the wires and social media.
Since it is literally and physically impossible to see everything; CES Unveiled, ShowStoppers and two days of press conferences gave media folks a head start on the regular attendees with a buffet of news.
Bigger/badder TV sets, self-driving transportation, 5G, voice-activated and smart things/places, AI and a lot of stuff you didnt even know you needed -- or wanted - were on display in the miles of exhibit area (2.9M sq. ft), hidden away in a hospitality suite or both.
While Detroit and Paris vie for top automotive show honors, Las Vegas in January is the time where every vehicle manufacturer - car, motorcycle, scooter, tractor, etc. -- focuses on making people think about the wonders that await them over the next few years.
Chinas Byton showed why they hired some of the best engineers, designers, thinkers/futurists they could find in the auto/tech industry by unveiling the new K-Byte and M-Byte. Theyll hit showrooms in China in mid-year. Its UI (user interface) and interior cabin are elegant.
Infotainment - Auto and truck firms are exploring a wide range of solutions to appeal to consumers for tomorrows transportation such as Bytons (l) door-to-door touch screen or Harmons rich entertainment solutions.
Samsungs Harman showed that they thought about people enjoyment in the vehicle no matter where they sit with practical and great-looking information and entertainment.
But at CES, its always about showing how technically progressive the vehicle firm is and Audi is eyebrow deep in designing for the future with technology for passenger and trucking vehicles. Theyre already testing autonomous vehicles around the globe and were the first to say they will assume complete legal responsibility for the technology they put on the road.
Future Rides - Mitsubishi (l) showed off their sleek concept car at CES while Hyundai showed its unique elevator, which can probably take you almost anywhere in comfort.
Sure, we expect to see a lot of sleek/sexy vehicles from Mercedes, Audi and BMW at the show, but Mitsubishi was a pleasant surprise, even though the show car will probably never be seen on the road.
Hyundai came out of left field with a real off-road vehicle called Elevator. Videos showed how you could enjoy the great outdoors in all kinds of weather, even heavy snow.
The major takeaway from CES is that the vehicle industry is putting a lot of time, money and effort into how people are going to get around tomorrow. They really want you to enjoy more time in your car or truck - lounge chairs, wrap-around movie/TV screens, AR/VR enjoyment on the go, voice control and vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication.
At CES 2025, they will probably be showing third-generation shipping units.
Content Viewing
CES has its roots in home entertainment and even though folks are increasingly walking around with entertainment screens in their hands, the companies still like to show off their big, beautiful TV screens.
There were a lot of new and impressive sets out of China but again, Samsung and LG got all of the initial attention.
Your Wall - Samsung showed CES attendees that they can not only build The Wall, but it will be beautiful.
It was pretty hard for Samsung not to get noticed because they actually got The Wall built - 219-in, OTT connection, micro LED screen with 2,000 nits brightness - and it blends with its surroundings.
They had others all hyping 8K, which is really good; but since youre only getting 4K from Netflix, Hulu and a few others, it begs the question.
Flexible - To capture eyeballs as soon as people entered the main hallway at CES, LG installed an impressive display of its flexible screens and drawing attention to
