CES 2021: Robots, Expandable Phones and Margueritas

The struggle is real We are supposed to be as much as many complain about and others like myself relish in Las Vegas this week We should be kicking off the New Year with colleague reunions client engagement technology inspiration top to top meetings between buyers and sellers and a few cocktails and concerts mixed in Yes it39s a bit of fuzzy work but fun is why we chose advertising as a career and not accounting with much love to accountantsWe are not in Vegas but CES is here virtually In the prepandemic world CES is usually attended by over 175000 visitors with around 4500 exhibitors This year is all virtual but it is a much scaled down version in terms of exhibitors with only 1950 companies participating It39s impossible to comprehend the economic toll this is taking on Las Vegas a city whose core foundation is tourism and conventions that has been bereft of both for nearly a yearVirtual CES officially kicked off last night with the opening keynote from Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg an enthusiastic and optimistic view on how 5G will enhance and improve experiences from sports to music education to package delivery to art Of course it would have helped if the AR demo featuring a live miniconcert by the Black Pumas had worked well At least on my phone it did not It appeared to be the same mobile web AR experience that was used for the Macy39s Thanksgiving Day Parade with which I also had a few issues Note to future keynote writers Skip the live demo Bill Gates will back me up on thatThe day preceding the first full day of CES is Press Day I had the opportunity to view several halfhour presentations The benefit of this virtual format is that all keynotes press conferences and panels must start and end on time On a macrolevel my take so far is that for the companies exhibiting at CES this year most of the tech is iterative and not innovative with a few exceptions No matter how good a face these companies put on and no matter how well remotework has allowed the companies to keep going the year of 2020 was so volatile and the initial impact of the pandemic induced so much uncertainty that it did have a true impact on roadmaps and innovation Also the economic impact that the pandemic has made has provided a disincentive for companies to launch major new products if the general market cannot afford themWhile previous years at CES may have focused on entertainment devices such as TVs the clear focus this year for obvious reasons is on health We saw a focus on home air purifiers from companies like LG and Panasonic and robots for offices schools and medical facilities that kill germs with UV lights Also improved AI in homevacuuming robots that allow them to differentiate between objectsAI is everywhere from televisions that optimize each pixel based on what genre videogame you are playing to some strange perceived need to have your washer and dryer communicate and learn your washing preferences I never realized that I had washing preferences I just hit random buttons and hope my socks don39t come out pinkI was a bit surprised by the number of phones that were introduced If you glance above I did mention that there were exceptions to the lack of innovation New phone launches and announcements are generally held for Mobile World Congress or shortly thereafter In fact the last major phone that I can recall being quotlaunchedquot at CES was the Palm Treo in 2007 We have seen Samsung highlight their foldable AMOLED phone over the past two years However Samsung botched the launch of the Samsung Fold and enthusiasm seems to have waned although it is actually a really cool phone Today I saw two companies LG and TCL introduce rollable phones that extend out when you press a button IMHO that39s even cooler than the foldable phone TCL39s is a 67quot AMOLED rollable display that extends to 78quotFor Harry Potter fans you will want to get the TCL C50T scroll which I was sure was the Marauders Map It39s a 17quot tablet that unrolls like a treasure map It39s full color but more like an eink device No word if this will ever come to market but if it does it goes on my wish list You can view both the TCL phone and the scroll hereLG did not actually mention their phone in their press conference but teased it in a video in a true quotdrop the micquot moment at the end of their conference They have confirmed that it will actually be available this year to consumersSamsung39s press conference was fairly underwhelming perhaps because they will be holding a highprofile event not officially associated with CES on Thursday to reveal the Samsung Galaxy S21 5G phone But I give them props for recognizing that with all these new COVID19 pet owners there is a huge market for pet tech They are creating a SmartThings pet platform that takes their JetBot 90 vacuum cleaner and turns it into a way to check on your pet as well as trigger a feeder to give Sparky a treatIn terms of television MicroLED is the goto tech these days with all manufacturers Samsung introduced quotThe Premierequot which can go up to 110quot and has a bezelless design with Quad View that splits your screen into four so now you can watch all your Fantasy Football players crash and burn at the same timeLG has completely redesigned WebOS in 2021 models for easier content discovery They have also added a dedicated Disney button on the remoteChinese manufacturer HiSense touted its TriChrom Laser TV with 20 increase in brightness enhancement at the pixel level and a 128 improvement in RGB color They also touted some impressive growth numbers up 288 in 2020 across 17 countriesAlso on Monday Samsung showed off a home robot that can pour wine and do dishes Don39t make a mistake I want a robot at home to do that and ideally the laundry too Ahhhh now I get why the washer and dryer need AI However I am kind of ready for the robots to be consumersales ready and not just a fun bit of marketing hype at trade shows Zoom brought us Jetsonslike communication Now let39s get Rosie the Robot out thereFinally Mercedes Benz unveiled its MBUX Hyperscreen instrument panel It39s an elegant allvirtual completely glass panel encompassing three screens including a dedicated screen for the front side passenger The screen is an eyecatching 56quot powered by eight CPU cores and 24GB RAM with embedded AI that learns to anticipate the driver39s daily infotainment needsThat39s all for Press Day More great information and announcements to come as CES 2021 officially gets underwayBut Wait That39s Not AllEach year prior to the actual start of CES I have a tradition that has been ongoing for almost 15 years I head to Canonita at The Venetian pictured at top which is a Mexican barrestaurant on the quotcanalquot and meet up with colleagues and friends for incredibly good guacamole and some of the best margaritas that you39ll ever have We toast in CES and then head to the opening keynoteThis afternoon as I was following the press conference from Livingston NJ I realized that was another thing that COVID19 had stolen from meAs I mentioned above it is de rigeur to complain about CES It does suck that it comes at a time when you are all ready to get back to work refreshed from a holiday stretch and you can39t just dive right back into it Vegas is unwieldy to get around although the truth is that in the Uber era it is significantly better than it wasYes by Day 2 your back your feet and likely your head all are pounding and just one more hour of sleep would feel so good But I thrive and am energized by it and I believe many of you are as well The confluence of a global community of companies and entrepreneurs dedicated to improving the world through technology the thoughtful and insightful panels the camaraderie of getting together with colleagues and old friends and meeting new friends and even the cheesy scripts of keynotes and the bad 3970s artistic dance interpretation segments that inevitably appearSo next year on January 4 God willing I invite you to join me at around 3 pm at the Canonita We can toast the end of the pandemic the return of civility and the promise of healthy and equitable abundance that a digital world may bringClick the social buttons above or below to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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CES 2021: Robots, Expandable Phones and Margueritas

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Jeff Minsky

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