What were the most important trends, themes, and technologies at CES 2016? The Consumer Electronics Show this year featured massive partnership announcements from car brands, fast drones, immersive virtual reality experiences, and much more. See what matters most for technologists, marketers, and others in this roundup.
2. About this report
Included here are thoughts and observations about CES 2016 – the latest edition of the annual Consumer Electronics Show held in Las Vegas.
This version is still a draft, published more to be fresh than thorough (or even copy edited). This deck will be updated more in the coming days, so
you may want to bookmark this, follow me on SlideShare for updates, or email me to request the final version.
The most important section is on Trends and Themes to paint some picture of what mattered this year. Beyond that are examples of ‘life at CES’
followed by the fun meat about the most important announcements and exhibitors. Some commentary appears with those.
Sources are constantly cited in the bottom-right corner and in the notes, especially for content that isn’t purely my commentary and photography.
Some great resources are listed at the end. Click them for more detail and for some excellent reads.
Thanks for taking the time to relive CES with me. Now we’ll spend the rest of the year figuring out what it all meant. Having attended CES for ten
consecutive years, I’ve been wrapping my head around it for a decade, but with a show comprising 20 million square feet of exhibit space across
all that time, I know I’m just scratching the service. I hope to hear some of your thoughts as well; send them on over.
David Berkowitz
CMO, MRY
January 7, 2016
David.Berkowitz@mry.com
3. Table of Contents
• Trends and Themes
• An Inside Look at CES
• Spotlight on…
• Transportation
• Drones
• Internet of things
• Wearables
• Virtual reality
• Video
• Misc
• Reference / Contact
5. Trend/theme review (part 1 of 2)
Below are initial thoughts on major trends and the themes – more ‘back of the napkin.’ The slides that follow detail examples
about each of these.
1. Partnership announcements trump product launches, as partnerships get more pronounced; individual products
coming from collaborations mean less than the parties working together
2. What’s driving most of the partnerships? Signs usually point to data
3. Automotive is eating CES – a trend years in the making, but especially prominent in 2016
4. Transportation overall a huge theme, with focus on cars (especially autonomous and/or electric) and drones;
‘rideables’ fill in the gaps with alternative transportation options
5. China steps up not just presence but design and style
6. Typical device pricing focuses on value: more benefits (entertainment, health, time saved) for more cost
7. Many of the biggest hits to emerge won’t be products that get most buzz in tech press but will meet most people’s
needs. It’s the difference between 4K TVs (a nice-to-have upgrade) and washing machines that can do multiple loads
at once or both wash and dry clothes (anyone who does laundry will at least consider buying it if price is right)
8. 2016 is important year for VR but scale will come later; best VR now requires more powerful computing, and lower-
end risks having novelty wear off
9. 3D printing became marginal at CES; B2B applications remain tremendous but value proposition, price, and speed
haven’t made it accessible to most consumers
6. Trend/theme review (part 2 of 2)
10. Brands, agencies, publishers, ad/marketing tech remain practical, with education on what’s next (eg VR, new
developments in mobile) but huge emphasis on what can be done this year. The timeframe between what’s now and
what’s next keeps shrinking though.
