CES 2018: Real Advances, Real Progress, Real Questions

CES 2018. All photos by author unless noted.

Suggested reading: Read the intro then scan through looking for pictures that are in your area of interest. Each section is the summary followed by images for that section.

CES is huge, and it matters. CES 2018 was interesting but not earth-shattering, but if you go thinking it is going to be earth-shattering then you will be disappointed this year just as you would have been for just about any show in the past.

After my 3 days and 87,207 steps I offer these five observations about the direction of products and technology on display at CES.

• Voice. There’s a massive investment in voice control across all platforms and gadgets—voice control was at essentially every booth. This is primarily driven by the momentum and easily accessible SDK of Amazon Alexa (which can make the mundane more fun to demonstrate) and the incredible fast-follower investment from Google (showing the strength of evangelism). Neither Siri nor Cortana had much of a presence. It is still early as described later in this post, but the short version is that it is far too early to either pick a winner or importantly to define what that might really mean if a winner comes to be. The real question is if voice, particularly in the consumer home, will have platform returns like Windows, or like Android, or like HDMI?
• Electronics for the home. Across entertainment, operations, and security the “home of the future” does seem to be making significant strides in usability, desirability, and utility. This is how CES evolves—what seems awkward and “for rich lazy people” one year, becomes reasonable, practical, and available for everyone seemingly overnight. CES is a fantastic place to see this evolution—the trivial such as the evolution from knobs to buttons to touch screens to the complex such as disconnected to wired to wireless to the massive such as analog to digital. This is also a year where I think it is fair to say that the leadership in operating the home has passed from Japan and the US to Korea (Samsung and LG), with China companies working hard to be the third player (and with a captive local market).
• Cars. Cars are a funky thing at CES. The old school “in-car entertainment” North Hall has been replaced by massive innovation booths from car makers, in-car chip makers (like Nvidia), and other autonomous/electric transport. In many ways this is a weird place for cars since the attendees aren’t in the industry and the primary voice from auto makers seems to be “look, we’re innovating like tech companies” rather than showing off any actual products. There’s not much news in this space and there’s a lot of big-company “innovation talk” that is mostly content-free.
• No wires. There are no wires at CES. The only wire that exists is from your high-speed internet to a router. After that everything is wireless. It is really great to see. Perhaps the one exception is HDMI but TV makers don’t talk about that anymore since they basically want you to use their apps/control centers to get to internet services. It is quite a lesson in terms of “disruption” when I think about all the booths (square footage) previously devoted to wires, wire management, connectors, plugs, hubs, routers, extenders, and so on. Perhaps this is the biggest “physical” change to the show. As far as wireless, Wi-Fi (and for audio, Bluetooth) is part of the infrastructure and not even a separate part of the show like it used to be (HDMI still has a dedicated area).
• But still too much technology at the endpoint…a consistent theme over the past 3–5 years of CES for me has been “why so much complexity at the edge”? How many SIM cards do you need? How many ARM processors running a modified Android or Linux OS? How many devices need a full user-interface? Now, how many active listening microphones? This continues to be the case. I believe, especially in cars and home devices that need to last for 10+ years, that edge complexity is the deal breaker (in both new and existing endpoints). I might want a cool standing desk, but I certainly don’t want one with a tablet running some fork of Android built-into the desk. I would love a voice controlled appliance but I don’t want it to be microphone enabled with a voice runtime that might be different than another microphone and voice runtime in the lights or security system. I want a screen in my car, but not if I can’t use what is on my phone or if I must switch screens to change the climate controls. This to me is the biggest “issue” that CE makers need to grapple with in their effort to innovate and differentiate.

All of these together are just a reminder that CES encompasses and touches nearly everything we do every day. CES, to be important for product people, does not need to have the next wave of disruptive technology. CES “just” needs to show how everyday life will get better next year or the year later. Will I be able to get a home security system without a home remodel? Will I be able to replace my door lock with one I can track kids coming home? How will cooking change? These mundane things all take time and show incremental progress every year—cooking can improve without the replacement for fire and heat. I really dislike that people judge the conference (or frankly any tech announcement) on whether the new thing is wholly new, replaces everything, and seamlessly fits into life with availability today. That’s just not how innovation happens…most of the time.

This report is just me. I just walk around from booth to booth and take notes and pictures then let everything sort of stew for a couple of days. I’m just one person and can’t get everything right or cover everything. I definitely don’t try to compete with the amazing teams at places like The Verge, Mashable, Engadget and more that cover all the press events and the like. I look at CES through the lens of a product manager or technology manager trying to understand how the broad landscape is evolving. Just one person’s view.

FYI, I mention products here not because I am picking best of show, endorsing, or investing in them. I mention them as evidence for larger points. Everything here is just me with no one else involved and with no agenda.

After a quick summary of the overall environment, this report examines what was on display across the following themes:

• Voice
• “Hey Google”
• Television and Display
• Headphones and Audio
• Home Appliances
• Autos and Transportation
• Augmented Reality/Heads Up Displays (AR/HUD)
• Mobile
• PC
• Qi Wireless Charging
• Robots
• Health
• And the Rest…

Sure it is a lot, but I am using a lot of pictures this year and each section is mostly about collective observations. If you want to learn the details of the products there are definitely better places—but I definitely spent time playing with and listening to demos at these stations. This is all hands-on.

What CES Is Really Like?

CES is the largest yearly show in Las Vegas, and in the top 5 or so yearly shows worldwide. All the really big ones are planes, cars, and construction (and CEBit which brings together IT end to end). Interestingly, CES is about twice the size of Mobile World Congress.

If you were to look at tweets from influential people before the show, there was a lot of “not going this year” and “CES is done for me” sort of thinking. One good (and old) friend even said “CES is the new COMDEX” which is a way of saying the show is over. This got me all depressed before boarding the plane—I mean who wants to go to a show that is horrible.

