Tablets

Tablets overwhelmed CES, available in multiple sizes and an endless combination of different features. Most tablets were presented by a bunch of different Chinese manufacturers. Remarkable is that the majority of these tablets used Android as an operating system. The trend towards Android might push the Android Apps-development and could result in an alternative to compete with the Apple Apps-market. Competition will bring prices down, and the more affordable devices will impact the consumers buying behavior. Tablets were not only used as an entertainment device to watch content or as replacement for the net-book to surf the internet. In many cases were tablets used as remote control, for example application that manages your house, applications to consult on-line information from your car, or a second screen to control your television. 

IBM private room. with open standard based demonstrations of Smart Home, Connected Vehicle, and Smart TV.

Smart TV

The big brands that manufacture TVs showed their own implementation of ‘Smart TV’. Smart TVs are internet connected TVs with an embedded remote-controlled browser directing to the manufacturers content-portal. TV manufacturers try to maximize the consumer experience by controlling the entire value chain, similar as Apple does for music with iTunes and the iPod. I must admit that the experiences demonstrated were quite appealing. Although if you start questioning in depth then I can only conclude that the entire value-chain still has some missing parts to guarantee an exceptional experience. The seamless experience between devices (e.g., TV and tablet) seems only guaranteed between devices from the same manufacturer.

Smart TV implementation by Samsung

Green Car

The consumer device on wheels was highly visible. The car-entertainment devices manufacturers were traditionally present. The car manufactures themselves were now promptly present with their breakthroughs in electrical vehicles. I noticed that the majority of these vehicles are based on European car models, seems that Europe takes the lead in the electrical vehicle innovation.

e-tron by Audi

Smart Home

Multiple consumer electronics manufacturers demonstrated their implementation of Smart Home. Some of them had an excellent approach, covering the entire energy management flow from local energy production, local energy storage, energy consumption. Unfortunately most of these single-vendor implementations lack interoperability because of the missing standardization of information exchange.

Smart Home by Sony

The i-hype continues

Although Apple was not present on the show-floor, the success of Apple dragged hundreds of gadget-manufacturers demonstrating thousands of add-ons for the Apple products. I never saw so much ‘i-Crap’. 

Finally, a curiosity was the 3D printing device of MakerBot. The device allows you to print 3D shapes at affordable cost in ABS plastic. The horizontal resolution is 300 dpi which results in a smooth surface, unfortunately is the vertical resolution 0,3 mm which results in a rough surface. Not perfect, but fun.

MakerBot