- 4K TVs Shine; Smart Cars Will Happen;
- All Home Appliances/Devices Connect, But NO Smart Home Interoperability
- Wearables: Two Vectors -capturing/sharing technology and style- Collide Head On
- Breakout Opportunity: Smart Home app that interoperates w/Top 6 supplier's stds
4K UHD TVs - It's The Color Depth That Shines. Few understand that besides increasing the screen resolution / DPI of TVs, UHD also doubled down on color depth. It's this doubling down on color depth that really represents the startling difference in viewing experience that 4K brings.
But what about 4K UHD content? Streaming sources & live sports via the web will very slowly drag TV networks into capturing content for 4K UHD and get MVPDs upgrading their networks/STBs.
6+ Smart TVs Platforms - No Trend Emerging Here. Android TV, WebRTC, WebOS, Tizen OS, Firefox OS, and Roku create the same fragmentation/lack-of-standardization that caused 3DTVs to fail. A Smart TV consortium using the same platform would have been a game changer.
Home Devices Will Connect - But No Smart Home. Like Smart TVs, no industry standardization is occurring, therefore there will be an app for each device. 10 devices in your home, then 10 apps on your smartphone. No central control. Might turn consumers off.
4+ Smart Car Platforms - Connected Car Will Happen. Unlike Smart TVs and the Smart Home, the Smart Car will happen because each car is completely integrated by the manufacturer and it only has to support 2 major smartphone platforms (IOS & Android) with a single app for each.
Digital Wallets - 1-2 Years Away From Breakout. There are 4+ digital wallet solutions in addition to Google Wallet, Apple Pay and Coin. NFC only works with 3% of credit card readers. These 4+ are using magnetic card transmitters to communicate with ALL credit card readers. One allows the person taking you card to only make 1 swipe and there is no credit card number on that card - making stealing your credit card info almost impossible. All 4 lack support for the European smart chip-like technology coming to US credit cards over the next 2 years. When digital wallets gain smart card support, the category will take off. Even with Apple Pay, you still need to carry your credit cards which opens the door to this category. In the end, convenience always wins!
Major Category Battles - 15+ Companies Competing:
Arcane Tidbits:
But what about 4K UHD content? Streaming sources & live sports via the web will very slowly drag TV networks into capturing content for 4K UHD and get MVPDs upgrading their networks/STBs.
6+ Smart TVs Platforms - No Trend Emerging Here. Android TV, WebRTC, WebOS, Tizen OS, Firefox OS, and Roku create the same fragmentation/lack-of-standardization that caused 3DTVs to fail. A Smart TV consortium using the same platform would have been a game changer.
Home Devices Will Connect - But No Smart Home. Like Smart TVs, no industry standardization is occurring, therefore there will be an app for each device. 10 devices in your home, then 10 apps on your smartphone. No central control. Might turn consumers off.
4+ Smart Car Platforms - Connected Car Will Happen. Unlike Smart TVs and the Smart Home, the Smart Car will happen because each car is completely integrated by the manufacturer and it only has to support 2 major smartphone platforms (IOS & Android) with a single app for each.
Digital Wallets - 1-2 Years Away From Breakout. There are 4+ digital wallet solutions in addition to Google Wallet, Apple Pay and Coin. NFC only works with 3% of credit card readers. These 4+ are using magnetic card transmitters to communicate with ALL credit card readers. One allows the person taking you card to only make 1 swipe and there is no credit card number on that card - making stealing your credit card info almost impossible. All 4 lack support for the European smart chip-like technology coming to US credit cards over the next 2 years. When digital wallets gain smart card support, the category will take off. Even with Apple Pay, you still need to carry your credit cards which opens the door to this category. In the end, convenience always wins!
Major Category Battles - 15+ Companies Competing:
- Fitness Bands/Health Accessories: all connecting up with doctor electronic systems
- Smart Watches: style+smartness+lack of battery life - decisions, decisions, decisions....
- Bluetooth/Wired Headsets: Beats, Bose & Monster have a competitor or 2 to worry about
- Bluetooth Speakers: no cross vendor interoperability for whole home music solutions
- 3D Printers: smaller section than CES 2014; more categories can now be 3D printed
- Drones: those with cameras tracking where those without cameras are headed :-)
- Chargers: wired/wireless/attached/DC adapter -
- Game, Game Accessories: curved monitors, flying stands, Virtual Reality wearables
- Smartphone/Tablets Accessories: 3,000,000 different cases; a few can be customized
- PCs/Tablets: no new updates - it's now all about thinness
Arcane Tidbits:
- I walked over 15 miles to take in most of CES over 2 days - yep, I have a fitness band!
- 4K monitors with PIP finally support portrait mode (PIP TV image will rotate 90 degrees)
- 2014/2015 TV sets now pass 5.1 Surround Sound from HDMI inputs to optical outputs
- Negative ION bracelets increases a person strength and agility
- Ironic: EverReady and Duracell overwhelmed by 20+ battery charger booths nearby
- NFC - think Apple Pay - only works with 3% of all credit card readers - no NFC in restaurants
- Garmin - disrupted by smartphones - has successfully shifted to wearables category
- Another pass at 5.1 Surround Sound headsets will be coming to CES 2016
- Intel continues to be less relevant - missed smartphones, missed tablets, missed wearables
- Cordless phones reappeared at CES 2014; no cordless phones at CES 2015
- Movie theaters project in 2K UHD from 5K cameras; 4K UHD froms 8K cameras or 70mm film
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