The truth is that perspective is as old as big, yearly trade shows. Trade shows are, in general, gross. I mean you walk for miles; you can’t find anyone; people are pushy; there’s cigarette smoke in all the wrong places; you’re tired, hungry, dehydrated (and in Vegas chapped lips are the norm); a lot of booths are really crowded and horrible. CES is just a big trade show. Oh, and Las Vegas.

But just a few minutes in the two things you see in over-supply are passion and hustle.

People love this stuff. They love what they work on. The people who are on the edges of the industry show up with their backpacks and stuff them with brochures (still!), buttons, pens, and more and they wait on line to sink a hole in one, sit in a prototype car, or just walk through a hallway of massive OLED screens. People in the industry connect with their partners, other employees at their giant companies, and all have amazing stories to tell of interacting on the show floor with people from all over the world (literally) about their products.

Here’s a look at the crowds from inside the hall. It is elbow to elbow. Kudos to CES for taking away the ability to use wheelie carts in the hall (for security) as those really gummed things up.

These are the two most crowded places across halls. On the left is the “Eureka Park” at the Sands filled with vast numbers of single-table booths from around the world, incubators, accelerators, crowd-funding, and country pavilions. For many this is the most exciting place. On the right is the historically most crowded intersection which is Qualcomm and Intel (that positioning itself is kind of entertaining). You simply can’t get through this throttle point.

Hustle is everywhere. I think those taking the negative view don’t quite always appreciate the amount of hustle it takes for those representing their business. A small company with say Series A funding might make the bet on this show and spend $500K on a small booth, send the minimal set of essential people, fly Southwest, rent on car from Thrifty, and share the Days Inn room with a fold out bed. And that’s fairly routine.

Big companies can easily send 1000+ people who (except for execs) spend 4–5 hours a day staffing a booth answering questions, doing demos, and worrying about how the booth “manager” is rating their performance at generating traffic and making the most of millions of dollars being spent. (Oh and they have roommates too!)

Sales and marketing people are watching their budgeted money get spent and are out there trying to find distributors or connect with the industry writers who might drop a story about what they do. The writers know this but sometimes forget that a solid story with the right information can make or break the investment in CES.

While there’s hustle everywhere most people don’t think of the big companies really hustling and think they have it easy. Speaking personally, nothing was ever more exhausting than staffing a booth (or later in my own career, being responsible for making the most of a 1000 sq ft).

Google literally blanketed Las Vegas (not just the expo halls) with “Hey Google”. It was everywhere. Landing signage is one thing, but executing with humans is another. On the left is the very visible “Hey Google” gumball slot machine thing (one at North and one at South Hall). This thing had a line and was going every hour, but more than that the endless enthusiasm from the Googlers working there was over the top—I mean I’ve seen a lot of companies blanket CES but this was an incredible effort.

Behind the scenes and the big machine though were probably 1000–1500 “Hey Google” signs in booths (almost 4000 booths total). But as a company even if you work with Google you have to get that right and you can’t just make claims that aren’t supported. It takes an army of people to make that all work. Below you can see one of the many conversations I saw between a Googler in a jumpsuit with primary colored Chucks discussing the execution of “Hey Google”. In 1995 I ran around CES putting up (and requesting take down of) “Powered By Windows 95” signs and so I definitely understand how much effort this is.

On the left is the “Hey Google” gumball machine where you won prizes for correctly answering brain teasers solved by asking Google staffed with Googlers in jumpsuits and Chucks. On the right is a Googler in jumpsuit inquiring about the “Hey Google” signage you can see in the booth.

I would be remiss if I did not mention that CES is itself a product, and one that in most years sees improvements among the many changes. It is actually pretty weird as an old-timer to see something move or change—this year Samsung was further down the Central Hall than in past years and so I was confused. I have no idea what will happen if Sony or Intel move!

This year there was a fantastic app to go along with the show. It had a great search and navigation function. You could type in a booth number and get walking directions (using locator beacons I assume). You could also search by a variety of other attributes. The app also had excellent notifications—like when I was standing in the dark at LG I got this warning that the power went out.

The app for CES was vastly improved over past years. Security is an incredible concern at any big event, especially this year at Las Vegas.

Voice

Typical sign at a booth saying it works with everything.

While last year voice was new and in a lot of booths, it mostly didn’t work and felt like a way to make an old demo see fresh. This year voice is a strategy. Whole companies are betting on voice as differentiation and the two major platform companies present, Amazon and Google, pulled out all the stops.

LG and Samsung are the two companies that make the most endpoints in their home appliances, which I will cover later in the post.

For every other company there are two strategies at play:

• Embed one or more of Alexa or Assistant into a device by adding a microphone, processor, etc.
• Use Wi-Fi and existing software on the device to allow the device to be controlled by one or more controller products (directly by a speaker or by yet another controller such as a home security system or hub).

There challenges are many right now. Let me start with the optimistic part. For the vast majority of things in the home, replacing or augmenting basic on/off capabilities now works (provided the manufacturer enabled them). This is a win. It is not Jetson’s home automation but it does work and is reliable.

When I got to my hotel room there was an Alexa and I spent 10 minutes trying to warm the room up. I tried everything on my two page Alexa cheat sheet but not luck. I gave up on the thermostat (note, it is not like operating a hotel thermostat has ever been a predictable step). Next I did the lights, the drapes, set an alarm and more. All of those were flawless—even recognizing “drapes” or “curtains” etc. though not entirely complete (like making the drapes stop at 50% isn’t possible). Now this room is relatively new and has had a single console wired remote system that was extremely well designed.

I’m confident that a core problem with voice right now are expectations. There’s all sorts of real world problems from home guests to people standing outside a window yelling into your house to deal with, but one does quickly get used to walking into a room and saying “Alexa please turn the lights on” and of course if you can also get questions about the weather and so on answered along with music, this is a net add.

