7 Things We Are Looking Out For At CES 2018
From electric cars to consumer-serving robots…
Welcome back! As usual, the Lab will be kickstarting the new year with the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. Our team will be scouting the show floors and attending the keynote sessions to bring you the hottest trends and announcements in consumer technology. Though the show won’t officially commence till next Tuesday, already we have started gathering intel on what you would expect to see at the world’s biggest consumer electronics exhibition this year.
5G Inches Closer To Reality
5G has been a hot topic among CES attendees for the past few years, and 2018 will see this new wireless connectivity standard inches ever closer to implementation. However, if the past years provide any indication, all the intense buzz is bound to be focused primarily on hypothesizing about upcoming use cases, and less so about actual products and platforms. So for now, it’s best to adjust your expectations accordingly when it comes to 5G.
Intel CEO Brian Krzanich is set to deliver a keynote address to kick off this CES, and he is expected to touch on the future of 5G and AI chips generally. Executives from Qualcomm, Baidu, Verizon, and SDxCentral will headline a keynote panel titled “Mobile Innovation: How 5G will Enable the Future” on Wednesday, where they will discuss a global roll-out of 5G networks and its potential impact on a wide range of domain including autonomous driving, immersive content delivery, healthcare, smart cities, and more.
Outside of CES, however, we are seeing some preliminary applications of blending 5G technologies with WiFi to boost connectivity. KT Corp., South Korea’s leading carrier, announced on Wednesday that it has launched the world’s first commercial 5G wifi service in downtown Seoul, where it employs 8x8 MIMO technology to enhance bandwidth efficiency.
Similarly, T-Mobile recently announced it has started working with Nokia and Intel to test a commercial 5G cellular service, which it plans to deploy nationwide by 2020, whereas AT&T has begun testing a fixed wireless 28GHz 5G network intended for retail environment. The carrier has also announced on Wednesday that it is planning to roll out 5G services in a dozen U.S. cities by the end of 2018. Perhaps we will hear some announcements of similar trial programs next week at CES as well.
Phones & Displays Continue To Improve
As with previous years, this CES is shaping up to be a hotbed for new handsets, TV sets, PCs, and other gadgets. Granted, some mobile manufacturers will likely save a few surprises for the Mobile World Congress in February, but we are already hearing that Samsung is set to unveil the new Galaxy S9, which will also come with a wireless charger. The rumor mill is also reporting that Samsung may announce the U.S. launch for the two Galaxy A8 phones it recently debuted in South Korea, both sporting an Infinity Display design like the Galaxy S8 flagship phones. Besides Samsung, Sony is also expected to release some Xperia phones featuring a bezel-less design at CES, while LG is likely planning to showcase their new G7 phone.
Speaking of LG, the Korean company has confirmed that it will also be showcasing a 5K ultra-wide HDR monitor as well as an 88-inch 8K OLED display it recently announced. As with the previous years, we expect to see more breathtakingly stunning displays and TV sets once the show floor opens. In particular, get ready for another big year of high dynamic range (HDR) video as many of the new TVs to be unveiled at CES will support 4K HDR videos.
Auto Gets Cleaner & Smarter
The presence of automakers at CES become more and more justified with each passing year as cars become increasingly connected and smart. This year, be prepared to be amazed by the future of driving shown by a record high number of auto manufacturers and vehicle tech vendors with their latest products.
2017 was a big year for the development of autonomous driving, and it looks like CES 2018 will keep this momentum going strong. FEV will be demonstrating many of its smart vehicle technologies for the first time on the streets of Las Vegas, while Denso plans to showcase its latest connected and autonomous vehicles. Kia has also teased an all-electric concept version of the Niro crossover that it sets to unveil next week. Meanwhile, BlackBerry is set to announce a new framework to safeguard autonomous vehicles against cyberattacks. The company has also be selected to work with Baidu, who will also likely showcase their own development in driverless vehicles.
Besides self-driving cars, prepare to see a lot more electric vehicles at this CES, as automakers such as Hyundai, Byton, and Honda are planning to debut their respective new EV models in Las Vegas. France-based automaker Faurecia teased that it will reveal its breakthrough auto technologies and services that will help create “cleaner cities and the cockpit of the future” at CES. Enevate and Fisker will unveil their take on fast-charging EV batteries, helping further push the accessibility of electric vehicles. If you’re going to be in Vegas in person, you might even get to take a ride in one of Lyft’s self-driving cars.
