The Consumer Electronics Show, or CES2017, is coming up in January in Las Vegas. This show has grown larger year after year. I have attended this show off and on for roughly 15 years. Companies contact me for initial briefings to get on my radar so I can learn about them and talk about them. Based on my email inbox from companies wanting to brief me and get on my radar, it sounds like this show will be bigger than ever.
Thinking about CES, the experience has changed so much over the years. And it keeps changing and keeps growing. I like to look back at where we came from, where we are today and at where we are heading tomorrow. I remember 10 or 15 years ago when wireless and telecom companies were nowhere to be found at the show.
AT&T and Verizon at CES
AT&T entered the CES world with their smart home display a decade ago, long before we ever started talking about or even thinking about the smart home. Yes, they had an entire house to walk through and see how tomorrow was all about connectivity. That was back in the day before big screen TV’s were everywhere.
Verizon had an annual get together at a Las Vegas club and AT&T had their analyst luncheon and often more.
Comcast Xfinity and Charter Spectrum
Companies like Comcast Xfinity and Charter Spectrum should be at CES as well. To be a player tomorrow, you have to see the changes that are transforming each industry.
Today smart home technology is growing so rapidly it has its own trade shows. In fact, the smart home concept is spreading to the connected home, smart car and even smart city which is even a larger canvas to create the future on.
Wireless analyst briefing requests at CES at all time high
Year after year, I get more requests from companies for briefings than I could ever have time for. That is why several years ago I started charging a briefing fee to separate the companies who really want to meet with me from those who simply want to meet with as many influencers as they can at the show. There are plenty of both types of companies.
Some of these companies are in the wireless and telecom space, and others are not, but use wireless and telecom to make their product or service work. Either way, since I have been a wireless analyst for more than 30 years, I have a pretty strong brand name and reputation that has only grown over time.
IBM Watson
One example is IBM Watson. Ten years ago IBM would not have qualified as a company I would have followed. Now, 10Â years later with Watson and AI, IoT, VR and more, they have moved into my world of wireless and telecom. After all, as brilliant as Watson is, it still needs to communicate with the world and it uses wireless and wire line networks to do just that.
Because wireless and wire line networks are my world, that’s why IBM finds it important to reach out to me. This is the same thinking that has many new companies from many new sectors doing the same thing.
As CES grows, wireless and wire line networks, smartphones, apps and more become more important to different industry sectors. Like with IBM Watson, that’s how they will interact and grow. And that’s one reason why as a wireless analyst and telecom analyst my calendar fills up so quickly. Another is because I write columns and can spread the word of interesting companies and ideas that are transforming different industry segments.
Exciting time of growth and transformation at CES 2017
This is a very exciting time in the consumer electronics space and CES 2017 is the place to be. It is the annual gathering helping us all reset our chronometers. It helps us understand where we came from, where we are today and what’s coming tomorrow. And based on what I hear from companies in their briefings, tomorrow is coming at us like a freight train on steroids.
Who will tomorrows leaders be? There are so many exciting areas like AI, connected home, IoT, the Cloud, drones, robotics, Smart Cities, FinTech, Mobile Pay, wearable technology, apps and so much more. And they all need wireless and smartphones to bring their technology to the user.
PayPal, Apple Pay, Android Pay, Samsung Pay
Consider how the world of money is changing with FinTech and Mobile Pay, Mobile Wallet or whatever name you follow. Money 20/20 was a conference two weeks ago in Las Vegas which welcomed tomorrows leaders like PayPal, Apple Pay, Android Pay, Samsung Pay and many others. The show was an incredible and powerful look into tomorrow and the leadership.
Our world is changing. If we look back 10 years ago, it’s like looking back into history. After all, ten years ago Nokia and Blackberry were leaders in the wireless and smartphone space. Today they are not. Today’s leaders are Apple iPhone and Google Android and the like.
If that kind of change has occurred in the smartphone space, pull the camera back and look at every other industry sector. They are changing as well. New leaders are coming of age. Past leaders have the challenge of maintaining their edge. This is a remarkable time of change and transformation and we are right smack dab in the middle of it.
This is important whether you are a customer, investor, competitor, regulator, new company or existing leader. The opportunities and challenges are all on display. I look forward to writing about the interesting companies and technologies I find at the show.