Where voice really disappoints is the same way that almost every new product disappoints—it doesn’t do as much as you’d like or can imagine. Tech enthusiasts have been trying to do home automation scenarios for years—the idea of “programming” your home to lock the doors, arm perimeter security, turn off inside lights (except the bedroom), turn off the TV, turn on the baby monitor and so on all to the command “bedtime”. That’s not going to happen and anyone with that design point will fail. This will fail just like that microwave button “reheat” doesn’t work or voice response systems asking you “state your problem” always take you “please hold while I connect you to an operator”.

I’m optimistic about voice for basic command and control. Beyond that we are at the very early stages with a good deal of frustration ahead. The strategic question is whether voice will replace typing the way a single edit control replaced query syntax for a broad set of things. Phrased this way, voice is still far off but getting better. Asking if voice replaces apps or more is still a “big, hard problem”.

With that optimism, there are still quite a few challenges:

• Embedding third party runtime is a complex approach that will likely obsolete the device sooner, plus who wants more microphones? I am quite reluctant to buy into devices that claim to need microphones and speakers to do things like cook, tell time, or frankly even be a TV. I think there’s a real likelihood that Assistant and Alexa will benefit from being the hubs for quite some time (plus I have a phone!). My view is endpoints should focus on exploiting the presence of a hub and focusing integration on their APIs integrated into a hub experience. It is worth noting that Homekit (and perhaps as a result Siri) is a more involved integration than just a software API and puts requirements on hardware.
• If you believe the hubs (Alexa, Assistant, iPhone, or even Bixby and Cloi, etc.) are “platforms” in the tech industry sense then integrating with all of them is likely a very difficult strategy. Today these platforms are all more similar than different. But that is always the case as new platforms emerge. It is likely that they will evolve quickly and differently and maintaining a connection to all of them will prove to be compromising and just as difficult as any cross-platform challenge has been (but with much less surface area to use to paper over the differences). Again, consider how HomeKit/Siri are already much more than simple “verb” descriptors in an API.
• There does need to be a business model somewhere. Right now no one is making money selling hubs and hub makers don’t sell endpoints. So the question is “to what end” are these heading. From the outside we can hypothesize all sorts of things like advertising on refrigerators or using the hub to order something and then money is made as part of an ordering-subscription. But today all of this work is taking place as loss leaders. Historically, loss leaders don’t turn into other businesses, especially from big companies. For all the success of Android and Kindle, there are lots of questions about the ultimate economics of these (certainly stand-alone but even as part of a breadth offering).
• It seems highly unlikely that this is a winner-take-all. The main companies are acting as though this is market to be dominated. One thing we know about the home is that there’s typically been a market need for standardization and thus commoditization. It seems to me that voice control could as easily become the next HDMI or Wi-Fi (in all ways, good and bad) rather than the next Windows or iOS. The space of things to be controlled is too fragmented and diverse to simply (or easily) converge on a single player, especially when early on there are already at least 4 possible technology solutions. The fact that both are free to embed and connect to today makes it more likely for this diversity to continue. Of course there’s all the problem of the length of the replacement cycle with home endpoints as well.
• Small and big will operate differently. The massive companies (especially Samsung and LG, perhaps how to think of Apple) will take pages from Sony (and RCA before it) and attempt to have a proprietary angle on voice while also “supporting” these big players today. All of this will, ironically, have the unintended side effect of making their products (which most of us will have) even harder to use and more complex. Anyone who owned Sony AV gear or a Sony PC in the heyday knows that the “proprietary” stuff always made it more difficult and less satisfying to use the standard stuff (Memory Stick anyone?). Small companies will need to make bets as these platforms diverge but those bets make them great products and great M&A targets, but also pick up challenges of distribution (Best Buy might want you to integrate with everything, but Google might provide tons of support to be Assistant exclusive). This is just like building an app today for mobile.

This is a typical “works with everyone” booth. In this case WeMo which makes home automation suite (plugs, switches, etc.). One side of the booth has signage for Alexa, the other for Google, sitting on a HomeKit table.

Below are some of the products that I saw that showed off some of these dynamics (left to right by row)

• Invoxia portable Alexa speaker. Here’s an example of filling a hole in Amazon’s own product line. It is just a battery powered speaker with embedded Alexa. It replaces the bluetooth speakers from CES 4 years ago with a voice controlled one.
• Vobot Halo represents a broad range of combination speaker, clocks, weather gauges, and more. It is a speaker with mood lighting. Again this shows how people will take the free platform offering and just make different hardware playing off the supply chain ease of access.
• Bosch, maker of high-end home appliances and many unique ones at that, has an API connection strategy. They are doing Wi-Fi connected appliances (presumably with their own apps and stuff) that will also be controlled by Alexa.
• Lenovo built its own Alexa Show. That’s all it is.
• Polk, a speaker maker with its own struggles in a world of wireless, mesh speakers, build a speaker bar that embeds Alexa and uses a microphone in the speaker. This is also what Sonos announced a few months ago, built on their platform of superb speakers.
• Sandman is a crowd-funded USB/Wi-Fi clock (I admit to loving these devices) which mostly was about having the time right and using the display for some things like weather, embedded Alexa into their big model. So this is now a clock, charger (for a lot of devices), display, speaker, and hub.
• Roav announced Viva which is a bluetooth enabled charger that pairs with your phone and then uses your phone to chat with a voice assistant. I was confused by this demo but it got a lot of attention. There were several GPS trackers for cars that act independently (some OBD2 and some DC) and some that have SIMs but one that is for when you’re in the car seems odd.

“Hey Google”

Before diving more into TV, it is worth bridging with some words on Google’s presence at the show. I’ve seen (and been) big, resourced companies come to CES and let their presence be known. Honestly, I’ve never seen anything like what Google pulled off with “Hey Google”. Even though one giant venue got shut down because of flooding from the rains, the presence was “nuts” and could not be escaped.

The Monorail, the Fashion Show Saucer, and even the Whyte House (haha, GIK, what would Willard say?) were showing off “Hey Google”. Inside the show, as mentioned there were 100’s to 1000+ of “Hey Google” and certainly hundreds of Googlers representing.

