CES in Las Vegas remains one of the biggest tech events. Every year in January, the show connects the biggest technology companies in the world, the new generation of startups looking for innovative ideas, journalists and influencers from the world of technology, supermarkets looking for products to fill their shelves, and tens of thousands of tech enthusiasts trying to catch a glimpse of what’s to come.
While it won’t reach the height of a decade ago, this year’s show will have exhibitors, international press and attendees that will look much more like the pre-pandemic tech industry. Many aspects of the show will also be live-streamed to a global audience, which is a welcome holdover from the pandemic-dominated shows of the past two years.
This year’s 2023 release will look much more like the CES you’ve seen in countless internet news stories and videos over the past two decades.
Nevertheless, four main questions will arise. We invite you to keep an eye on these issues:
1. Will big tech companies give us more than gimmicks?
At CES, big tech companies are known for showing off concepts no one will ever buy, like 100-inch TVs, rollable screens, robots and single-pilot helicopters parading around like flying cars. While inflation-hit consumers certainly need a little entertainment, this year’s CES would be welcome if big tech companies didn’t fall back on their old tricks and put emphasis on useful and more substantial innovations.
2. Can we be convinced to take an interest in the metaverse?
For now, the Metaverse looks a lot like a lost pup walking around and smelling everything around it. There are bound to be plenty of companies – from hardware manufacturers to NFT vendors – trying to carve out a place for themselves in the metaverse ecosystem, just in case it works out.
We’ve got our eyes set on Thursday, January 5 for the next HTC Vive reveal. Will HTC’s new headset make the metaverse more appealing? We will see. Sure, Apple’s long-awaited headphones are on the way for 2023, but Apple won’t be at the show and no one knows how long we’ll have to wait to see what they’ve come up with.
3. Will AI start automating useful things?
AI burst into consumer consciousness in 2022 with Lensa, Dall-E, ChatGPT and other tools. She impressed us with her ability to produce human-like work and raised troubling ethical questions about intellectual property and fair attribution.
These ethical questions are only going to get worse in 2023. But AI’s biggest wins are likely to come from how smarter AI and machine learning will work behind the scenes to automate work and make life smarter. simple. This is where the biggest opportunities lie and we have to hope that this year’s CES will showcase exciting projects and start-ups that will make humans smarter and more efficient.
4. Will the best ideas be where you least expect them?
More than 3,000 companies will be exhibiting at CES 2023 and a third of them will be attending the show for the first time. While big TV sellers, PC makers, and automakers will grab a lot of the spotlight, it’s smaller businesses and entrepreneurs who will showcase the most innovative technologies. In the past, I’ve seen small startups come up with technologies years ahead of big companies, including things that were later integrated into mainstream products.
So expect that the most innovative products at CES 2023 are likely to come from companies you’ve never heard of.
Source: ZDNet.com