My Thoughts from CES 2018

(this post also appears on HuffPost - click here to read it there)

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas finished up on Friday and although I didn’t attend this year (I’ve been many years prior), I did follow it on my social feeds and the news. It’s always super exciting to see what’s developing in tech that we know will have profound impact on our lives.

Of course “Home” was the battle ground between Amazon and Google, each fighting for attention with their voice-activated systems. Not sure who won, except for all of us who benefit from the innovations.

Cars were also another battle ground, but what I found even more interesting was the non-auto applications of driver-less operations. Like retail. We saw what is likely the first driver-less mobile store. Brilliant. And driver-less scooters, bikes, and other types of non-auto transport.

Of course wearables have been the talk of CES for a few years now, I even introduced one a couple of years ago at CES for one of our clients. But this year we saw a turn of the tides IMO. Wearables are becoming less “all in one” and more compartmentalized for specific issues. The Apple Watch isn’t necessarily going to do it all. But specific wearables for specific issues, particularly in health seem to be a trend. And it seems like the cure to the opioid crisis might come in the form of Augmented Reality rather than in another pill.

While it might seem small, the biggest innovation I read about involves getting rid of all our wires. Sure we’ve all got wireless ear buds now, but we’re still contending with charging wires and cords. If you travel like I do, then you know that cord and charger management is a big time suck. And they’re a pain in the neck to pack. And carry. Now while we’re not there yet, this year’s CES gave us hope that being totally wireless is in our very near future. Soon we’ll be able to pack up our cords and toss them. How on earth will Apple replace that revenue stream?

What’s my overall impression of CES this year? Beside seer excitement for the technology that’s continually improving our lives, I think I realized (once again) that every company and every brand is really a tech brand even if it doesn’t appear to be that way on the surface. Technology has invaded every aspect of our lives and any brand who’s looking to connect with consumers need to use technology to do so, and needs to use technology to continually improve its offering. Every brand is a tech brand!

What did you see or read about from CES? What’s your experience? JIM