The only thing to take away is that voice is a really big bet. The execution of this bet today is building assistant capabilities into everything at CES from cars to stoves to phones to speakers to clocks and more. The goal, this show, was to show how Google can be infused across all of those devices.

This was a massive effort. Alexa has a near similar presence on the show floor in the booths (if not more), but none of the over the top presence of Google. That’s what the leadership position can look like—people volunteering to show support.

As some commentators will no doubt say, neither Apple Siri and HomeKit nor Microsoft Cortana had presence of note (first party or otherwise).

Since I think this is both too early and too unlikely to be a winner take all, how this sort of presence evolves over the years will be important to follow.

That said, the execution was as impressive as it was expensive.

Television and Display

Typical OLED panel striving to be more than a “TV” showing how i is basically a souped up screen saver. It shows the same pattern as the wall it is mounted on, a clock/weather, fireplace (not warm though), fake bookshelf, and photos. It is pretty nice I admit. But still who wants that running all the time?

TV in 2018 is OLED finally going mainstream. It is still expensive compared to LED (which have become unbelievable cheap as any visit to Costco demonstrates). All the major players were showing large (up to 85") OLED screens all ultra-thin.

Here’s a CES thing to notice. The fancy “not yet shipping” OLED TVs all have integrated bases upon which the 5mm screens rest. These bases are speaker bars and use some of the depth gained to enable a rear-firing subwoofer on the back of the panel. Since everyone is showing these it is likely where things are heading after 15 years of over the fireplace wall mounts and 4" recessed wall nooks that are never the right size for the next display.

Also there were basically no curved TVs and certainly zero 3D. I was trying to think of something that came and went as fast as 3D and all I could come up with might be VR headsets.

TVs this year have couple of important strategic points:

• OLED. It is exciting to see OLED. The quality is so insane. The interesting part is that we’re at a point now where there is almost no such thing as a “display”. Simply showing the image on the screen takes massive computation. So the question becomes “what is the native picture?” I’m really a believer that there’s far too much video and audio processing happening in the display relative to the signal, most of it making things worse, but you need some. This is an argument for A/V purists similar to how film people argued with digital people in cameras. But it matters because I think a lot of TVs just get way better turning off all these motion and audio things. Of course with 4K or 8K screens, scaling will be critical.
• “AI” as a buzzword. Everyone talked about their TVs has having intelligence. The intelligence is for improving the sound and picture with fancy processing chips, but also for command and control of TV. I think it is fine to call integrating with Google Assistant AI but all of the other stuff is really a stretch. I put AI in the same bucket as all the naming of display pixels and lighting schemes.
• Features. TVs are hubs for Samsung and LG and so have all the command and control. All of them have over-the-top remotes (with Netflix buttons in the US) but focus on voice control and “smart centers” within the TV. I have to be honest—all of this stuff seems to distract from using the TV for me. I suspect for so many people this is just complexity of the form of “guess that’s how it is” since they are connected to a cable or satellite box and a second source like a Roku or AppleTV. I worry about software updates, security, etc. I don’t like the TV to have a microphone and am wary of a network connection, and frankly I can do without all the software features.
• China. The big news for me is that China manufacturers are making progress. This has been 15 years in the making. I suspect that the internal description of competition with Korea is intense and we have not seen the last of this. China has seen how Korea took over from Japan and will run that playbook. The Korean makers have more than TV though and so the likes of Haier and TCL have a lot of work. The China products are now gaining quality and more than just 2 year old LED/LCD panels. There’s a second-tier of China maker that are not very good.
• First v. second-tier. The first-tier players have their own “control centers” and LG talks about WebOS. The second-tier players are still doing Android TV. Chromecast is built into a bunch of TVs as well as well as Miracast. One interesting point of note is that the China makers are very much “all in” in using the Google platform to make their TVs even though Google has no presence in China. This feels like mobile happening the same way again.

There’s still innovation going on in actually displaying images beyond OLED. LG had a super nice 4K professional projector about 18x6x6" that stood vertically and was designed for portability. It even had a built-in power supply and retractable cord.

Sony continues to push its incredible short throw projectors. This year the full size one is available (below) and is really something. Basically in what looks like an IKEA TV stand is a 120" projector which you can have by putting the stand 9.6" from the wall (even against the wall it is an 80" picture). In the stand are speakers and a subwoofer, plus the cables have just a few inches to the back of the box (but are hidden). For $30,000 it can be yours and is shipping.

Sony is also innovating with flat tv sound. This has become a huge issue with millimeter OLED screens—where to put the speakers. What Sony has done is super cool. They build in front-firing“speakers” into the front of the panel so basically the panel provides the high and mid-range sounds and fire directly at you (and again lots more processing makes this all seem like having 4 or 6 speakers). There’s a rear firing subwoofer on the back of the panel (itself a bit of a crazy amount of physics since it is only 1" deep). It is crazy to see. It was on one TV last year and making its way across all models.

The world of color depth continues to be confusing between HDR10 and Dolby Vision and so on. I just “ignore” all this stuff since I know in a short time everyone will support them all and then eventually all the content will just be in one. This kind of battle is one TVs have seen time and time again.

Finally, start counting until 8K. Yep it is totally dumb as there is no 8K content but pretty soon that’s all there will be. In the interim expect everyone with 8K to talk about how they have scaling-up magic and for those without it to talk about how there is no content.

First-tier makers all integrating AI into their TVs. In the upper right is just a tall skinny display for signage that seemed neat.

These are some of the “tier 2” TV players in China. ChangHong and TCL have been making TVs for a long time and had a rough go at LCD but certainly sold many inside of China. The next generation OLED TVs are much more mainstream and expect to see these around the world. Haier is more of an appliance maker but also has TVs, which as you can see wrap the Google platform. Skyworth is all about Google.