11. ‘Public CES’ and ‘Shadow CES’ keep diverging as ‘Tech South’ becomes more of a thing
12. Unfortunate silos as ‘Public CES’ is largely for creatives, ‘Shadow CES’ is more for media; biggest question is who in
years ahead will bring those closest together
13. The fun is fading from the floor, even in once-happening areas like Eureka Park, as lots of big partnership
announcements and data land grabs don’t lend themselves well to flashy demos
14. Trade show environment not best way to experience self-driving cars, drones, even VR (long lines for short, limited
demos); reinforcing CES as a teaser to whet appetites, not a way to experience what’s next
15. Live-streaming from mobile apps a hot topic but not a new one; UX and bandwidth are much better. Previous limits
included getting on show’s spotty WiFi or bringing own network; now LTE can support it (if you have a generous data
plan)
16. When are we going to see a ton more robots? Surprised demos remain tame in this regard
17. Major exhibitors tackle major issues spanning harassment, diversity, health & wellness, personal safety –
acknowledging that tech is part of society and not in a vacuum
7. 1) Partnership announcements trump product launches
and power next-gen products
Lots of other partnerships were noteworthy, including:
• New Balance launching Digital Sport unit, partnering with Intel on an Android Wear watch
• Whirlpool adds Amazon Dash to washers and dryers
• Microsoft and Samsung doing Internet of Things devices for Windows 10
• Lenovo producing Google’s first Project Tango phone for 3D mapping
See more from the auto industry in trend 3
8. 2) ‘Data’ is most frequently the answer for what’s driving these
partnerships
Note push/pull here: sometimes it’s defensive – eg competitors partnering to prevent a
third-party from gaining power as a middleman
(IBM CEO Ginni Rometty)
9. 3) Automotive is eating CES
Especially fascinating were the partnerships coming out
constantly:
• GM $500 million investment in Lyft, plan to develop fleet
of autonomous cars
• Ford connecting cars to Amazon Echo virtual assistant,
‘hackathons’ with Chinese drone maker DJI
• Toyota building its next-gen car software using Ford’s
SmartDeviceLink
• Volvo tapping Nvidia to power autonomous driving tech
and Ericsson for high-bandwidth in-car streaming
Auto booths have also been big proponents of advocating
tech/media they integrate with, including Google’s Android
Auto and Apple CarPlay
10. 4) Transportation is bigger than auto, as CES features all kinds of
manned vehicles
11. 5) China steps up design and style
Huawei’s booth was inspired less by consumer
electronics titans and more by luxury brands,
signaling they want to be known for quality and
not knock-off tech (see their smartwatch
pictured here).
12. 6) Pricing of new products skews toward a premium product’s value
(entertainment, health, time saving) rather than saving $
WiThings Thermo
thermometer: $100
Oculus Rift: $600
(+>$1K for gaming PC)
Robo 3D RMini ‘basic’
3D printer: $1,000
Chillhub fridge: $3,000
4K 360-degree Sphericam:
$2500
Under Armour Healthbox:
$400
13. 6) Pricing of new products skews toward a premium product’s value,
not saving $ (con’t)
Kolibree smart toothbrush:
$150
Febreze smart air freshener:
$50
Fitbit Blaze: $200
Edwin the smart rubber
duck: $100
Mimo Baby Onesie: $180-$200
(+$30 for more ‘kimonos’)
Watson-powered Cognitoys:
$120
14. 7) Most successful products aren’t necessarily ones that get most
buzz but provide most practical, tangible value to buyers
Engadget’s CES 2015 winners included this
gem: “Now, we might have another
automatic item of clothing to look forward to
in 2015 in the form of Belty: a motorized belt
buckle that tightens and loosens itself.”
The Belty praise is one of those reminders
that so much tech hype is worthless 5-
seconds after it’s printed (and you’ll find me
guilty of some of this here too, I’m sure –
consider this throwing stones at glass
houses).
15. 8) 2016 is important year for VR but scale will come later; best VR now requires
more powerful computing, and lower-end novelty wears off
A telling reminder: the
Oculus Rift test check to see
if one’s PC can run the rift.
At left: the results from my
>$1,200 laptop (and hardly
the newest model).
16. 9) 3D printing was marginalized at CES; biggest opportunity is for
B2B and promise was oversold in past
Consumers have yet to figure out what to use it
for, and it’s still way too slow and way too
expensive.
Also, Amazon Prime Now, Uber, Postmates, etc
all present new challenges to 3D printing. If you
can get any product in <1-2 hours, it will further
limit use cases for 3D printing.
