I am reporting live at the international CES and all records are smashed. The CES kicked off yesterday, January 6th and running through to Friday January 9th with more than 3,600 exhibitors in more than 2.2 million square feet. Our early CES predictions of trends are tracking 100 percent.
Revenues of $223.2 billion are predicted for the 2015 consumer electronics (CE) industry with emerging products growing 108 percent year-over-year in 2015. These matter to businesses and the enterprises due to the exponential proliferation in your organization.
According to Consumer Electronic Association (CEA) CEO Gary Shapiro, “Our forecast underscores that consumers’ love affair with technology shows no signs of slowing any time soon. Consumer technology is all about continued innovation. In the blink of an eye, consumer demand has taken off for emerging categories such as wearables, unmanned aerial vehicles and 4K Ultra HD – categories that were too small to track just three years ago. Expect to see these burgeoning categories, as well as innovations across the full spectrum of consumer technology, on display this week at the 2015 International CES.” Other emerging products include 3D printers, connected thermostats, unmanned systems (such as unmanned vehicles and home robots), IP cameras and smart wearables.
It’s clear the sensors and increasing automation and analytics are proliferating and Internet of Things (IoT) are already pervasive. Wearables such as activity bands, health devices, smartwatches and smart eyewear are exploding with revenue increasing 133 percent. Samsung President and CEO of Consumer Electronics Boo-Keun Yoon in his Sunday keynote highlighted IoT connectivity with all their devices to be connected by IoT by 2020. Imagine automatically pausing TVs as you leave the room and tracking biometric data with brain wave monitoring wearables.
Extensively influencing the enterprise, though stabilizing with slower growth, smartphones are approaching 170 million units this year, with growth in screen sizes between 5.3 inches – 6.5 inches. Tablets will reach nearly 81 million units this year.
Google already has self-driving cars beyond the concept and testing phases with their first production prototype released for final testing. This trend was cemented by the Sunday keynote of Dr. Dieter Zetsche, chairman of the Board, Daimler AG and head of Mercedes-Benz Cars, “Mercedes aims to develop truly superhuman autonomous driving ability.”