This is the cool Sony short throw projector. On the left is the table and projector looking at the front. On the right is the unit in the fake living room. The unit is 9.6" from wall and throwing that image to 120" to a painted wall.

LG and Samsung both showing 8K TV.

Headphones and Audio

We can thank Apple AirPods for breathing life into the wireless in-ear headphones pioneered by Jawbone. There were a couple dozen makers of ear buds all sporting a similar design of battery charging case.

The primary differentiators:

• Fit. Several makers add different mechanisms to adjust and/or secure the buds into your ear. As with wired earbuds there are broad claims of them not falling out. I don’t believe them either.
• Size of battery. There are varying sizes of charge cases some of which get to be pretty large (and heavy). This is just a personal preference.
• Noise cancellation/reduction. Sony, with a long-standing commitment to noise cancellation, has a set in market which are quite nice. The challenge remains that buds are not very good at providing a surface for cancellation.

All of these continue to struggle with providing an experience that matches Apple’s when it comes to pairing, and certainly device switching. They are hamstrung by the complexity of Bluetooth, not to mention the general fragility. I think Android phones will continue to struggle with after-market products in this category.

Not too long ago, the real interesting stuff at CES was all built around the “home theater” which meant going to the Runco booth to see a projector, the Polk (or high-end at the Sands) for 5.1 analog speakers, the Denon booth to see an audio/video receiver. HDMI’s combined digital audio/video signal and TVs with many inputs along with sound bars all but eliminated these from even high-end homes. But there are still some people that love separates. Denon has a crazy 13.2 A/V receiver pictured below. Hard to imagine who would put in 13 different pairs of analog speakers (and where and for what signal) along with two subwoofers. But it was here. It does have multi-zone HDMI output though if you need that (but then the whole pesky channel changing problem gets in the way). Separates are another case of digital disruption for sure.

Various earbuds from manufacturers showing battery cases and buds.

Denon’s 13.2 A/V receiver.

Home Appliances

These are the maps for the LG and Samsung booths included just to gibe a sense of scale and breadth.

One of the most amazing generational changes at CES is how the Korean manufacturers, starting with tube TVs, have risen to dominate the home appliance market. Unless you’re going full “Chef’s kitchen” (a set of manufacturers which have consolidated of late) chances are the next appliances anyone reading this will buy will be from Samsung or LG. The most exciting thing coming in terms of competition is how important China views winning against Korea now.

The product engineering and manufacturing breadth of Samsung and LG is far greater than Sony ever achieved (and certainly RCA, GE, or Whirlpool). You can see this in the maps for the booths pictured above. Samsung even did a press release going through their booth called the Samsung City Experience.

It is worth noting just how much work goes into these booths. If you ever have an opportunity to arrive at CES on Friday or Saturday before you can see what goes on when the construction crews show up—literally these are 10,000 sq ft homes being built inside an exhibition center (with a lot of power and connectivity). Part of the hustle for sure.

Some of the interesting points about home appliances:

• Hub. LG and Samsung want us to think about their hub—both a hardware device and a voice assistant. LG has Cloi (nee, Chloe) and Samsung has Bixby. At the same time, these companies are also run as P&Ls so a whole bunch of devices also support Alexa and Google to varying degrees. It can get pretty confusing. This type of strategic initiative was always what gummed up Sony—everyone wants to win against competition but the execs are trying to pull off a proprietary cross-company strategy. Part of this hub strategy drives too much complexity into these appliances so is something to watch for. I think I’d buy into a speaker from one of these companies as long as it seemed like their heart was in Alexa/Google integration. But you never know…
• Voice. There’s a whole variety of solutions as to where the microphones go. There are solutions where the refrigerator is the primary hub or the TV or there can be one or more speakers. Of course LG also had a demonstration of a physical manifestation of Cloi, which had a rough debut on stage. Again, my view is that building microphones into a refrigerator or TV I might have for a decade is just not the right thing to do.
• Innovation. Often overlooked, is the amount of innovation in appliances going on. This is where the “bored with CES” gets me angry. The reality is there are some super cool changes to basic home appliances brought on by a combination of both connectivity and competition. The second drawer mini-washer/dryer or “small load” dishwashers are all super cool. In addition, appliances are using less water and electricity. There are also new ways to clean clothes. While we can mock all the screens of recipes and tracking food in refrigerators and the like, there is some utility. The trick is that it will take time to settle down so I’m going to be a cautious buyer even though I’m an early adopter.
• Connected suite. Samsung and LG both want to sell you all the appliances in your home. This is incredibly challenging. First, most appliances suites are bought when a house is remodeled/new and then replacements are one at a time at failure (because repairs cost more than a replacement, talking to you Miele dishwasher from 2004). The neat thing is that Samsung and LG have you covered almost like all of Sears did. They have high-end kitchens (warmers, gas, electric, all with new leading-edge materials with that pro design) and laundry covered. Neither are players in the bathroom which is the domain of Toto and Kohler.

Let’s be a bit harsh are refer to GE, Whirlpool and others as “second-tier” (which might not be numerically true but is true in breadth and scale going forward). Reminder, GE is now owned by Haier in China. These offerings are doing the lighter-weight integration with Alexa/Google and not overdoing the need to be “all-in” on their full suite. You end up with some nice innovations without buying into a whole range of potentially obsolete hardware.

My favorite example of this is the Whirlpool line of washer/dryers. They are just low tech Wi-Fi-enabled with apps. Of course you can use a speaker to control these via integrations they provide or you can use their app. What they offer is perfectly useful. For example, the new (and first from them) one drum w/d (condenser type like they have in Europe from Asko) from Whirlpool has a reservoir for 40 loads of detergent. You just load clothes in and wash away and then eventually you will get a phone notification to refill. You don’t have to open and check every time and they don’t have to build a complicated UI on the device to check.

GE created an over-range vent with a screen to go with their oven/cooktop. It is interesting to use that location rather than the refrigerator. In the US most everyone has a microwave there so sort of interesting to think about the evolution of the kitchen. Still not wild about building in a screen to what is a hood that might not get replaced until the kitchen is rebuilt.

