Want to hear a joke? What’s the one thing you need at an electronics show? Electricity. And the joke is that’s exactly what they didn’t have for almost three hours at CES as the event was plunged into darkness following a power outage.
I was wandering through the impressive dedicated Samsung area admiring their 8k behemoth TV called The Wall when someone pulled the plug and the whole of CES was brought to a juddering halt for the first time in its 51-year history. It was actually quite eerie stumbling through the darkened auditorium with all the shiny new electronic kit now dormant and people using the lights from their smartphones to guide them to the nearest exit.
The heaviest January downpour in the desert City, since records began, washed out the event’s main auditorium and also resulted in Google’s flagship exhibition site to be temporarily closed. Twitter had a field day…
All this got me thinking that the gloom of the conference center following the failure of Nevada Power to get the power back on was kind of an allegory for this year’s show. Compared to recent years where we have seen the introduction of ground-breaking technology such as autonomous vehicles, virtual reality glasses, drones and the connected home, the 2018 event didn’t witness anything truly revolutionary. Yes, we did see much more connectivity than ever before and voice activation took a huge leap forward but there wasn’t any startling new tech to get the geeks salivating. In essence, much more a year of evolution than revolution.
That isn’t to say that there wasn’t anything to admire, so I have provided a run-down of the most interesting stuff that was on offer this year:
Automotive
Another year dominated by the car manufacturers with around 25% of the 3.2 million square feet of CES taken up by the auto giants. Many more examples of autonomous vehicles including a new bus called Olli presented by IBM Watson and a very similar looking product with added retail e-commerce opportunities showcased by Toyota’s e-Palette offering. But by far the most interesting concept was offered by Nissan who demonstrated their ‘Brain To Vehicle’ (B2V) technology which essentially allows your car to read your mind so improve your driving experience.
Over at the Sands convention center (kind of an off-Broadway tech experience of smaller players and start-ups) was a fascinating kick starter idea out of Italy which introduced the notion of ‘carbitrage’ for electric vehicle owners. The Charge Me concept is simple: if you have an EV with a full charge and another EV driver is nearby who is running low on energy, you can sell some of your ‘juice’ to them by connecting them via a dedicated cable.
Virtual Reality
The whole area of AR and VR was massive again this year at CES with Google in particular pushing their new Daydream product at every opportunity. Their presence at CES and on the Las Vegas strip was impossible to avoid which is interesting given their relative anonymity over the past decade.
But the most fascinating VR launch was from none other than iconic boxing legend Floyd Mayweather who held a press conference to announce the arrival of his new ‘bricks and mortar’ Mayweather boxing oriented gyms and virtual reality app. Ever wondered what it’s like to fight against the best pound-for-pound boxer who has ever lived? Well with the new VR app you can pit your wits, brawn and dexterity with the (virtual) man himself. Mayweather demonstrated the app himself and despite some nifty footwork and punishing blows from the man himself, the virtual version took the bout.
Voice
Alexa, Cortana, Siri, Assistant, Bixby etc. were all to be found controlling anything from your car to your washing machine. The battle for dominance clearly seems to be between Amazon and Google as they try to establish their voice activation variants as the dominant player.
Gadgets
ForwardX Robotics rolled out a four-wheeled travel bag that will follow its owner around the airport without the need to drag it. The ‘smart bag’ has several onboard cameras to detect its user and also uses AI to avoid banging into other people and their carry-on luggage. It also has the capability to send a message to its owner if they stray too far from it in Duty Free or when the battery pack is getting low.
And finally my favourite gadget of the event has to be the super cute Sony Aibo puppy. This robot dog was the star of the show with its AI controlled actions and ability to react to commands.
Want more round-ups from CES? Click here for Tech East and West round-ups by OMD’s Chrissie Hanson.
Want to hear a joke? What’s the one thing you need at an electronics show? Electricity. And the joke is that’s exactly what they didn’t have for almost three hours at CES as the event was plunged into darkness following a power outage.
I was wandering through the impressive dedicated Samsung area admiring their 8k behemoth TV called The Wall when someone pulled the plug and the whole of CES was brought to a juddering halt for the first time in its 51-year history. It was actually quite eerie stumbling through the darkened auditorium with all the shiny new electronic kit now dormant and people using the lights from their smartphones to guide them to the nearest exit.
