The cliché question goes, if you didn’t post a pic on social media from a place you visited, were you really there? The equivalent in the world of gadgetry is, if a new product wasn’t launched at CES, was it really launched?
Obviously there are other shows and events that are perfectly adequate for launches, but CES is the one that defines the high-tech year. Hosted in Las Vegas in the second week of January every year, it provides the onramp into the public mind for the next generation of TV, automotive and health technology, among many others.
Those three categories have helped redefine the event in recent years.
Starting with TV, the big names like Samsung, LG, Panasonic and Hisense use CES as a showcase for both their next generation of display technology and the next family of acronyms they use to try to capture mindshare. This year, expect them to jostle with the likes of TCL, Skyworth, Sharp and Sony for attention. Most of them will host press conferences on Sunday and Monday, 6 and 7 January.
Click here for a preview of automotive and health technology at CES.
CES is also becoming the platform of choice for new automotive technology. So much so that, in 2018, it was voted one of the top ten auto shows in the United States. Expect it to climb up the ranks as more manufacturers use the event to highlight the tech that will find its way into production cars in the next three to five years.
A favourite in 2018 was a technology expected to become mainstream only a decade from now: B2V, or brain-to-vehicle, from Nissan. The demo version used a headband that sends the brain’s signals to the vehicle micro-seconds before the signals reach the driver’s hands or feet. It then allows the vehicle to optimise the systems that are about to be used, for example when an obstacle is seen up ahead and the driver wants to hit the brakes.
“CES is the only place where you’ll find the entire vehicle tech ecosystem, including top manufacturers and brands, OEMs, suppliers, aftermarket specialists, and software and chip developers,” says the organisers. “And beyond the supply chain, trends like artificial intelligence, voice technology, 5G and smart cities will help shape the future of transportation.”
Expect Ford, BMW, Daimler-Benz, Kia, and Volvo to join Nissan in the quest for the next big automotive thing. However, few will attract as much attention as a CES conference event on Wednesday, 9 January, titled “The Flying Car”.
On a more practical level, a Tuesday session on “The Future of In-Vehicle Infotainment” will explore the possibilities of the automotive and broadcast industries collaborating on product design.
“Imagine if broadcast and automotive industries could deliver even greater value to their customers,” runs a teaser for the session. “Imagine what the world looks like when humans no longer drive.”
Click here for a preview of digital health at CES.
The third big theme of CES, digital health, continues to build on the show’s, err, track record in providing the launchpad for the pioneering activity trackers of the past decade. This year health tech will cover no less than 55,000 square feet, with displays ranging from digital therapeutics, artificial intelligence and sleep tech, to condition-specific wearables, precision medicine, and virtual and augmented reality.
“As the healthcare industry, policy makers, entrepreneurs, patients and business world navigate through highly complex and unpredictable territories, it’s breeding revolutionary approaches, unprecedented partnerships and groundbreaking solutions,” say the organisers.
As a result, they advise, it will be attended by anyone from healthcare providers, buyers, payers, investors, and policymakers, to consumer technology companies, developers and innovators. But it goes further: other industries starting to cross-pollinate into digital health, including the automotive, IoT, fitness and gaming sectors, will also be intruding on the proceedings.
Next week, CES will host 4,400 exhibitors, up almost 10% on last year, so expect even more new products to be launched than the “mere” 20,000 unveiled at CES 2018, for the benefit of 182,000 industry professionals attending. That’s at least one new product for every nine attendees. Little wonder CES defines the tech year.
- Arthur Goldstuck is founder of World Wide Worx and editor-in-chief of Gadget.co.za. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram on @art2gee