Where Samsung and LG miss out is on bathroom plumbing. Kohler picks it up from there with some crazy over the top connected stuff. It all seems so neat and then you look at the shower and it only has a touch panel. Maybe this is a generational change but I worry enough about plumbing just leaking and don’t know if I’d want to call a plumber for a dead screen. Interestingly Kohler has a hub strategy as well and embedded Alexa into a super nice vanity mirror with great LED lighting, dimmable via Alexa voice commands.

I actually put in a basic Kohler touchless kitchen faucet like the one on the show floor (that also has a Wi-Fi version). I have to admit it constantly confuses guests. I think this is almost like the transition to touch-tone phones or something. It seems natural that this should work since we’re all familiar with touchless faucets, but not yet in the home.

Toto also has the most incredible toilets but I think I will spare everyone the photos.

There’s a lot of interest in putting screens on TVs. Both LG and Samsung have translucent touch screens. I’ve never been a big fan of seeing food though.

Left is a GE range featuring a hood with an integrated screen that works with Google. Whirlpool’s version of a screen in the center. On the right is a condenser washer/dryer from Whirlpool (a first for them) with a detergent reservoir (in top) and Wi-Fi notifications.

Top is the ultimate LG view of the world with a TV, speaker as hub, air filter, air conditioner, etc. Behind me is a kitchen with all LG appliances connected. All talk Cloi in addition to point solutions with Alexa. Below that is a wall of connected Samsung items using all the industry protocols.

Cloi (LG) and Bixby (Samsung)

Kohler’s view of a connected bathroom.

Autos and Transportation

Even though Autos take up about 10% of the show exhibition space, it seems like it takes up about 50% of the show “bandwidth”. This is an area where I am mostly just puzzled as far as CES goes—so take anything I say as negative more as just puzzled.

Of course I am very clearly long on electric and autonomy. There are no doubts you’re going to hear from me. I also don’t know the timeframe but do believe this is a massive cultural, urban planning, and economic shift that will create great turmoil and we will end up in a place that looks totally different than where we are today, across all dimensions of ownership, transportation, roads, urban planning and more.

That said, CES and autos are just a weird combination. I believe most all of what we are seeing at the show is positioning from the big car companies and major supply chain providers and not about really making cars and changing things. The attendees are not the right people and the car companies really don’t do business at CES the way that the typical CE people do. It is a lot of show. That is frustrating to wade through. I am sure things are significantly different at the massive Detroit Auto Show (happening now).

One example was Ford, not to single them out of course, but they had basically a “vision” presentation going on all day that spent a lot of time essentially saying “transportation is messed up” (you can’t park, traffic, owning cards is hard, etc.). Yep, no argument. This is backed up by Ford announcing a bunch of new GCE pick-up trucks and a new Mustang last week.

For the most part all the “car” booths were mock ups of future autonomous cars or electric cars, or both. The focus of these mock ups is not fixing transportation or improving battery life or anything, but simply showing off “cockpit” design—literally mock ups of comfortable seats, entertainment systems, and cup holders. At the extreme, there was a cockpit from Bell Helicopter but they would not “reveal” how or if the device would ever fly, but you could wait in line and experience a VR tour of what it would be like to be airborne in these comfy seats powered by mystery air propulsion. Seriously.

There was a ton of “last mile” transportation showing, such as scooters, e-bikes, foldable bikes, and more. These are all interesting because they are an integral experience of the consumer world. My favorite one was OJOElectric, which turns out of be an officially licensed partnership with Ford. For $2550 you get a scooter with a 50 mile range, basket, side mirrors, 20mph speed, remote power on, bike lane friendly, and a slick on board charger (retractable cord). I’m thinking of this one for me!

EVs were on display to some degree, but primarily at the components level (batteries or drive systems, from the supply chain booths). One EV I loved was the AEV Technologies vehicle pictured below. It is a neighborhood NEV or “city vehicle”. Having lived in urban Seattle, I can’t help but think of the pollution and noise reduction that could come from service vehicles using this type of industrial EV. The company is Austin, Texas based and that (large in terms of area) city is using them now.

ClearMotion is a super wild “motion cancelling” shock absorber. It basically does for motion what noise cancelling does for noise, mitigating road inputs within a fraction of a second. The demo below is super cool and not just because it is on a Surface Studio, but it allows you to show how the car would respond to any road surface or trip on Boston-area roads. You can see the road take shape under the car but the body of the car doesn’t move. This is a super cool, software-enabled, innovation.

Ford says transportation is messed up.

Series of mock-ups of comfortable cockpits and cabins. These are just designs of interiors.

The AEV 511 EV pickup. MSRP about $18,999. On the right is the $2550 OJO Scooter (photo by OJO since mine was awful).

ClearMotion does for motion what noise cancelling does for noise, mitigating road inputs within a fraction of a second. Also the demo used a Surface Studio.

Augmented Reality/Heads Up Displays (AR/HUD)

It is fair to say that Virtual Reality was back-burnered by most every booth and major vendor. I won’t go as far as to say it is like 3D-TV but I don’t know if there will be any developments that will bring it back next year.

Augmented Reality made a big splash but not how you’d think. It wasn’t gaming or industrial or anything forward looking, but instead was all over the show when it came to future driving experiences. The most exciting demos were in-car screens or phone based AR, with very few demos showing glasses/goggles.

What is so incredible about this is that heads-up-display (HUD) has been a thing for decades. Of course software, lasers, and LED have all made huge progress. There were many vendors showing off both after-market and new-car HUD systems. Like VR goggles, there are some really low-end ones and some extremely impressive high-end ones. What I do love about this, so long as I have to drive, is that AR overlays navigation which takes away a major source of stress while driving—looking away while you don’t know where you are heading is pretty scary.

By far the most impressive is from WayRay which is a Swiss company that uses “holographic” imaging. They have a big vision for connected services and more.

