In January, I will be attending my 21st annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this is the world’s largest meeting of technology innovators and global retailers.
A trade show this event is primarily attended by guys who make the decision as to whether some of these brand-new products get shelf space.
In the past inventors of technology were reliant on retailers ranging their products, today some innovations go straight to online web sites after being rejected by retailers. some products simply die a slow death.
This year CES will be celebrating its 50th anniversary. In the past half, a century it has gained a reputation as the major tech event of the year, witnessing the announcement of entertainment-changing innovations from the first videocassette recorder in 1970, to camcorder and CD player in 1981, to the Xbox in 2001.
CES 2017 officially runs from January 5 to 8 in Las Vegas, United States. However, tradition dictates that many of the larger tech companies in attendance announce their products at CES Unveiled, a preview of trends and innovations that runs from January 3.
We will be there to bring you all the news as it happens every day.
The companies that are most likely to be making announcements at CES this year include:
HTC
Huawei
Philips
Intel
LG
Lenovo
Panasonic
Marley
Samsung
Sony
Alcatel
Acer
Netgear
Logitech
Swann Communications
Among the big announcements will be the reveal of the new BlackBerry smartphones made by TCL and Alcatel.
The new look Blackberry with a QWERTY keyboard could be demonstrated at the upcoming CES 2017.
The new device will run Android OS. This should be ironic since the reason given for BlackBerry’s shift in strategy is that it wants to reduce cost in its research and development so that the company can focus on developing its software solutions.
Technology giants Apple and Google notably don’t make an appearance at CES, but prefer to hold their own launch events. And while web companies Amazon and Netflix have attended in the past, we’re not expecting a big show from them this year despite Amazon launching in Australia next year.
What will be announced at CES 2017?
Between them we can expect to see a range of new products and concepts, including laptops, smartphones and tablets, as well as the future of the car and completely connected homes.
One of the most exciting announcements will include Faraday Future’s concept car, ” a premium electric vehicle that combines extreme technology, industry leading range and holistic design”. Meanwhile, Sony is expected to announce its first range of OLED TVs.
Intel is going to introduce several products at CES.
First there will be a press conference on January 4th at the event at 4pm PST by the CEO Brian Krzanich. He will introduce the concepts of virtual reality and Intel technology that is cratering this high rated domain.
Intel is also set to reveal new processors including a new NUC platform at.
According to DigiTimes, Intel will showcase NUC Series Mini PCS in eth event and will also include a new desktop computer in the line of PCs too.
The company is off to unveil its Baby Canyon NUC platform in the nest year. They will make sure that the technology will follow Kaby Lake or Apollo Lake based processors.
Sony will show off two new Xperia phones and new 4K OLED TVs.
Among the models set to be launched is 55- and 65-inch versions.
Sony’s CES Conference happens Jan. 4, 2017 at 5:00 p.m. PST in Las Vegas.
In 2017 CES is no longer just an electronics show for the latest gadgets and biggest TVs. I
t’s turning into a kick-off for new cars and advanced networking technology.
With over 3,600 exhibitors covering nearly 2.5 million square feet of exhibition space, it’s easy to get caught up with the demonstrations of self-driving cars, underwater drones, and curvy cinema screens. But look deeper, and you’ll see a bigger theme developing this year.
The Post-Mobile Phone Era: Voice and Mixed Reality Take Centre Stage
One big trend you’ll see: the mobile phone’s era of dominance is coming to an end.
How did this happen? Ask yourself this: when was the last time you used a desktop computer with a keyboard and a mouse, outside of the office? It may have been because the site you were visiting wasn’t cutting it on your phone or tablet. The phone was primary, while the desktop computer was a trusty backup.
We’re now getting close to a time when the mobile phone becomes the backup device when using voice commands spoken to a digital assistant or using an Augmented Reality headset don’t get the right results.
That may sound like far off science fiction – until you go to CES and see it for yourself. This massive shift will turn the “screens and pixels” thinking of the last 20 years upside down. Brands that are still trying to master mobile will find this particularly jarring.
Of all the trends on display at CES 2017, the two most important for brand marketers to pay attention to are Voice and Mixed Reality (AR/VR).
With the furious pace of innovation, increases in computing power, and advances in Artificial Intelligence, these two mediums provide a way to interact with machines that’s far more natural than tapping on a tiny screen.
Digital Assistants Gain Ground; VR & AR for Education
With the advances made with smartphone digital assistants like Google Now, Siri, and Cortana, consumers are quite comfortable with spoken commands – asking about the weather or sending a quick text. It’s easy to see why. When the speech recognition works, it’s a very natural way of interacting that isn’t nearly as immersive as navigating a phone screen. It’s also far more productive, as most people speak 4 times faster than they type.
Last year at CES 2016, the big surprise was how quickly Voice became the new Swipe for controlling consumer electronics.
Many of the products on display with some sort of voice recognition were being powered by Amazon’s Alexa Voice Services – an SDK that Amazon deftly released into the world in 2015 for developers who wanted to embed the power of speech recognition into their product. It’s tipped to get launched in Australia in 2017.
Why should marketers pay attention to these digital assistants? As products like Google Home and the Echo grow, the human voice becomes the primary way to get information. In an average home with 7.8 connected devices – devices onto which marketers have traditionally fought to get app installs – there’s now one shared device that’s a go-to for everyone in the house.
The same is true for mixed reality. Real world applications for VR and AR, while limited to gaming so far, are developing for education. It’s no surprise that it would be more intuitive to learn from a realistic 3D environment instead of a 2D book or video. Recent CES shows have featured vendors who make the glasses, and this year we’ll see more companies showing apps built on the glasses.
Next Frontier
Two of the primary factors that drive technology adoption are the availability of hardware and the availability of content or applications. The best place to understand the progress of both will be in a few weeks, at CES 2017.