17. 10) Brands, agencies, publishers, adtech remain practical, with some education
on what’s next but emphasis on what can be done this year
CES is a great time to push a forward-
thinking vision for the years ahead (see an
example of SMG’s Dare to Disrupt content
at right), but that usually bears fruit further
out. Discussions with sellers tends to focus
on the newest products that can be bought
now while still getting some kind of first-
mover advantage.
18. 11) Media, Tech companies further rift between Public CES, Shadow
CES
Twitter’s a prime example.
Techies at the Convention Center are using and
talking about Periscope.
Yet as CES started, Twitter announced a new
Conversational ad unit – perfect to show marketers
at the show (a smart strategy).
Image source: Twitter
19. 11 con’t) Shadow CES continues to expand
Image source: Richard Alfonsi; more coverage at VentureBeat, NYT
In Sin City, Twitter had its
own private ‘Shadow’
city: Twitter City, USA.
That only made the press
more curious as to what
was going on.
20. 12) Silos abound as Public CES is largely for creatives, Shadow CES is for
media; who in years ahead will bring those closest together?
An example of the two CES’s: these articles published back to back by Kerry Flynn
in International Business Times, with Public on top and Shadow below
21. 13) The fun is fading from the floor as excitement shifts
from products to partnerships
“In the musical ‘Hamilton,’ Alexander Burr
advises Alexander Hamilton, "Talk less, smile
more." This year's CES brought out the
opposite, where major brands' announcements
generated countless conversations about the
future of technology, but the show floor lacked a
sense of smile-inducing wonder.”
- Ad Age
Image source: Genius
22. 14) Trade show environment not best way to experience
autonomous vehicles, drones, VR
“Here's one way to bring
back the experiential magic
of CES: Shift the show floor
in coming years to Boulder
City, Nevada, 30 miles
outside of Vegas, where the
world's first Droneport is
under construction.”
- Ad Age
Image source: Fast Company
23. 15) Live-streaming from mobile apps a hot topic but not a
new one
From my CES 2011 Recap:
“Everyone must figure out how to share
share info on the fly. Those who are
really serious sport this kind of mobile
broadcasting backpack that will aim to
find a signal on any network it can. The
biggest challenge at an event like CES is
the bandwidth is terrible. Relying on 3G
and WiFi will stymie most media-sharing
hobbyists.”
24. 16) When are we going to more robots? Demos remain
tame in this regard
Here’s a sample of veteran
CES guide Shelly Palmer’s
recommended exhibits. From
the full list, only two are in
robotics (top left); one is
telematics, and the other is a
home beer maker. Where’s
“AI,” “I, Robot,” “Chappie” or
“Ex Machina”?
25. 17) Major exhibitors tackle major issues: Intel teams with Vox,
Re/code, Lady Gaga to fight online harassment by ‘hacking it’
Source: Hack Harassment
27. Quick plug: MRY releases new research on hottest and overhyped tech as
viewed by marketers & consumers; see the full infographic via the link
Source: MRY
34. GM invests $500 million in Lyft to create self-driving car
network
“In October, GM CEO Mary Barra said the
industrial giant won’t rely on the traditional
owner-driver model to keep its business
‘going, and will ‘absolutely’ make cars for
an age when human driving is defunct. ‘We
are disrupting ourselves.’ This deal with Lyft
is the best indication we have yet that those
are more than talking points.”
- Wired
Image source: GM
35. CA-based, China-backed Faraday Future teases 1,000HP FFZERO1 concept car –
but mysteries abound on their real product and if Apple’s involved
Image source: Faraday Future
36. Some brand managers have a very practical view of
automotive innovation
“’Cars are increasingly computers on wheels. At the
end of the day, what do cars do? Cars drive past
supermarkets.’ He then described a scenario in which
a car is alerted to a sale on Ben & Jerry's, which your
smart fridge just pointed out you were running low
on.”
