Las Vegas: The world’s biggest electronics trade show, Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2016, will be a hotspot for breakthrough tech innovations coming next to the world this year.
The event, which takes place in Las Vegas Convention Centre, will open doors from January 6-9 and will showcase new technologies in robotics, 3D printing, wearables, smart homes, health, connected cars and the Internet of Things.
More than 3,600 exhibitors will showcase about 20,000 new products in the 2.4 million square feet exhibition space, apart from the more than 150,000 attendees expected to take part.
Among the keynote speakers include Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, Robert Kyncl, chief business officer of YouTube and Brian Krzanich, CEO of Intel Corp, General Motors CEO Mary Barra, Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, IBM CEO Ginni Rometty, Johnson & Johnson Global CMO Alison Lewis, and BlackBerry CEO John Chen.
Traditionally, companies like Samsung, Sony, LG, Huawei and Panasonic announce next generations of TVs, home appliances and smartphones but this year, the focus will on smaller startups demonstrating their smart home security systems, virtual reality headsets, drones and other IoT-related devices.
About 500 startups will be at the show compared to 375 last year.
This year, emerging trends have taken a larger presence such as robotics exhibit space increased by 71 per cent compared to last year with 22 exhibitors while automotive exhibits increased by 25 per cent with nine automakers and 100 automotive technology companies, virtual reality space 80 per cent larger and virtual reality space larger by 80 per cent compared to last year.
Gary Shapiro, CEO of the Consumer Technology Association, which hosts CES, said that automotive companies will showcase their latest innovations in a bid to compete with the technology giants with advances in active window displays, accident notifications and navigation systems.
Ford and Google are expected to announce a partnership for its autonomous car and Audi is expected to launch its Audi A8 sedan with self-driving capabilities. There will also be a number of electric cars on display.
Toyota is expected to announce a new map-generating technology, which will be utilising map generators on the road to crowdsource data. This means that data will always be up-to-date and the Japanese maker is also looking into adding this technology into its driverless vehicles.
Coming to gadgets, consumers can expect slimmer, smaller and powerful desktops, laptops, TVs and operating systems.
Big-name drone manufacturers like Chinese firm DJI will be showcasing their latest products and there are conference sessions focusing on drones, their development, benefits and how to regulate their use.
Chinese firms are all out in force this year in a bid to enter the US market.
While it is unlikely to see smartphones from Samsung or LG, we will see a significant move by ZTE and Huawei.
Huawei will announce it plans to bring its online Honor sub-brand to the US market in 2016 while ZTE will focus on alliances.
Wearables have been around for a while but none of the companies are really sure where the future lies.
Fitbit, world’s leading wearables company, kicks off the inaugural press conference at the event and its CEO James Park is sure to ignite the world of health and fitness in 2016 and the trends in the industry.
Companies like Withings and Pebble are set to unveil a number of products that will fit into its ecosystem of connected health products, which includes a smart blood-pressure monitor.
While 4K, OLED or Ultra High-Definition has the buzzword for 2015, this year it will be HDR, or high dynamic range, for TVs.
LG is launching its webOS 3.0 user interface for its TV as well as flexible OLED TV and home entertainment and appliance market with the launch of its new, premium LG Signature lineup.
“Drawing on LG’s best-in-class technologies and designs, the LG Signature brand will carve out new territory for high-end appliances and consumer electronics,” said Brian Na, executive vice-president and LG’s global marketing officer.
Brian Kwon, President and CEO at LG’s Home Entertainment Company, said that the new webOS 3.0 is a major update since this advanced TV platform technology was first introduced in 2014.
