CES 2017

Sophie, my team is putting together our recap this week. I’ll be sure to post some of our thoughts. We have a team spread out and scour the entire show as well as the Venetian where all the high end audio companies show.

Having been my first time at CES i was quite excited. Entering the area you get to touch and explore so many beautiful thoughtful objects. I have to admit as i worked my way through, i found the majority or products to be pretty derivative and expected. Drones that look like DJI drones, action cameras that look like Gopros etc. A lot of knockoffs which was discouraging. But there were some great gems, both in great thoughtfully designed products, but also booths, displays and nice people. I particularly am a sucker for automotive concepts and was not disappointed aside from not being able to get too close to them. Was really excited to see the new Mercedes van up close, awesome surfaces and amazing assembly, how do they get such large compound surfaces with no break??? I assume some type of composite over buck, rather than metal. I spent most of my time in the AR/VR, drones, home automation area. Hopefully will be more involved in teh design next year. Some really cool drones there, dont know enough about the category to discuss though. The best booths to me were the automotive, plenty of space to take in their experience and all thoughtfully done. Overall my favorite part was to chat with people coming by our booth, helping them to understand my design decisions and seeing people get excited about something I was honored to be involved with.

It is amazing how many imitators or straight up knock offs there are. It is amazing that these companies go through all the trouble of having a booth on the show floor and don’t bother to have an original product.

I guess their strategy is to grab vendors who want what they just saw at the GoPro booth, but at a fraction the price without the service, brand recognition, design, etc. That seems risky though. It can’t be cheap doing CES, and I would figure the knock-offs would be pretty lost amongst the brands.

Yeah its really disappointing especially knowing there are so many talented designers out there would would love the opportunity to create something new. There really is no shame in it. I mean no disrespect to Chinese companies but that seemed to be the majority of them. Take a good product and just rip off every detail and sell for less. I think youre right Mr-914 there is always someone who is willing to pay less for a lesser product.

Yeah its really disappointing especially knowing there are so many talented designers out there would would love the opportunity to create something new.

It has nothing to do with design and designers.

A lot of the knock off people are looking to get their products licensed by more well established (or U.S.) brands.

For example: Hisense Unveils Its First Sharp-Branded 4K TVs | WIRED

Hisense has struggled to establish their own brand in the U.S. so this makes sense, although their products are of dubious quality and the company is owned by the Chinese government, buyer beware…

Yeah made me think of that company LeEco. Cant decide what type of company they want to be. Most of their products were done poorly and seem confused.

it was nice to see some evolution in the autonomous vehicle realm. overall, nothing at the show really stood out, it was more a rehash from previous years. it has been interesting to see product lines morph and become absorbed into other companies. Take forward lighting for example. Most of the car audio companies have either partnered or created their own brand of white lights. Makes sense though, since their target audience is a group that loves to indulge and blow lots of money on making their cars seen and heard.

I agree, not a lot of ground breaking things this year. Saw more material integration in CE, wood and leather in home theater products, that kind of thing. The major car companies seemed a bit quieter this year while Faraday made a lot of noise with their unveil… Sting concert was good. :slight_smile:

faraday definetly had a lot of hype around their booth, i have never seen such a long line just to see the other side of a vehicle. I hope they succeed and drive more innovation. Tesla needs some constructive competition.

I was digging through photos from past CES shows (+5 years) to see what innovations stuck, and which ones floated away. LED technology has come a long way, and so have batteries. Things will continue to become more mobile and portable. AS far as what sticks, i think a lot of it has to to with whatever perks societies interests.

Is there any home healthcare at the show?

I need an excuse to hit Vegas in January.

It is seeping in at the edges but I’d think there would be a lot more. A lot of home assistant “robots” and “health sensors” in everything from wrist bands to cars, but no straight up real healthcare. That would be some real innovation.

A couple of slides from my team’s recap deck:


I think I need Kuri to be my friend! - YouTube. I’ve seen a lot of coverage of him, and think it’s all about the character!

On the integrated sensors slide, where it says ‘expect to see this technology transfer to the smart home’, got me thinking about all the really simple ways this could be introduced on top of what’s already out there… think I might need to get a pen out!

Were there any unexpected areas that were showing growth from last year?

not really any expected new area… lots of drones still. A couple of years ago drones and cars exploded onto the show floor and nearly took over the South and North halls respectively. That still holds. A slight uptick in VR, but mainly to demo things. I think VR will push out drones in the next couple of years. Just a prediction.

Who is buying all of these drones?

I’m not sure but they must be eating them at all three meals per day… :slight_smile:

World Drone Market Seen Nearing $127 Billion in 2020, PwC Says

I think Polk should jump on this Michael! I need one with a kickin’ sub-woofer.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-09/world-drone-market-seen-nearing-127-billion-in-2020-pwc-says

We could use the sub to make it levitate…

I didn’t have as much time to sight see the main halls as I hoped for. I made it to the Sands for the first time, which was kind of refreshing because they had more smart home and unique product categories and startup stuff downstairs. I’ll definitely walk that again next year.