- Ad Age interview with Unilever CMO Keith Weed
37. Intel works with Ninebot/Segway and Xiami to announce new personal robot and
transporter; one can ride it around, or have it monitor home on its own
Source: Ninebot
39. I actually felt bed for the hoverboard vendors; a few months ago,
they must have thought CES would mint money
40. Well, at least the hoverboard press couldn’t get any
worse. Oh, wait…
Source: Bloomberg Business
41. Jargon watch: Rideables
“Rideables will be more than just hoverboards. This past year
was a big one for all electric rideables — not just
hoverboards. Small electric skateboard, scooter, and bike
companies all popped up, and the few incumbents made
solid progress on things like battery life and range. That
same trend is going to continue at this year’s CES…” -The
Verge
Verdict? Yes, rideables were a thing, with Segway (image at
right) one of the bigger plasts from the past to make some
noise. But with such a big year for auto, and drones so hard
to miss, rideables were a footnote.
42. Parting thought here: a vision of what we’ll be doing when we have
self-driving cars
45. Parrot announces Disco, a 50-mph fixed-wing consumer drone to hit market later
in 2016; signals continued arms race for best drone specs
Source: Gizmodo
46. The next wave of drones: self-flying drones you can carry with you.
Lily pulls in $34 million in pre-orders
47. Ehang wants to usher in new era of drones that can carry
people
Source: Ehang
48. Coming soon near Vegas: world’s first ‘Droneport’ for current and
next-gen drone pilots (CES 2017 field trip!)
Source: Fast Company
49. Not at CES, but important in background: Amazon could unleash drone delivery
at scale, if regulators let them
51. Coldwell Banker: Smart Home Tech Goes Mainstream in
2016
Highlights from Real Estate Smart Home Marketplace Survey:
• 45% of Americans own smart home technology or plan to invest in it
in 2016
• What makes a home smart? Respondent said locks/alarms (63%),
temperature (63%), lighting (58%), safety detectors (56%)
• 54% of homeowners would install smart tech if they knew it would
make homes sell faster
Source: Coldwell Banker
52. “Sengled Voice is the only integrated microphone/speaker LED bulb on the market.”
Because we need 50,000 choices for talking lightbulbs.
53. WiThings introduces Thermo, a smart thermometer – but must
convince people to pay $99 for a thermometer
Source: WiThings
54. LG SmartThinQ joins wave of Amazon Echo competitors
– adding screen but lacking voice input
Source: LG
55. Whirlpool builds on previous Nest integration by building Amazon
Dash reordering into washers and dryers
Source: The Verge
56. Smart air freshener? Sounds nuts – but it allows for app-triggered release of
scent; Febreze Connect also works w/Nest
Source: Febreze Connect (h/t Evan Kraut)
57. A new addition to the IoT roster: internet-connected
pregnancy tests
Source: Church & Dwight / First Response
58. Add your heartbeat to photos to show emotion beyond
emojis with Sensum’s Emocam
59. Putting USB ports in a fridge? Ugh. Launching a crowdsourced,
open-source fridge? Far more interesting
Source: FirstBuild, via PSFK
60. 6SensorLabs’ Nima wins TechCrunch Hardware Battlefield with
pocket-sized device to test food for common allergens
Source: 6SensorLabs / TechCrunch
64. Fitbit launches Blaze $200 smartwatch; stock price plummets amid
fears of lack of innovation and more competition
Source: Fitbit
65. Fitbit competition includes Under Armour’s A Healthbox, 3-parts
hardware and 1-part software, for $400
Source: Under Armour
66. New Balance launches Digital Sport division, starting with Android Wear
smartwatch designed by runners in conjunction with Intel
Source: Android Guys
67. Mimo shows off latest smart baby onesies – most valuable for ‘at risk’ babies;
too expensive for everyday needs and requires proprietary clothing
68. Samsung’s WELT is a smartwatch for your waist (but it
doesn’t charge your phone, like other belts)
Source: Samsung
69. At a male-heavy show, female health got more attention thanks to OhMiBod and
Fiera; also see First Response above
Source: OhMiBod / Fiera
70. Nothing is more romantic than giving your partner a ring that tells them to get
more exercise and sleep
71. If you have connected every other thing you own to the internet,
buy Bruno – “the world’s first smartcan” (yes, really)
Source: Bruno
74. Quite the week for Oculus: Rift goes on sale, preorders crash site, founder
apologies for poor communication around $599 pricing
I handled the messaging poorly. Earlier last year, we started
officially messaging that the Rift+Recommended spec PC would
cost roughly $1500… Many outlets picked the story up as “Rift will
cost $1500!”, which was honestly a good thing - the vast majority of
consumers (and even gamers!) don’t have a PC anywhere close to
the rec. spec, and many people were confused enough to think the
Rift was a standalone device. For that vast majority of people,
$1500 is the all-in cost of owning Rift. The biggest portion of their
cost is the PC, not the Rift itself…. To be perfectly clear, we don’t
make money on the Rift.”
