Virtual CES 2021 Part 3

New technologies were so buried at CES this year that it was a challenge pointing to anything that was small heading for big and life-changing. It was highly scripted and there was little to discover on your own unless you hit the right tile and found it. The press wasn’t going to uncover it. This means I’ll likely have to dig up additional content as the week progresses. Hopefully, I find something interesting.

I watched the Samsung and LG announcement and without being there, it was hard to contrast what was new this year over last year in terms of real breakthroughs. Normally, walking the floor and discovering something in-person makes all the difference. Clearly this show is not for attending online. It’s a must-see-in-person kind of show. Samsung is now shipping their tile technology for screens up to 110” and it will be available this spring.

I noticed one new trend, and it could be just what I discovered, versus an actual trend, but there was a highlight of software this year over hardware. Someone made a point some years ago, that it’s the software that’s moving faster than new hardware development and I think that’s correct. There were lots of software-based announcements, such as what to do with 5G and the new TV standards. There was a lot more AI and Blockchain mention, especially AI. In that category alone, there were 545 exhibitors out of the 1,968. Under AR/VR/XR there were 228. FinTech there were 60, blockchain there were 51. Philips, Pioneer, and others were all placing software solutions ahead of hardware.

Lenovo launched a folding screen laptop, but I don’t think it will be all that popular. It looked difficult to use. I’ve written this before that technology to convenience is what water is to slope, it’s the direction it flows, and the Lenovo looked like a solution looking for a problem and it didn’t at all seem convenient. This is why the roller shade OLED doesn’t look like something that will last.

There is a bigger push towards screens without buttons on virtually everything. If you’re in the button hardware business, it can’t be good. The reason for the switch is obvious. It makes updating the software much easier and you can reconfigure the product. I did notice a decrease in Chinese nationalism. There were only 201 exhibitors which seems to be a lot less than usual. In years past, they were there selling everything from parts to knockoff solutions. The big foreign player is now Korea at 341. China is still #3 and France is now #4 at 135, ahead of Japan at 77. Overall, Europe’s presence far surpassed China’s this year. Taiwan was 135. China alone would typically take up an exhibit hall.

I pay little attention to new small appliances because few ever stick around from year to year. Once in a while something will capture my imagination, but I didn’t find anything so far. Again, I still have more homework to do.

I was looking forward to CES this year, even in a virtual format with the hope of still finding what always delights me every year. So far, it’s been a mild state of pause. It could be that companies didn’t view CES as the right format for the big announcements, instead waiting for the noise to die down. I don’t know. I will update this as I know more.

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Virtual CES 2021 Part 2

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Jeff Higashi Joins Middlerock Partners