Every year at the beginning of January, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is held in Las Vegas: a strange show that in the space of a few years has moved from the world of audio-video (= 'consumer electronics') to that of new technologies, while at the same time its organiser, the Consumer Electronics Association, has changed its name to the Consumer Technology Association.
It's a strange show because it's spread across various hotels in the city.
It's a strange show, shunned by the market leaders: Apple, Google, Amazon... even though they're in the news, particularly the latest with Alexa, its voice synthesis tool.
It's a strange show where French start-ups make up the second largest delegation, behind the USA: CES is a chance to meet all the key players in the French digital sector... more easily than in Paris!
So what were the major trends of the 2017 vintage? It's hard to sum up such an event in just a few lines on a blog!
One: major advances in the area of interfaces, with the development of both voice recognition - the famous Alexa that will be found in cars, hoovers, robots, etc., everywhere - and gesture recognition; on the other hand, a very strong desire to cut the cord with the smartphone: the new connected objects communicate a lot via Bluetooth in particular.
Two: virtual reality versus augmented reality, the former strongly established in the world of games and travel (= choosing your destination, your hotel), the latter in more everyday life (= displaying useful information, particularly for driving).
Three: the connected car, where the big manoeuvres have begun with a number of mergers and new entrants such as Samsung and... Baidu, the Chinese Google!
Four: Smart home in smart town, from the home to the smart city: many projects have been announced... but there are still very few concrete results: we are still very often in the field of basic home automation... or gadgets, such as this AI that learns to turn off the lights when you leave your flat.
Five: robots everywhere, companion robots for the elderly, and multifunctional robots in industry.
Six: the integration of sensors... everywhere: to find out how much sugar or fat is in the food you eat, to diagnose any faults in your connected home, to track you in the street or in your car: all of which will increase the mass of data that the Internet giants have about us.
Finally, there was surprise and enthusiasm: it's really amazing to see a show like this, but also a certain disappointment: lots of futuristic projects, but few real consumer uses: the best off are the elderly and the sick, who will be living in a hyper-secure environment; for the average citizen, there's still no real 'killing application', just niche products.
To conclude, and to return to the field of marketing and marketing research, over the coming years customer knowledge will have new investigative tools at its disposal, thanks to the proliferation of sensors mentioned above, which it will have to learn to master.
