More than anything, CES is an opportunity to plant a flag. The massive consumer electronics trade show is strategically placed in the first week of the year. All holiday tech has been purchased, opened and used or returned. It’s all a distant memory for tech companies looking to establish themselves as next year’s leading innovators.
CES is a big show. The 2020 show, which wrapped before the pandemic-related shutdown, hosted 171,000 attendees, according to show organizer the Consumer Technology Association (CTA). For obvious reasons, the numbers declined in the following years, but 2023 found the show reaching 115,000.
Over the years, CES’s influence has waxed and waned. Before the pandemic, some of the event’s biggest exhibitors chose to follow Apple’s lead, saving the biggest announcements for their own events. As companies have been forced to launch virtual events in recent years, this strategy has solidified for many. After all, if you can generate enough interest for your own standalone events, why bother posting news during the busiest week of the year?
Perhaps surprisingly, this change was a boon for the event in one key way: It opened up the show to startups. If you have a smaller, newer company, shows like this are an opportunity to get in front of the biggest journalists, distributors, manufacturers, etc. in consumer electronics. As any startup that has pitched me will probably tell you, it’s hard to stand out among the hundreds of emails I get every day (LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook, too — but don’t do that).
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – JANUARY 5: CES, the world’s largest annual consumer technology trade show opens its doors to visitors on January 5, 2022 at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. (Photo by Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
It’s an opportunity to share a physical space with the person you’re proposing. This is especially valuable for hardware startups, who can present their product in person. Most of these companies are located in Eureka Park at the Venetian Expo (née Sands). This is the best part of the show. It is the most lively, interesting and chaotic. I suspect most of the staff TechCrunch sends would rather spend the whole week there. Unfortunately I have a big back problem at the moment so my time there will be minimal.
I have, however, already signed up for a bunch of suite meetings — that is, meetings in hotel rooms in places like the Venetian. These are generally companies that do not have floors. This may be due to a lack of resources or because they are showing off some piece of technology that is not ready for the public.
Often because of the latter, these are the most interesting updates at the event. It’s out of order, so you don’t want to stack too many of them, but it’s nice to have a few encounters away from the chaotic buzz of the show.
Despite the aforementioned ongoing health issues, I’m really looking forward to this CES. That’s absolutely something I can’t say every year. But my optimism is twofold. First, I think we’re heading into an exciting time for consumer hardware. Supply chain issues (and international relations) have caused many to rethink how — and where — they manufacture. A move toward a more decentralized manufacturing landscape could transform the industry in exciting ways. Second—and related—we recently put out a call for CES startup pitches, and so far I’ve been impressed by both the variety and quality of the responses. I am currently reviewing a list of over 200 startups.
We’re still about a week and a half into the event, but interesting trends are starting to emerge. The first should be obvious to anyone who follows the industry: genetic artificial intelligence. For more than a decade, AI has become an industry buzzword to the point that it has essentially lost all meaning in product offerings. Things will only get worse from here on out.
Image Credits: Brian Heater
The explosion of LLMs has – understandably – captured the public imagination. After hearing about artificial intelligence all their lives, ordinary people can now type a text message into a dialog box and instantly receive an image, video, short story or song. Last month, Humane offered the current standard for leveraging systems like ChatGPT for a consumer form factor. Whatever you think of the company or its product, there’s a reason it’s become so hyped.
More than anything else, 2024 will be the year of generative AI claims for hardware products. Some will be really impressive — I expect some amazing breakthroughs in robotics leveraging GenAI in the next year. Invariably, however, most of it will be marketing bullshit. It’s our job as reporters to determine which is which.
Talking about robotics (as I often am), CES has been dipping its toes in these waters for a few years now. Of course, the vast majority of products at the event that qualify are essentially Roomba derivatives. Nothing against the robots in the world, but these are not the breakthroughs we were promised.
Image Credits: Amazon
I expect more companies to lean into the automated processes they use on the back end. Partnerships will be a big thing – announcements that include the piloting of different robotics systems like Agility’s Digit or Boston Dynamics’ Stretch. Who doesn’t want to showcase a robot in their booth?
TV will continue to be a key focus. In recent years, LG has made the strategic decision to announce its biggest products front of CES. And why not? Late December/early January is a painfully slow time of year. So far, the company has introduced a 98-inch (!) QNED LED and gaming display with 480Hz refresh rate (!!).
As Kirsten can attest, a big part of CES’s evolution in recent years has been its positioning as an important car exhibition. Given how technology is intertwined with the automotive industry, the move makes sense. Last year, the entire shiny new West Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center was dedicated to mobility.
Automakers generally make a big splash at the event, including companies like Toyota and Hyundai, which own TRI and Boston Dynamics, respectively. For its part, Honda has has already been announced that it will showcase new EVs at the event.
Image Credits: Sony
In recent years, great smartphones The announcements are almost non-starters for CES. The big players have either turned back to their own events or are keeping their dust dry for Mobile World Congress in late February/early March.
Health technology will continue to be a large piece of the puzzle. We’re talking about sleep monitoring, blood glucose monitoring, blood pressure — the stuff that was relegated to professional healthcare equipment until fairly recently. Once again, Apple’s absence will be felt in a big way, although this year, Apple’s ongoing patent dispute with Masimo will cast a huge shadow over the event. Depending on how things are shaping up, the portable market could be on the verge of looking very different next year.
Speaking of Apple, AR/VR was my highlight from last year’s event, having tested new headsets from Meta, HTC, Sony and Magic Leap. With the Vision Pro likely to arrive in the next month or two, all eyes will be on mixed reality.
Never one to shy away from the limelight, Nvidia seems to increase for some big releases. AI will, of course, be the focus. The company is rumored to launch the RTX 4070 Super and RTX 4080 Super GPUs at the event.
CES is underway January 9-12 in Las Vegas. The big press days start two days before, on 7u. Bookmark our CES 2024 page for the latest.
