Las Vegas: As it has for the past 50 years, the Consumer Electronics Show — better known as CES — will kick off the new year with its annual mega-event.
The four-day CES 2017 starts on January 4, but for the press and industry watchers the event begins on January 3 when most of the major companies will announced their latest technology for the coming year.
Among the keynote speakers expected this year are Richard Yu, CEO, Huawei Consumer Business Group, Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf, and Nissan Chairman and CEO Carlos Ghosn
Art Stavenka, founder and director, Kino-mo, based in London, UK, said: “We’ve been looking for the best way to launch our new technology that allows images to appear floating in the air — the new holograms for the mass market — and expose it to the media. CES provides us a perfect platform for the launch of such a product to the many industry stakeholders we meet there every year.”
In addition, Eureka Park, the flagship destination for start-ups at CES 2017, will return for its sixth year. Featuring more than 600 start-ups from 33 countries, it will bring groups of start-ups from four new countries — the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Ukraine — to exhibit.
“We launched Hease Robotics because we believe that robotics will change our lives,” said Jade Le Maître, CTO and CO-founder of Lyon, France-based Hease Robotics.
“We built a robot that is fun, simple, and interactive by design. We are looking forward to meeting potential customers and gathering feedback at CES. It’s incredible how start-ups gain visibility when exhibiting at Eureka Park,” she said.
Owned and produced by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), the trade association representing the $287 billion (Dh1.054 billion) US consumer technology industry. CES 2017 is expected to bring together exhibiting companies from 57 countries.
It is expected to attract 50,000 industry professionals from about 150 countries. The show will have more than 3,800 exhibitors covering 2.4 million square feet of space and more than 165,000 attendees. This year marks the 39th CES held in Las Vegas.
First CES
The first CES was held in June 1967 in New York City attracted roughly 17,500 attendees and featured 117 exhibitors. Since its debut in 1967, CES has showcased an estimated 700,000 products.
Ten of those who were at the first CES in 1967 and still there at CES 2017 are — 3M, Lenovo, Memorex (now MEM-CE), Philips, Sharp, Sony, Toshiba, Voxx International and Westinghouse. Panasonic is the sole exhibitor to have exhibited in all 50 consecutive CES shows, and will receive special recognition on-site.
Today, CES continues to be the proving ground for innovators and has expanded to feature industries not traditionally connected to consumer tech. The show now touches every major industry as leaders from the entire innovation ecosystem come together to discover and experience the latest trends and network with peers.
“CES is where titans of tech mix with next generation disrupters and where esteemed and highly sought after global leaders take the keynote stage to tout disruptive technology and envision new trends and markets,” said Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of the Consumer Technology Association.
“This year, we have an outstanding line-up of industry visionaries who will lead our SuperSessions presenting predictions and insights for the future of 5G, the Internet of Things (IoT), the sharing economy, the power of diversity in STEM and more.”
What to expect at the show:
1. LG to showcase three advanced robot technologies to showcase its innovations in artificial intelligence. It will also unveil three new mid-range K Series smartphones — K10, K8 and K4 — and Tone Studio wearable speakers capable of delivering 3D surround sound and Tone Free earphones with wireless earbuds that charge when docked in the companion neckband.
2. Samsung Electronics to unveil its new CH711, CFG70 and CF791 Quantum Dot Curved monitors, A series smartphone, TVs, artificial intelligence home appliances, Windows 10-based tablets, soundbar, a wireless audio player and an ultra-high-definition (UHD) Blu-ray player.
3. Huawei’s Honor brand to unveil its Honor Epic smartphone with dual camera lens.
4. Zotac to unveil its high-end ZBOX mini PC powered by Intel’s newest seventh generation processors.
5. Asus to unveil ZenFone X00GD with a 5.2-inch panel sporting a resolution of 1,280 x 720p resolution and 4,850mAh battery and new Chromebook Flip 2 laptop.
6. Qualcomm to unveil its Snapdragon 835 with the all new Adreno 540 graphics release date and specs.
7. Electric cars will be in the spotlight. Mercedes-Benz will showcase its new corporate strategy called Case. Hyundai will showcase its autonomous cars. Ford will reveal its next generation Fusion Hybrid autonomous development car. Honda will unveil concepts on urban mobility, artificial intelligence and robotics. Fiat Chrysler will unveil a fully electric car based on the Chrysler Pacifica minivan. BMW will debut its HoloActive Touch system.
8. BlackBerry will announce its plan to open a centre dedicated to autonomous technology and is expected to showcase its 4.5-inch Mercury or DTEK 70 smartphone with QWERTY keyboard.
9. 4K TVs from many of the big consumer electronics companies as well as 8K TVs and monitors from tech giants to be showcased.
10. There will be lot of drones, wearables, augmented reality, virtual reality, robots, smart cars, health gadgets, 3D printers, and Internet of Things objects.
11. EA Games has announced that it will be showing off the PC version of Mass Effect: Andromeda.
12. Lenovo to unveil its upgraded business line of laptops and Moto smartphone.
13. Xiaomi will be showcasing its YI 4k+ action camera and the YI Erida drone.
14. Intel to unveil a new desktop CPU family and will also showcase a new series of NUC platforms.
15. Sony is likely to unveil its new Xperia smartphone and Hi-Fi headsets.
