What is CES? The Consumer Electronics Show is an annual trade show featuring products and technologies. Organized by the Consumer Technology Association, the Consumer Electronics Show is normally held every year in January. It is held at the Las Vegas Convention, Las Vegas, Nevada.
However, the first CES was held in New York in the month of June back in 1967. The CES event has evolved over the decades. 2013 saw over 3,000 exhibitors who showcase a wide variety of innovative products. Major spear headers of the electronics bring their latest products to the show to gain immediate marketing.
Future dates for CES
Over the years, it has come to be noted that most people prefer the CES to be placed on weekends. The Consumer Electronics Association, however, tries to factor in all the variables and come up with the best future dates for everyone. Here are some of the dates in the near foreseeable future.
- January 06/09/2021 from Wednesday to Saturday
- January 05/08/2022 from Wednesday to Saturday
- January 05/08/2023 from Thursday to Sunday
- January 09/12/2024 from Tuesday to Friday
CES official show locations
CES has an official 11 venues which are used to exhibit featured product categories. For ease of navigation, the venues are grouped into easily understandable geographical areas. The locations are Tech East, Tech West, and Tech South.
Product categories offered in CES
CES features 22 marketplaces and 36 product categories. Some of these include 3D printing, artificial intelligence, digital health, education, smart home, sustainability, sports technology, and Esports, and other consumer technology. These include all other companies and organizations that are thriving in the business of consumer technologies.
Innovators have been bringing breakthrough technologies for over 50 years. CES offers the global stage for the convergence of all these innovators. It will also be the global stage where next-generation innovations will be introduced into the market place.
Breakthrough innovations announced at CES
Thousands of products have been crowned to be world-changing innovations of their time. Most of these have changed the course of our lives as we know it. Some of these products include. The videocassette recorder from 1970, the home media server 2002, 3D HDTV 2009, 3D printers, sensor technology, wearable technologies 2014, and finally but not least 4K UHD, Virtual Reality, unmanned systems 2015.
CES in Asia
Motivated by the original CES hosted in Las Vegas, the Consumer Electronics Show was incorporated in Asia. It is normally held in the month of June in Shanghai, China. The exhibitions include groundbreaking technologies that are part of the technology revolution. The brightest minds at Asia’s leading technology event showcase their innovations here. Entrepreneurs, global brands and startups all converge at Shanghai whereby the forge game-changing partnerships.
The Consumer Electronics Show for 2020 in Asia will be held in the month of June. This year, it is slated to be held at the New International Expo Centre (SNIEC) in Shanghai. Some of the categories that you can see products from include artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and robotics.
There are apprehensions about the scheduling given the coronavirus threat. However, the event is going ahead as planned as of now. These categories have been in use in entertainment, simple house chores, health care, farming, job training, shopping, retail, beauty, sports, education, tourism and much more.
The Consumer Electronics Show 2020
This is the 53rd CES show since it began. It was from January 7 to January 10 in the great city of Las Vegas. A major focus for the electronics industry has been on automotive. Billions of dollars have been pushed into the innovation of electric cars, infotainment, telematics, autonomous capabilities, and ride-sharing.
In the 2020 CES show, a large number of autonomous (self-driving) vendors were present. Even Sony came up with their own electric car concept where they incorporate Sony technologies for sensors and other kinds of infotainment.
Back in 2019, CES attracted some 300 of the 2018 Fortune Global 500 companies. And more than 175, 000 industry professionals with over 60,000 from outside the USA. The global media coverage of CES 2019 showcased 6300 members of the media from over 79 countries worldwide.
The USA consumer technology boasts a $401 billion industry. Attracting a majority of the world’s business leaders and pioneers to the one place in the world where the most relevant issues regarding the consumer technology industry are discussed.
Exhibitors are constantly challenged each year to come up with newer and better innovations than they came up within the previous year. New competitors are emerging into the market daily with younger innovators and smarter minds thinking of better ways to satisfy the consumer technology industry.
Where do the CES products go?
Interestingly, it often goes unnoticed what happens to products that are announced in the Consumer Electronics Show, but they never get to reach the consumers. Some of these revolutionary products end up becoming vaporware in the future. Normally, they are not held accountable for failing to ship the product to consumers.
There is the tale of Genus the Robot, the housekeeping help that could help you with all your cleaning needs, including knowing your floor plans. It was introduced in 1983, and created quite the buzz. Unfortunately, the robot never saw the light of the day, simply because the technology just wasn’t up for it. And then there are instances when the technology just wasn’t introduced, like with the Skiff Reader. It offered a flexible touchscreen that we haven’t seen even now, but then the company got sold – and the software just is out there somewhere, unused.
Companies try to showcase new things since it’s under the banner of the CES – but it isn’t always a success. Do you know of any CES product that didn’t see the light of the day – and you wanted to see it? Let us know below.