Voice Assistants Take Over Smart Home
The highlight to look out for at the smart home space will be how many device makers are incorporating either Alexa or Google Assistant (or both) into their products. We already know that select models of Hisense’s 2018 smart TVs are getting Alexa support for voice control whereas LG has announced its new ThinQ smart speaker will play nice with Google Assistant, which will also be able to control LG’s own smart appliances. New microwave ovens from Whirlpool will also come with Alexa support so you can set the timer via voice control. We anticipate more smart TVs with voice assistant integration to make appearances at CES.
Outside the Alexa-Google dichotomy that dominates this space, smaller players are also trying to get their voice assistant into more smart home devices. For instance, Roku unveiled on Wednesday a licensing program for manufacturing partners that include reference designs for them to plug in Roku Connect software for voice control. TCL, one of the Roku partners, will unveil its debut Roku Connect-powered audio device at CES. Similarly, Samsung is also planning to bring its own voice assistant Bixby to its smart TV lineup.
AI Advances Give Rise To Consumer-Facing Robots
2017 was a breakthrough year for AI research and commercial applications of machine learning tools, and the 2018 CES is set to continue the trend with many sessions and panels set to dissect and discuss the various applications and ethical issues surrounding the development of AI and, intriguingly, with a coming wave of intriguing consumer-friendly robots. However, whether they will finally break out of their sideshow status at CES and become legit enterprise products worthy of wide adoption remain to be seen.
For example, Honda will unveil its new 3E (Empower, Experience, Empathy) Robotics Concept at CES, each designed to assist people in a multitude of situations, from disaster recovery to recreation. The Empathy model, in particular, will be able to learn from human interaction to become more helpful and empathetic in order to forge emotional bonds with users. ITRI, a Taiwan-based applied tech research firm, created a robot that can play Scrabble with you.
More ambitiously, LG is set to introduce three new models to its CLOi robot lineup that are designed to serve customers at hotels, restaurants, and supermarkets with various tasks such as serving food and drinks, guest check-in and -out, as well as guiding shopper to the right supermarket aisle. In addition, Jibo, a social robot for the home (think of it as a robot pet) and one of TIME’s “Best Inventions of 2017,” will also be present at CES next week.
New AR/VR Headsets To Diversify The Market
With the release of multiple mobile AR platforms, Augmented Reality had a breakthrough year in 2017. In comparison, the Virtual Reality space grows stagnant despite the release of a number of updated VR headsets. At this year’s CES, we expect to see more new AR/VR headsets from the usual suspects and startups to further diversify the market and offer interested consumers more options, although it does look like VR will need a few more years to manifest as a mainstream consumer product.
For example, Samsung plans to showcase a new head-mount device that blends VR with AR. Developed in partnership with Microsoft, the new Samsung HMD Odyssey is billed as “the most immersive Windows Mixed Reality headset in the market.” Huawei, the largest phone manufacturer in China, is also expected to announce a VR headset that runs Google Daydream. Oculus may showcase a prototype of their low-cost headset Oculus Go, and Lenovo is also expected to present its VR headset codenamed “Mirage.”
Sidenote: everyone is excited to try out the Magic Leap One AR headset, which the secretive company revealed just before the Christmas break and is set to ship a Creator Edition in early 2018. However, it does not look like Magic Leap will be present at CES, so we will just have to wait a bit longer to see how that turns out.
Sleep Tech To Lead Health Tech Expansion
Sleep tech was booming at last year’s CES, and it looks like a trend that will carry on this year as well. The exhibition section allocated for sleep-related products is as big as last year. Expect to see a lot of sleep trackers and sleep-enhancing gadgets ranging from connected pillow to self-adjusting nightstand lamps. Cambridge Sound Management, for example, will showcase Nightingale, a smart home sleep system designed to mask common indoor and outdoor noises and help users sleep better every night.
In particular, look out for Terraillon, an established French health and wellness company that will be showcasing a wide variety of measurement-focused smart home products, including personal scales for the bathroom, food scales for the kitchen, as well as a smart sleep solution HOMNI.
There will undoubtedly be a lot more that we will discover as we walk through the enormous Las Vegas Convention Center next week, and we are excited to share all our findings with you. So please remember to check back here and follow us on Twitter @ipglab for the latest updates on CES 2018.
In addition to all the usual recap posts and trend reports that we will send out over the course of CES, we also plan to host a live webinar on Friday, Jan. 12 at 1:30 PM EST to recap all the relevant market trends at this CES and answer all your question. If you are interested to attend, please RSVP here today!
