For all the techies who want to hear about the 2014 CES in Las Vegas. I was not there (although maybe next year I should), but read a few articles and decided to “Pepto” and provide some insight here of what happened with over 3,200 companies at the Show.
OK, not difficult to guess … but mobile platforms and cloud services were the big item at CES. There does not appear to be a “breakthrough” announcement, but a lot of presentations of various items. It was though, a look forward into the future and how technology will be integrated (probably even more) into our daily lives.
Mobile Platforms — It appears that every presenter had some integration or product for tablets and smart phones.
Smart — The term “smart” seems to be transferring (for good or not so) from our brains to technology. The term is now being integrated into cars, fitness, watches, appliances and healthcare. For the last few years, smart technology has been integrated into many technology products through the OS and user interface (UI).
Televisions — Smart TVs are becoming the big ticket item for electronics. Consumers seem to want their entertainment delivered through their WiFi (increasingly at home) and streamed to their TVs. The products of Chromecast, Apple, cable, Netflix and the others seem to be on the horizon for the next phase of in-home entertainment. But as Steve Sinofsky suggests, is there a need to have Twitter available on our TV when it may be just as easy (or more so) available on our tablet? He is probably right.
Automobiles — Scary! However, there is a tendency to have automobiles to help us to be more safe and efficient when we drive to our destinations. Creating a new environment for our travels? Possibly. The ability to avoid an accident? Sure. However, it is clear that technology convergence is clearly being noticed by the automobile manufacturers. What will be interesting is as we become more “techie”, would the value of our car decline more significantly as it ages and the technology advances? If you want a sneak peek at that … just count how many printers, computers, tablets and smart phones we “throw” away each year.
Healthcare Devices — I have wrote about this in my new textbook. The ability to monitor patients that are homebound or in rural areas not served easily by health care providers, technology can add significant value to their treatment and care. These patients are now able to “communicate” more efficiently and faster by transmitting their vitals (blood pressure, temperature, etc.) and other data to medical providers by using technology and network access. This information can be transmitted and stored directly at the provider and read each day without having to enter the data or be incomplete. This allows patients to be “connected” with their doctors without having left their home. Efficient and effective method of providing health care.
Clear that some other items are moving faster to the forefront.
— Bigger is better. TVs, portable devices, monitors, screens are all becoming larger. And sometimes more cost effective.
— Wearable computing seems to be the explosive topic. It’s not clear to me how this will be integrated beyond the “nice to play with” technology. This seems like my first look at a Windows 1.0 box in the mid 1980s. Windows did not ‘catch on’ until the hardware (speed, disk, etc) and software did … and, more importantly, how we wanted to use it. Maybe this is what will happen with WC.
Just some statistics reported by VentureBeat on Twitter (mentions):
Brands
— Samsung (19, 858)
— Sony (16, 497)
— LG (12, 159)
— Logitech (10,798)
Trends
— 4K TV Resolution (15,667)
— Wearables (11,873)
— Smart Gadgets (11,302)
— 3D Printing (9,632)
Thoughts
Two final thoughts …
- Hopefully, we won’t become “dumb” by moving all this “smart” over to something other than us thinking. Maybe the time that this smart technology saves us will just allow us more time to do more technology, blog or maybe just relax (hopefully).
- The more you consider smart cars, the more uncomfortable this becomes. Maybe for someone who travels or business professionals a great deal, integrating technology (‘smart’) into an automobile may be prudent and efficient. However, we do not want to see a replay of people “accepting” what their GPS says and drive off a road.
Articles
Sinofsky: Trends and tradeoffs at CES 2014 (1/13/14)
Paul: 3 Things enterprise IT can learn from the 2014 International CES (Network World, 1/2/14)
Takahashi, Hardwar: VentureBeat’s take on the top 10 trends of CES (1/11/14)