-Oculus founder Palmer Luckey in his Reddit AMA (Ask Me
Anything)
75. Low-end VR flourishes at CES as new Cardboard models debut for
durability and style, such as I Am Cardboard’s DSCVR
Source: I Am Cardboard / TechCrunch
76. A common CES sighting: rows of businessmen (yes, usually men)
strapping on their headsets to experience the latest VR
77. Want the real future of VR? “Murder She Wrote” already
aired it… in 1993
Source: CBS via Wired (h/t Joseph Sanchez)
78. Next up: blended reality?
“One area I'm really excited about is the collision between
the 2-D and 3-D worlds. This is our version of the big bang,
and we have created an entirely new category that we call
Blended Reality. We're leveraging both immersive
computing and 3D printing to take things from the physical
world into the digital world and back out to the physical.”
-Antonio Lucio, Chief Marketing and Communication
Officer, HP
Source: Advertising Age
80. Live Streaming a hot topic at CES; humor, news, music
are biggest opportunities
Source: Global Web Index
81. MeVee joins Twitter’s Persicope, Facebook Live in
attracting livestreamers and their fans
Throughout panels and events on Tuesday before the “official
opening of CES, much of the talk was about livestreaming,
noted Ron Pruett of Al Roker Entertainment. Twitter-
owned Periscope was almost always named… Now, there's
another name to note: MeVee. Following in the steps of
Meerkat, an app version of MeVee was released on Sunday
and the company has since worked to woo the techies at CES.”
-Kerry Flynn in International Business Times
82. Robert Scoble’s Facebook Live streams brought an
insider’s access to his followers
Source: Robert Scoble
83. Livestream’s Movi lets consumers track action from multiple
angles with a single $399 4K camera
Source: Getmovi
84. Big future ahead for live video streaming
“The challenge for brands is that people think that ‘live’ means creating a shows that
look like broadcast television, while millennials think ‘live’ when they watch something
on Twitch – raw, honest, first-person video. So two things are changing technology –
the audience and appetite for content. Technology is changing the way people engage
live community-based ‘happening’ content. While it’s easy to talk about Twitch TV
as gamers playing video games live, it’s way more than that.”
-Steve Rosenbaum in Forbes
85. 360-degree video (totally separate from VR) was another hot product category.