The heaviest January downpour in the desert City, since records began, washed out the event’s main auditorium and also resulted in Google’s flagship exhibition site to be temporarily closed. Twitter had a field day…
All this got me thinking that the gloom of the conference center following the failure of Nevada Power to get the power back on was kind of an allegory for this year’s show. Compared to recent years where we have seen the introduction of ground-breaking technology such as autonomous vehicles, virtual reality glasses, drones and the connected home, the 2018 event didn’t witness anything truly revolutionary. Yes, we did see much more connectivity than ever before and voice activation took a huge leap forward but there wasn’t any startling new tech to get the geeks salivating. In essence, much more a year of evolution than revolution.
That isn’t to say that there wasn’t anything to admire, so I have provided a run-down of the most interesting stuff that was on offer this year:
Automotive
Another year dominated by the car manufacturers with around 25% of the 3.2 million square feet of CES taken up by the auto giants. Many more examples of autonomous vehicles including a new bus called Olli presented by IBM Watson and a very similar looking product with added retail e-commerce opportunities showcased by Toyota’s e-Palette offering. But by far the most interesting concept was offered by Nissan who demonstrated their ‘Brain To Vehicle’ (B2V) technology which essentially allows your car to read your mind so improve your driving experience.
Over at the Sands convention center (kind of an off-Broadway tech experience of smaller players and start-ups) was a fascinating kick starter idea out of Italy which introduced the notion of ‘carbitrage’ for electric vehicle owners. The Charge Me concept is simple: if you have an EV with a full charge and another EV driver is nearby who is running low on energy, you can sell some of your ‘juice’ to them by connecting them via a dedicated cable.
Virtual Reality
The whole area of AR and VR was massive again this year at CES with Google in particular pushing their new Daydream product at every opportunity. Their presence at CES and on the Las Vegas strip was impossible to avoid which is interesting given their relative anonymity over the past decade.
But the most fascinating VR launch was from none other than iconic boxing legend Floyd Mayweather who held a press conference to announce the arrival of his new ‘bricks and mortar’ Mayweather boxing oriented gyms and virtual reality app. Ever wondered what it’s like to fight against the best pound-for-pound boxer who has ever lived? Well with the new VR app you can pit your wits, brawn and dexterity with the (virtual) man himself. Mayweather demonstrated the app himself and despite some nifty footwork and punishing blows from the man himself, the virtual version took the bout.
Voice
Alexa, Cortana, Siri, Assistant, Bixby etc. were all to be found controlling anything from your car to your washing machine. The battle for dominance clearly seems to be between Amazon and Google as they try to establish their voice activation variants as the dominant player.
Gadgets
ForwardX Robotics rolled out a four-wheeled travel bag that will follow its owner around the airport without the need to drag it. The ‘smart bag’ has several onboard cameras to detect its user and also uses AI to avoid banging into other people and their carry-on luggage. It also has the capability to send a message to its owner if they stray too far from it in Duty Free or when the battery pack is getting low.
And finally my favourite gadget of the event has to be the super cute Sony Aibo puppy. This robot dog was the star of the show with its AI controlled actions and ability to react to commands.
Want more round-ups from CES? Click here for Tech East and West round-ups by OMD’s Chrissie Hanson.
Welcome to the CES 2017 OMD FWD special. As the dust settles on the Mojave Desert, there’s a quiet acknowledgement of Amazon’s Alexa triumph as the most widely integrated technology. But it’s still early days in voice technology, with little platform loyalty and leadership positions yet to be cemented. We expect 2017 to be an incredibly exciting year for voice AI. Bloomberg reports that the potential is huge as the technology is exponential, with voice AI reaching 40 million homes by 2021.
Elsewhere mobile devices explored 3D cameras, smart home technology merged with mobility, cars got smarter and televisions became thinner. With so much coverage of CES, explore our round-up of the most interesting news articles.
HEADLINES
- In the final tally of the show, Amazon Alexa reigns as the ‘Grand Winner’, and they didn’t even have a booth. Quartz summarises the best in show
- One of the biggest brand stories was from Mattel who launched a kid-focused Echo alternative which is due to launch June 2017. Our children will use these technologies from a very early age as more competitors come into the market
INSIGHTS
COOL
- Robots were everywhere and here are 4 robots you might want in your home. Our money is going to Kuri
- HTC wants to drive the VR revolution by introducing a subscription service: ‘The Netflix for VR’
- A digital sole which learns your running patterns and adapts to support you during terrain changes, or if you began to pronate due to tightness of muscles
- A mechanisation of a human being came in the form of the exo skeleton which has the promise to give mobility to the disabled.
