The Net Net
The times and places that content is being digested has changed. Not will, HAS. People have learned to search, filter and organize the content they take in, all enabled by new ways to INTERACT with content. They are now HUNGRY for any technology that helps them do this more efficiently and embrace any brand that adds something to that equation. CES demonstrated that the technology exists (the most glaring example of this being traditional web content “finally available” through traditional television interfaces), now it is our turn. It is time to embrace and leverage consumer control. Not to be too cheesy about it, but, the future is now.
For those for whom a top-line view of the event is not enough, I have also included some links to the blogs and trend-watcher’s sites that offer the best detailed recaps of the top gadgets shown, etc
1) Size Matters (oh, and so does quality and sex-appeal)
That’s right we are talking TV’s! No joke, there was not one square foot of the show floor that did have at least 20 LCD or Plasma screens blaring right back you. The big announcements in this areas were as follows: Panasonic unveiled the biggest plasma screen in the world: 150″…the sales pitch here was mostly in response to the number one question on everyone’s mind…do you really need a TV this big? The answer? Do you really like painting walls?
Thin is still in…LG, Panasonic, Hitachi and Sharp all unveiled impossibly thin LCDs, ranging from 1″ to 1.7″…ummmm “thick”. Overall, manufacturers are focusing on making their products look better as they are less able to differentiate on the product technology itself (parity).
SONY/ MOTO/ PHILIPS, even Microsoft’s ZUNE are trying to slick up and connect with consumers on an aesthetic (and sensorial) level versus a purely functional/ technological level.
2) Connectivity/Convergence
Aside from everything getting smaller, thinner, bigger etc., there wasn’t a huge amount of ground breaking tech being introduced.
Rather, it was about connecting the technologies of today…creating cleaner and especially more seamless user experiences via new media centers, internet TV, wireless content, etc. For example, Sharp’s Aquos Net mixes Internet and television by displaying widgets featuring news, weather, and traffic data on the screen…similar in experience to PIP (picture in picture) but a helluva lot cooler. See more on that here: http://gizmodo.com/341272/sharp-aquos-net-widget-tv
But a number of vendors displayed TVs with Internet features, such as RSS reading, as well as built-in media readers and USB ports for viewing your photos and movies without needing a separate component for playback. And let’s not forget the refrigerators with built-in digitalphoto frames and RSS readers.
We were particularly impressed by Belkin’s FlyWire device that sends HDMI signals (high definition audio and video) up to 100 feet through walls. The unit they were showing can be used to connect one source device with one TV, but a spokesperson said they were working on ways to support multiple TVs around the house.
The channel of consumption is becoming invisible as the content is being pushed and is flowing between devices with less and less effort.
All this is a direct response to consumer demand to be able to use fewer devices to do more.
3) Sensory
In keeping with the above desire to aid and dimensionalize consumption of content, we saw various advancements in the ability to TOUCH content. Again, a lot of this is technically not new, but manufacturers are improving the technologies, making them more user friendly and thus more useful. It is working towards making data less virtual, and more real.
After all, if you can touch it… it really exists, right?
Examples:
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Microsoft Surface
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Sony Rolly (It’s an egg-shaped MP3 player that dances to its own music and is controlled by rolling and spinning the device it self)
Check out the Rolly here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDajrP-rXaE
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Toshiba’s Hand Gesture Control remote control
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Forget the Clapper: Sony Ericsson’s Z555 cell phone not only looks sharp, but it also has a motion sensor that will mute the handset when you make a gesture.
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The E8 from Motorola has a high-gloss touch screen that switches from phone to camera to music just by gliding your finger across its sleek face.
4) Efficiency
It seems like every booth had something to say about energy consumption and thus were trying to make some sort of statement regarding their own social and corporate responsibility.
Panasonic for example has finally figured out how to reduce the energy consumption of their TV’s by up to 50% while actually improving the quality of the picture.Exactly how they have done so had something to do with reducing the amount of energy needed to maintain deep black…
The guy who was explaining it to me didn’t really seem to understand himself (or maybe he thought I was a spy from LG)
5) The War of the Brands
It seemed us that while branding was everywhere and theatrics were most definitely employed to the fullest, there was a surprising lack of use of the MILLIONS of screens through out the show floor.
It seems to us a bit of a missed opportunity to tell deeper brand messages, rather than showing HD nature / space journeys or Transformers clips on every single device. We understand that you need to show the fullest capabilities and strengths of the screens, but it seemed like doing so on every screen was monotonous and unimaginative.
We would suggest that the role of BRAND is going to become ever more important as functional differentiators and boundaries get blitzed.
LINKS
http://www.engadget.com/category/ces/
http://gizmodo.com/344251/the-best-of-ces-2008
http://www.trendcentral.com/trends/trendarticle.asp?tcArticleId=1986
http://community.zdnet.co.uk/blog/0,1000000567,10006987o-2000458459b,00.htm
http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91221-1300438,00.html
Apologies for the lateness on this one… I would love the time to wax poetic on topics of interest such as the ongoings at CES but creative briefs and reviews sometime keep us grounded. Big thanks to Jerome Courtial (EP) and Nicky Vita (AP) from the London office for their photo goodness and invaluable help in putting this together.
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