Sunday, 04 January 2015 08:57

Pre – CES 2015 the build up to the hype: will there be a focus this year?

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So CES 2015 is going to kick off in about two days and so far I can tell you that there is a lot of extra hype for what might end up being a rather dull show. Unlike previous years many companies have waited until the last minute to book time with the press (some are still sending out invites) while others that are normally very vocal are nowhere to be seen. CES 2015 also does not seem to have a focus unlike years past. Normally by mid-December you know what the big tech of the show is going to be, but not this year.

For 2015 there are three main competing technologies that we are being told are the big tech of 2015. The first is 8k. Now why anyone would think 8k is a big tech when there is barely enough content to make 4k interesting is beyond me. Still there are three companies that will be show casing this new technology with product that are out of the price range for the vast majority of consumers. It makes this a neat idea, but not much to really get excited about.

Second on the list is a very large group, wearable computing. Now this category is very broad and really covers everything from the most advanced smart watches to simple GPS enabled clothing. This makes it very hard to tell just what section of Wearable Computing is expected to be the hot item. We do have a feeling that it will be in the area of smart watches, but so far none of the big companies are set to unveil new products this year. This means that we are really just going to see rehashes of existing tech or mock-ups and renders of items that are in early in the life cycle. Not really much to see here either.

The Third tech that we are hearing should be the show darling is another large group of products, connected devices. These are the little items that are connected to the internet or to a home network and somehow are designed to make your life “better”. Now this type of tech is sort of a cool idea, but as we pointed out during DEF CON, there is a huge down side to this market. Having a refrigerator that can send mail can be a problem if there is nothing to secure it…

I guess you could say that 2015 is going to be about the Internet of Things and we have even heard that Intel is shifting their CES focus from the PC to mobile and IoT (which is odd). The amount of real PC news that is coming out about CES New 2015 is sort of sad and make many of us in the Tech Press long for the days of COMDEX when the focus seemed to be all about the PC. Right now the biggest day of CES for PC news is actually the day before the show starts (the 5th) with some sites leaving the next day which is sort of sad.

We hope that there is more to CES 2015 than what we are hearing and we will be asking the vendors we talk to about the changes in the show and what it means to the market. We may also see if there is a chance to bring back something like COMDEX to revive the PC centric events and give you, the consumer, the information you want about new PC tech without the background noise of CES… It should be interesting to see what we are told.

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Read 4795 times Last modified on Sunday, 04 January 2015 09:00

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