- For a full run down on the coolest gadgets in the show, read our round-up here
DEEP READS
As ever, please read, learn and share away, #OMDFWD
Trendsetters and marketers are agog with the self-driving car. To the point that the legislative agenda in the US has been set to consider how to harmonize conflicting state laws at the federal level. The self-driving car was a hot topic at SXSW with Chirs Urmson, project director for Google’s self-driving car team, weighing in on the subject.
The car industry and its innovations around connectivity, autonomy and electricity also stole the show at CES this year. Car Manufacturers foresee, and promise, that self-driving cars will be mainstream within the next decade. Meanwhile, Google don’t seem ready to build their own car (preferring instead to invest in the technology behind autonomy and to explore industrial partnerships), despite the alleged readiness of the public to buy into a new brand not coming from the historic “car-makers club”.
At a consumer level, the car is still a prized possession, the reasons cover the full spectrum of demand and desire, rational and emotional. Buying a car is the second largest purchase for the majority of consumers after buying a house, and 20th-century society has been shaped by transport, cities and infrastructures and economies built around the car. But more conflicting forces are shaping the automotive industry and have car manufacturers concerned about what effect this will have on the next chapter of the industry.
Dwindling desire drivers?
A prized possession maybe, but we are seeing new dynamics emerging in the demand for car ownership, shifting from being a status symbol to a commodity. However this essential product is losing ground, but why? What consumers’ desire in a car is just beyond reach, indeed price is a key factor here, the faltering economy and gap between the rich and the poor seems unbridgeable and growing by the minute, in 2015 62 individuals had the same wealth as 3.6 billion people. Leasing has overtaken from buying as the new form of owning a car in France and accounts for 29% of car usage in the US. The pivotal reason being that people can have greater use of a car, on their own terms and for less money. So why own?
From alternative options to cars, to cars as the last alternative to transport?
This loss of appeal does, however, go deeper than just money. The surge and success of car sharing apps, raising concerns about the effects of fossil fuels on global warming and public health, and fears of road safety are seeing both public authorities and private initiatives proposing sustainable upgrades and consumer-serving alternatives. Already we are seeing the surge of car sharing apps such as Uber, micro payment bikes and rental electric cars and rickshaws in European cities, that aren’t just for tourists.
Beyond Gen Y and Gen Z. As future buyers, are these generations lost to the car industry?
It seems the magic of the car is losing ground with new generations; a sure sign is the year on year decline in model car sales in the toys and games market. This is particularly noticeable in the mature markets of Western Europe and Australia where this dwindling desire is directly correlated to the household possession of a passenger car.
However, a growing area where cars are frequently attracting the attention of Gen Y and Gen Z audiences are video games. Whilst this isn’t the same pattern of play or role of possession, car brands are looking for ways to include their brands and models into games and drive the magic of driving and motor sports, for instance, the recent Grand Turismo Vision initiative.
Reality check: a wake-up call
Will these efforts be enough now that technology companies and, to an extent, OEMs themselves, are claiming that the line between science fiction solutions for a better world and current reality is blurring rapidly? Considering how Chinese children now perceive their highly polluted surroundings.
Expectations for radical solutions to the passenger car are much higher than mere possession – so much so that the most striking feature of visions for major urban developments is that they don’t allow for the passenger car as we know it. Closing the loop, can we assume that the autonomous car will be on our streets in the next few years? Will it appeal to the masses in a way that allows a smooth transition for the car industry so that it can protect its position as a valued brand, employer and economic force?
Autonomous conveys freedom when driverless means a vacuum
Naming showcases what sparks desire. Autonomous or driverless – these terms do not convey the same desires or semantics. Will the realities and propositions the industry wants to convey have the potential to reinvent new desire triggers? Safer, greener but still fun to drive? There is currently a huge disconnect between the real driving experience (traffic, urban landscapes) and how it is advertised (beautiful scenery and empty roads) – a key consideration in a world where the importance of experience is surpassing that of possession. These new desire drivers are already taking shape around connectivity and in-car entertainment – for example, there is an increasing tendency to advertise a car as an extension to your smartphone; cars are becoming a type of app. Taking it further, this means that time wasted in traffic will become time gained for me/us.
Doing vs. having; experience vs. possession
The car is fast becoming the new living room/control centre/entertainment pod – indeed, the car industry is at breaking point, between epitomising self-transportation and owning mobility. This opens up an all-new approach to the journey – when the journey is as much a destination as the destination itself. When the journey is the end product that we need to sell, the ‘how’ becomes richer and we can easily excite the imagination of the future car-owner. Similar to how entertainment has taken over the media-information industry, entertainment may well profoundly reshape the car industry and marketers’ propositions.