There were a number of creative uses of AR or AR-like products for the retail segment. As expected, this is something that didn’t just appear this year but has been part of the show for the past couple of years but the products now are really starting to work.

My favorite AR demo was YouCam which shows you before/after for a variety of cosmetics. This is a channel play and also involves partnerships with cosmetics companies so it is not a synthetic view but directly related to the products available. They also have an app you can experience for home shopping but the in-store device is pretty cool.

Quite a few products want to make creative use of your mobile phone to enhance shopping. One interesting one provides technology to brands to develop 3D images of their products and then lets you quickly see the full product on your phone by scanning a QR code. This requires an App so I think there will be some bootstrap challenges but the experience is good within the app. The view is an AR view, not just a product shot.

On the left is PilotHUD which is an aftermarket HUD. Center is WayRay (photo credit WayRay, as mine was awful). Left is a very low end after market technology that displays your existing smartphone screen.

Left, by scanning the barcode I can quickly see an augmented reality view of a backpack on my phone. YouCam makeup before and after an assortment of products were “applied” to the model.

Mobile

CES is not a mobile show and there are never going to be any big announcements about mobile here (arguably it was the demise of COMDEX that caused CES to feel like a PC show). Of course the most interesting thing is how mobile has just replaced PCs as the signage and integration point for the whole show. Tablets are the primary interaction on the show floor and touch is by far the primary interaction model.

The biggest news in mobile continues to be that vendors from Asia and/or vendors wishing to do things with phones or with phone hardware prefer their ability to “hack” Android. The high-end vendors are all showing off their Apple connectivity. It is not hard for me to look at all the Android work going on and to appreciate the innovation while having deep concerns over the medium-term robustness and maintainability. We’ve all seen this happen with PCs in the home and there’s no reason to think Android will be different.

The Huawei Mate10 (and Pro) were going to make a big debut at the show for the US market. Then at the last minute AT&T pulled out of distribution which led to an awkward keynote by the Huawei CEO. I did get to play with the phone and as far as phones running Android it is a top notch model. It has a Leica camera lens, fast charge, and first rate Googleness. Very nice for Android customers.

The most fun I had was using the Gemini by Planet Computers. This is a throwback in form-factor to the days of the clamshell PDA. It is a full LTE mobile phone in a plastic clamshell case running Android. It has a QWERTY keyboard with dimensions of 171x79x15mm (6.73x3.11x0.6") and weighs 308g (10.9oz). The most fun part to watch was just using it with a mouse as in the quick hyperlapse below. There have been better keyboards on this form factor and it would be a tough sell as my phone, but it would be a modern replacement for my (and M.G. Siegler) beloved, and abandoned, iPad Mini+Logitech.

Huawei Mate10 Pro

Look it has a mouse and that’s the mouse pointer! They have also modified Android to have a taskbar 😊

Going old school, this Android clamshell runs productivity apps using a mouse just like you’d expect.

PC

The PC market is in a strong wave of consolidation: consolidation of makers and consolidation of use cases. At CES you’re not seeing any new or creative uses of PCs. The VR demonstrations were all on PCs (tethered or not) and the 3D printers were all driven by PCs. There were many others but I would say they were the long tail.

That said, Dell and Lenovo in particular were there showing off what is new and exciting. My opinion is that Dell is leading right now in building very solid, work-focused PCs. Below you can see the latest Dell convertible which competes with the Surface Book 2 or Lenovo Yoga. Part of this is a new type of keyboard that uses levitating magnetic switches (super nice). The 15" runs a full Core processor. Below you can see all the Dell extensibility (and wireless). I think there’s a level of flakiness in the full wireless setup that I would be cautious of until this is a core Windows scenario. A lot can go wrong.

The biggest thing for me is that there’s a slow but steady march to use USB-C for power.

There are always fancy, expensive, whiteboards (especially from Japan) but Samsung surprised everyone with the sub-$3000 55" Flip whiteboard. This seems to come from the industrial side of the house so it is not a PC but a purpose built screen that supports ink on the surface, PDF viewing, displaying over miracast or HDMI, and exporting screens. The metaphor is just a long scrolling page with page breaks. The fun part — erase with your hand. It was very nice, but I think it a little small. It is wireless but not battery powered.

It would not be a CES without a crazy exciting (and award-winning) prototype from the awesome team at Razer. Min-Lian and team came up with a bit of a new take on an older Motorola design from CES bygone. This is a full laptop (not like what Moto did) where the trackpad has been replaced by a dock for a matching Android/Razer phone. The phone then becomes both a trackpad and also a place to run apps side by side (which Moto had). It is very exciting for the Razer crowd that loves devices that convert and flip and stuff. I think in practice multiple screens are much more difficult to manage than most enthusiasts believe.

Dell 2 in 1 shown with wireless keyboard, mouse, dock (and monitor), and wireless charge.

Samsung Flip whiteboard.

Razer dockable Android Razer phone into a Razer laptop, code name Project Linda. Trying hard in the photo to show that the phone is showing off the display too.

Qi Wireless Charging

Wireless charging is one of those things that is a perfect fit for CES and also something for nay-sayers to take note of. Qi is the kind of industry-wide effort that takes a few turns of the crank (years, product cycles) before there is a critical mass and then a good set of products that we go on to use in our everyday lives.

I think this year, the iPhone X provided the impetus for the Qi world to gets its act together and create some solid products. There might be too many or varying utility or quality but at least at this point they will all work (not like the charger in my Chevy Bolt that doesn’t adhere to the standard).

There were charges in all sorts of form factors: cradles, slabs, alarm clocks, car mounted (slabs and cradles), and so on. If I were still using an external monitor I would definitely want a monitor with one built in like the ASUS below since that is exactly where my phone would be happy.

Among the many external emergency batteries for phones the LinearFlux Hypercharger X [sic] has a Qi charge pad on it. It comes with a non-permanent sticky for your phone so the two stay together (but then the phone sticks to your pocket). The charger itself requires a plug to charge but you can charge your phone on top of it at the same time so one less cable always.