Sphericam won Techstars’ pitch competition for wearables/IoT
Source: Techstars / Sphericam
86. Nikon KeyMission 360 aims to beat others like GoPro as
360-degree video takes off
Source: Nikon / The Verge
87. A bonus mention: one app I learned about at CES (thanks Mark Silva!) that blew my mind
is Forevery. Try it (now just iOS) to see how it granularly and brilliantly automatically
categorizes photos
89. Endless Mini debuts $79 PC to bring ‘next 4 billion’ into digital age
– an even bigger ambition than One Laptop Per Child
Source: Endless / VentureBeat
91. Links and Resources
• CES 2016 Innovation Awards (CES)
• In Rewind: The Week That Was CES 2016 (Buzzradar)
• CES 2016 Social Data Report (Buzzradar)
• 6 Future-Focused Trends to Watch at CES 2016 (PSFK)
• As Tech Landscape Evolves, CES Holds Execs’ Interest (Ad Age)
• On Display at CES, Tech Ideas in Their Awkward Adolescence (NY Times)
• Dylan’s Desk: At CES, The Ridiculous Never Goes out of Style (VentureBeat)
• How CES Got Its Nerd Back: Drones, Virtual Reality and Tinkerers Putting Sensors in Everything
(International Business Times)
• Featured Exhibits (Shelly Palmer)
• 10 of the Coolest Gadgets We Saw at CES 2016 (TechCrunch)
• The DeanBeat: The 10 Best Technologies of the Consumer Electronics Show (VentureBeat)
• Dave’s Faves: The 5 Biggest Tech Trends at CES This Year (David Pogue in Yahoo)
• Best of CES 2016 (Engadget)
• Best of CES: Our Favorite Gadgets from This Year’s Show (Wired)
92. Select updates from MRY and friends
• Reality Check: 2016 Won’t Be the Year of VR (Ad Age column)
• CES 2007-2016: 10 Years in Review (my presentation)
• Talking Less, Smiling More at CES (Ad Age recap)
• CES 2016: Dare to Disrupt (Starcom Mediavest Group video)
• Marketers vs. Consumers: An Infographic on 2016 Tech Predictions (MRY blog)
• How Snapchat Bet on a CES 2016 Takeover from Silicon Alley Giants (MRY
quoted)
• Brands at CES Pinboard (my Pinterest board)
• MRY’s David Berkowitz Shares His Top Takeaways from CES 2016
(Equities.com)
93. Have your smartbelt call my smartbelt
David Berkowitz
CMO, MRY
@mry / @dberkowitz
www.mry.com
David.Berkowitz@mry.com
Editor's Notes
If you’re curious what the cover image is, it’s Parrot’s 50mph drone, Disco
CES 2016:
The IoT Self-Driving VR Drone Force Awakens
David BerkowitzCMO, MRY@mry / @dberkowitzDavid.Berkowitz@ mry.com
Microsoft - http://techcrunch.com/2016/01/07/samsung-partners-with-microsoft-for-windows-10-iot-effort/
New Balance - http://www.androidguys.com/2016/01/07/ces-2016-new-balance-announces-android-wear-device-designed-by-runners/
https://twitter.com/CES/status/684897314352173056
"Digital isn't a destination. It's a foundation. What will differentiate you is understanding the data." @GinniRometty #CES2016
https://twitter.com/GinniRometty
GM / Lyft http://blog.lyft.com/posts/lyft-1billion-gm
Volvo Ericsson - https://www.media.volvocars.com/global/en-gb/media/pressreleases/172080/volvo-cars-and-ericsson-developing-intelligent-media-streaming-for-self-driving-cars
Trade show environment not best way to experience self-driving cars, drones, even VR (long lines for short, limited demos); reinforcing CES as a teaser to whet appetites, not a way to experience what’s next
Here's one way to bring back the experiential magic of CES: Shift the show floor in coming years to Boulder City, Nevada, 30 miles outside of Vegas, where the world's first Droneport is under construction.
http://www.fastcompany.com/3054550/drone-vs/worlds-first-droneport-under-construction-near-las-vegas
WELT is a smart wearable healthcare belt that looks like a normal belt, thus offering consumers a more discreet way of using smart sensor technology to monitor their health. WELT is capable of recording the user’s waist size, eating habitsand the number of steps taken, as well as time spent sitting down. It then sends this data to a specially-designed app for analysis, and the production of a range of personalized healthcare and weight management plans.
http://news.samsung.com/global/samsung-to-showcase-three-creative-lab-projects-for-the-first-time-at-ces-2016
http://img.global.news.samsung.com/global/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/C-Lab_welt3_Main.jpg