CES 2012 in Review - Consumer Electronics Show

CES 2012 in Review David Berkowitz VP Emerging Media 360i blog.360i.com / @ 360i MarketersStudio.com / @ dberkowitz about.me/dberkowitz

What you’ll find here Introduction (nice to meet you) Trend and buzz overview What doesn’t matter for marketers (today) What matters for marketers in 2012 Spotlight: Payment innovations Product potpourri (some fun ones to watch) Bonus: Dumbest product of CES 2012! Wrap-up: What else happened during CES?

Welcome to the rodeo! The Consumer Electronics Show is both a new frontier and a fantasy land Let’s stop the rodeo clowning and train our lassos on what really matters for marketers

Social media = people connecting with each other Social media = devices connecting with each other Comparing CES to SXSW (South by Southwest) See more: “ Presenting CES: Consumer Electronics Socialization ” SXSW CES

Microsoft and Samsung stole show with keynotes; AT&T popped with launch of Galaxy Note smartphone Source: Simply Measured Source: CEPulse.net

“ If you just peek into the huge International Consumer Electronics Show, you might think that it’s mostly a deafening showcase for tablets, thin TV screens, superthin laptops and Android phones. But if you… walk all 15 miles of exhibit halls — you’ll discover that, in fact, you were right. - Pogue on “ Sampling the Future of Gadgetry ” In his brief, spot-on video on “ The CES No-Shows ,” the Times’ Sam Grobart says a big reason why CES matters less today is that consumer technology’s focus has shifted from hardware to software The New York Times captures the heart of CES DAVID POGUE SAM GROBART

Klout’s top CES brands Klout tracked the social activity of a number of the top CES brands While Microsoft and Samsung attracted much of the buzz, Google and Lenovo are even more proficient at sharing, by Klout’s measures It’s also interesting to see the topics they focus on digitally Ford and Google both stand out for Social Media HTC is the only one of the 5 mobile companies to pop as an influencer for its own brand

What doesn’t matter for marketers (today) (or anytime soon)

Did any of the key trends matter? The top 3 trends getting CES buzz were OLED, ultrabooks, and tablets (via Simply Measured ) None of those will matter to brands anytime soon in ways that will change their marketing plans if they’ve been staying current with consumer behavior The big news is that these devices will facilitate more media consumption across a range of digital devices

Ultrabooks: back to the future “ Ultrabook” was one of the big buzzwords at CES That’s all it is – a buzzword for a thin laptop the likes of which has been on the market for years “ If you want to be the first to own a new ultrabook, travel back to 2008 and buy the first MacBook Air.” – Ad Age Digital Next (my post)

Don’t hold your breath for the OLED revolution “ LG and Samsung displayed prototype 55-inch OLED screens that were so thin, you could shave with them. (OLED is a breathtakingly clear, crisp, colorful, expensive kind of screen...) “… What could be sharper than 1080p hi-def? Why, four times as many pixels, of course. That’s the idea behind the so-called 4K television, like the prototype from LG. “ And if you understand that much, you’ll enjoy the even greater silliness of Sharp’s 8K prototype. (What’s so silly? Even if you bought one of these screens, you’d have nothing to watch. Nobody broadcasts or sells movies in 4K or 8K resolution.)” - David Pogue Image: ZDnet

3D TV They’re gorgeous Everyone visits the exhibits and oohs and ahhs And then no one actually buys them Biggest drawback today: with the glasses on, one can’t interact with their digital devices… or other people in the room

Nokia’s Lumia 710 is the first Windows Phone to launch in the US, getting great reviews None of that matters for marketers – it’s all SMTMS: Show Me The Market Share! 4G is evolutionary. Mobile broadband keeps getting faster, enabling more mobile media consumption. This is a trend in progress, but there’s little that’s new. Nokia’s Windows Phone & 4G Image source: LA Times Windows Phone 4G

Cars become more social Ford’s interactive SYNC platform is now in 4MM cars Mercedes announced cars will connect to Facebook, Yelp and other digital services This continues the trend of more access to digital & social media literally anywhere, with automakers creating products that are social by design That makes their products more relevant, keeping up with rather than changing consumer behavior

Virtual reality headgear by Sensics (proof that the movie “Disclosure” was infinitely ahead of its time) Image: via Lonelysandwich

This phonograph – yes, from CES 2012 (but it does have an AM and FM radio built in!)

What matters for marketers in 2012

TVs watch you, and gain a voice TVs are taking on a life of their own “ Sony CEO Sir Howard Stringer… said that Sony will deliver more than 300 connected devices to consumers in the next 3 years, which includes everything from smart TVs to the upcoming PlayStation Vita handheld.” - VentureBeat For Samsung's 7500 and 8000 series TVs, all you have to do is say ‘Hi, TV’… for the TV to turn on and know who's there.” – Ad Age Nuance (powering Dragon, Siri) and others also announced voice controls; MSFT is also promoting this heavily for Xbox, ahead of an anticipated Siri TV from Apple

Kinect coming to Windows Feb 1 Kinect is expanding beyond the Xbox to Windows 7 / 8 The Kinect for PCs will be available for $249 ($149 for academia) Many of the projected uses will be B2B – training, R&D, healthcare, etc As an open platform, what developers do with it will drive a lot of the demand