Airsound Technology from UK is a mesh multi-room speaker that works with all the audio sources and has a Qi dock built in (along with a USB-C female plug).

ASUS monitor with a Qi charge pad. On the right is a Linearflux wireless charger for phones.

Robots

There were a ton of dumb robots at the show. And by dumb I mean in all dimensions, they are dumb concepts implemented in pretty dumb ways. I know a lot of people worked very hard on those and someday we might have robot helpers, but not via CES. It got to be a bit silly after about 10 of these so I won’t add any more to the misery of home servant robots.

However, one robot I totally loved, saw working, and solves a real (recreational) problem is Tennibot. It is basically a roomba but for picking up tennis balls. Of course the court makes for the perfect surface to map out and balls are easy to spot so it works super well. Holds a standard basket and picks it up in a few minutes. Think of all that had to come together for this to work!

Tennibot picks up tennis balls.

Left, in the future autonomous motorcycles will be driven by robots resembling Cylons. Or not. Or perhaps, right, in the future you will play Scrabble with a robot that has a built-in dictionary (cheater) but uses robot hands to move pieces. Or not.

Health

Health had been on a tear the past three years or so but in a disappointing way. There was a proliferation of telemetry devices that are best used in a doctor’s office but for home use. I sense a lot of these were technology ahead of the diagnostic value.

Of course there’s massive innovation underway in healthcare, but just not at CES this year. By and large there remained a good deal of pseudo-science and over-measuring for the home. For the right patients there are fantastic devices that did not exist a few years ago, and in a few years the combination of this measurement and machine learning will begin a new wave of preventative healthcare. In that sense, CES is necessary and important but just not there yet. The companies that will emerge will take the ability to measure and connect and combine that with state of the art software.

One company stood out for me ant that was RightEye which uses eye-tracking technology familiar to any of us that have done usability tests on software products. It puts the tracking to work to help eye specialists diagnose a wide range of potential issues. It can do very interesting things like easily separate dyslexia from a vision problem, or provide early cues to Parkinson’s or MS. You basically just sit in front of the device (made by a third party as the value for this company is in the software) and go through some tests. Then the software analyzes the results. It is a packaging of advancing hardware, state of the art software, and insights in how to do testing. The tests simply augment other factors in diagnosis. Super cool.

Sensors are ubiquitous and there continue to be a lot of products embedding accelerators, GPS, temperature, and more into helmets, socks, shoes, bras, shirts, tools, etc. There was a unqiue product for horseback riding that issues mobile alerts in case you are thrown. One company was showing a full police telemetry unit (it is a plate under the vest) that would alert command in the event of a weapon discharge or if an officer was shot (like on Robocop or Alien). Their vision is to add a human element to the command center data flow.

CES is filled with cameras for home security and a lot of baby monitors. The Clarity Cacooncam distributed by Wearless Tech (a bit confusing) has a unique overhead camera for cribs but it also detects vital signs (via thermal(. There’s a monitoring app and all. Just a different take.

While there are other trade shows for home fitness, CES saw the debut of the Peleton treadmill. And what a treadmill it is. It is a new type of treadmill that uses smaller sections rather than a continuous tread for more bounce. There is a 32" (!) screen that connects to the well-known Peleton system. It is for more than just running and so expect the courses to have weights and other exercise. It is neither cheap nor small, but it is cool! And it is SaaS!

Two health products made the “I can’t believe I just saw that” list. One is the appropriately named “Fetus Cam” (model M1). It is literally a home sonogram that makes 3D pictures of your baby for sharing with friends and family (really!). I won’t say any more.

The other use of in home ultrasound game from a wearable bladder monitor with an app that provides alerts. Using ultrasound for this is quite common in critical care units in hospitals and for bed-bound patients. It is interesting to inexpensively extend this to home use.

RightEye eye tracking. On the left is a subject taking a test (track the missiles). On the right is the result (this is a very good set of eyes as the circles are totally consistent and solid).

Clarity baby camera.

Peleton Treadmill

Left, Fetus Camera. Right is a wearable bladder monitor that uses ultrasound.

And the Rest…

Among all the phone camera stabilizers, selfie-sticks, action cams and the like I wanted to call out Removu K1 which I think of as a modern take on a camcorder should you want a stand-alone camera. It was built by a group of engineers from the Samsung imaging group and is really nice. It is basically a really good recording app, with a very very good 4K camera, in an integrated stabilizer. I usually don’t like discrete devices in this era of smartphones but this one was rather strong in execution. It is $429 at Bestbuy, B&H, etc. in the US.

I might be late to the optical HDMI cable party, but Fibbr was showing off some great passive cables that are thin, flexible, in-wall, and long-run. They are not nearly as expensive as they were a year ago. I wish I had used these on the recent upgrade to OLED. Sigh. For sale on Amazon.

Ok there was actually a connected hoola-hoop (that’s a trademark so it was just an IoT Hoop).

Top: The Removu K-1 camera left. On the right Fibbr optical HDMI and that’s a 20m run! Bottom; Left, the world’s first IoT connected hoop. On the right is my favorite work of art—industry leading Ring pictured surrounded by ADT and a give-away from the USPTO I ❤️ Patents (that is itself patented).

And Finally…

It took decades, but there is finally an accepted and integrated alternative to cabs. Last year ride sharing had a dedicated pick-up spot across the street from the LVCC. This year I loved seeing that ride sharing made it into the permanent signage!

Below was on an information booth as I was leaving. Folks get a bit punchy at the end and start to do stuff like this.

—Steven Sinofsky (@stevesi)

Author’s note: Writing this post brought kind thoughts of the late Pam Edstrom, who for many many years would always send me a note after reading a report from CES (or Comdex or Windows World or whereever). She was such a big fan of show reports and always encouraged me. Thank you Pam. 🙏