CES 2018 MORE ABOUT TECHNOLOGY THAN PRODUCTS

CES 2018 was more about technology than products and what we saw is set to become a key part of product offerings later this year.

I have been attending CES for 22 years and what happens is that this shows goes in cycles, product Vs technology which in the past has become the fundamental platform for a lot of product innovation.

2018 was all about, voice, robotics and artificial intelligence technology that you might not see but it will be there in smartphones, TV, appliances and sound systems.

While we did see lots of drones, augmented reality goggles, virtual reality headsets, cars that can drive themselves and more it was the core basic products such as a TV that you can talk to eliminating the need of a remote or an appliance that is able to deliver management information to a screen or smartphone.

This year you could go nowhere in Vegas without being hit by Google marketing for their voice activation and consumers saw this marketing the trade attendees were being hit with Google demonstrations on every second stand.

Why because Google wants manufacturers to build their voice technology into a product over that on offer from Amazon, Microsoft with Cortana and Apple’s Siri.

These are manufacturers who Google want to create and sell us things that we “don’t yet know we need.”

This month LG will roll out TV’s and appliances with Google Voice. Samsung is also putting its Bixby voice assistant – already in its smartphones – into its appliances.

As for robotics I met the pole dancing robots and the robots that helped you play ping pong as well as the ones that clean up after you which is more to my liking.

One technology that did emerge was MicroLED which Samsung is set to pitch up against LG’s OLED technology.

It was impressive, but I want to see it in action in Australia alongside an OLED TV before I make a decision as to which is best.

One future product that impressed was the LG Display’s 65-inch rollable OLED TV that can be rolled up into a tube-like paper.

The one I saw was hidden in a long white box a bit bigger than a sound bar this allows for the screen to be tucked away especially as the box can be built into a cabinet.

The roll-up TV won’t be out this year, but I suspect it will be in retail stores by 2019 or 2020.