Who will make it possible to virtually try on clothes? The dressing room of the future was on display by Microsoft (above) and Bodymetrics (below), both using the Kinect to map the perfect fit Someone will crack body mapping to make online shopping reliable Whoever wins this will need to have massive adoption by retailers & apparel makers so it works universally, or close to it People won’t go through all the effort just for a single retailer / designer More: PSFK , VentureBeat Also, startup to watch: UPcload

Samsung AdHub – can an OEM take on Google? Samsung promoted its AdHub , an ad network to run on Android and its own Bada operating system This puts Samsung in direct competition with Google, especially with Google owning Motorola Developers should appreciate more options to see who can best monetize their apps Apple is also a competitor and pioneer for Samsung to learn from, given Apple’s own iAd offering

Google Indoor Maps launched almost in time to use them Google is rolling out Indoor Maps, first for Android During CES, it launched in Vegas , a perfect city for them given the vast and confusing indoor venues It’s rolling out steadily across various cities. Expect it to come to malls, large retailers, and other locations soon

Gaming devices get even more interactive The biggest gaming news was from Microsoft – 66MM Xbox consoles in use, 18MM Kinects Innovation is happening everywhere in the gaming field WowWee showed off new toys that interact with tablets Discovery Bay Games turns the iPad into an old-fashioned Atari arcade game, among other interactive games and hardware it produces Parrot’s AR.Drone 2.0 is the latest version of hovercraft that flies with the aid of augmented reality, beaming back what it ‘sees’ to the controls on a mobile phone

Curation & simplification With SO much content and so many devices, it’s hardly surprising that digital services are launching to help consumers get what they want and need quickly 2 of note: For entertainment, there’s Fanhattan , which shows how to access any TV show or movie, such as through Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, On-Demand, etc For shopping, there’s Decide.com , focused on electronics with tips on when’s the best time to buy a product These are just tastes of the activity happening in this field

Spotlight: Payment innovations

Dynamics Inc, Nagra ID make credit cards interactive Dynamics Inc (above) and Nagra ID (below) both offer credit cards that can be more versatile and/or secure Entering a security code on the card or pressing a button to select the account rewrites the magnetic strip, creating added functionality While mobile payments are rising dramatically, innovation here will keep credit cards even more relevant in the years ahead More (on Dynamics): New York Times

Intuit, PaySaber take on Square Intuit demoed GoPayment , allowing any mobile user to accept credit card payments PaySaber offers card readers that also include printable receipts, with hardware customized for iPhones and iPads Both tout security as a competitive differentiator over the hot payment startup Square

Visa’s V.me speeds up online payments Visa showed various payment solutions for both merchants and consumers V.me is its new online service to compete with PayPal; merchants can offer it to speed up the payment process on their sites For consumers, along with faster payments, they can link other credit cards This can be an advantage for consumers who like PayPal but miss earning points from their cards

Product potpourri (some fun ones to watch)

Lytro: Last Gadget Standing Lytro won the Last Gadget Standing award for its cameras The cameras capture all the light coming in so it doesn’t need to focus Focusing happens after the fact; click the image anywhere to refocus it Try it at https://www.lytro.com/living-pictures Cameras cost $399 for 8GB, $499 for 16GB

Water powered fuel cell from Powertrekk This fuel cell from Powertrekk is powered by water Designed for outdoors enthusiasts who need access to portable power for days or weeks at a time, it’s the kind of innovation that may well spread into portable power chargers of all kinds It would make traveling around CES far easier when you can ‘plug in’ at a water fountain

This printer will actually print cupcakes, or plastic parts Essential Dynamics showcased a printer that “prints with a whole host of materials, including food, chocolates, silicone, cheese, epoxy, organics, etc.” I’m not sure how much you’d want cheese to come out of your printer, but 3D printing is becoming more accessible This one is $3,000, and once it gets under $1,000 it will migrate from professional hobbyists to early adopters

QOOQ: the French cooks’ tablet The QOOQ tablet didn’t launch at CES, but was referenced there in a panel It’s a tablet designed for the kitchen, with a subscription model for content Currently available in France, the English model will debut later in 2012 While chefs may love it, it’s hard to see this competing with the iPad

Bonus feature: The dumbest product of CES 2012!!!

Quiz time: What the heck is FeedAir ? A) The best way ever to read snippets of your email and friends’ Facebook updates four characters at a time B) The perfect gift for those who thought of buying a Chumby but feared it would be way too useful for them C) An even worse use of $50 than investing in Europe’s bailout fund D) All of the above Don’t worry. We grade on a curve. This award is on FeedAir’s site. I’d hate to see what didn’t make the cut.

Stuff that happened during CES As CES tried to dominate tech & media news, several notable stories broke outside of Vegas : Google issued a polarizing update by infusing Google+ social results into search listings Facebook made its commenting plug-in work for mobile Social entertainment service GetGlue raised $12MM Chat app Voxer reported 200,000 downloads daily Foursquare expanded its Explore recommendations to the web, competing with Yelp, Google, & others CES is an important event, but the world doesn’t stand still just because 140,000 geeks invade Vegas. Danny Sullivan interviewed Google Chairman Eric Schmidt about its social search update, which overshadowed any other Google CES news

Thanks for reading this far. Keep in touch. David Berkowitz VP Emerging Media, 360i blog.360i.com / @ 360i MarketersStudio.com / @ dberkowitz about.me/dberkowitz

CES 2012 in Review - Consumer Electronics Show

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