BILL & PHIL’S GADGET OF THE MONTH
Observations from CES 2020 |
We recently returned from the 2020 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. Every year this tech pageant parades a cavalcade of cutting-edge technology that we will likely be using in our everyday lives in the near future. While we were mesmerized by this year’s latest innovations, we also paused to reflect on the past decade of advancements and marveled at how yesterday’s “cutting-edge” tech is now mainstream. We are only 10 years removed from the debut of Steve Jobs’s iPad tablet computer. We remember Jobs predicting that someday soon instead of picking up a newspaper or a book to read, we would just consume this content from this odd, touch-screen device that was neither a laptop nor a smart phone. At the time, Jobs’s vision seemed like science fiction; we now know he was eerily prescient. Walking over the vast exhibition halls at the show, we saw how far the consumer tech industry has advanced in the past decade. Incredibly thin and vivid TVs, wireless speakers and earphones, voice-activated AI assistants, touchscreens on everything, drones for every task imaginable, augmented and virtual reality experiences, and smart home products from the kitchen to the bathroom—what used to wow us is re
Bill Ramsey & Phillip Hampton
ally just ho-hum (especially for younger consumers). Our yawning indicates that the industry has been successful over the past decade in quickly bringing big tech advancements to the masses. But even after all the innovations of the past that have become commonplace, there are still new products that capture our imagination. CES 2020 provided plenty of stimulation for that forward-thinking imagination. After passing by several thousand exhibits, we were impressed with the following trends: • A PC/laptop revival with some new and exciting form factors • An explosion of wireless earphones and ear buds • Artificial Intelligence (AI) playing much larger role in everyday tasks and work • Big growth in health and wellness technology • Tech to help overcome human physical limitations The rumors of the death of the PC (and laptop) have been widely exaggerated. But these tried and true computing platforms just won’t go away, as we saw more innovation than usual. Dual screen laptops were the biggest hit and largest innovation category. Microsoft had already announced a new dual-screen device called Surface Neo before the show, while others are following suit. Dell has the Dell Duet, and Lenovo introduced the ThinkPad X1 Fold (technically just one screen that folds in half). 5G—the new ultra-fast digital cellular network currently being rolled out nationwide—was an undercurrent for just about everything this year. We are now seeing 5G-compliant laptops coming to market, including Dell’s impressive Latitude 9510, which is a great business-level laptop that is both 5G and
WiFi 6 compliant and boasts an incredible 30-hour battery life. HP and Lenovo also had new 5G capable models, the HP Elite Dragonfly and Lenovo Yoga 5G, respectively. As we walked the exhibit floor, we’re not sure if we saw more wireless ear buds protruding out of the ears of the 175,000 attendees or more booths hawking the “best sounding” wireless ear buds on the market. Like a swarm of locusts, wireless ear buds were everywhere. Apple surely started this trend with its impressive AirPods. We saw everything from AirPod knockoffs from various little-known foreign companies to really top-of-the-line competitors like Samsung’s Galaxy Buds and Jaybird’s Elite Active 75t. AI has been around for a long time and has meant different things to different sectors of the economy. Many think of technology like Amazon’s ever-popular Alexa assistant as AI, but we are beginning to see real AI applications at work and play that go well beyond a virtual assistant giving the weather and traffic conditions. For example, we spoke with a representative from John Deere at the company’s massive farm equipment exhibit and he talked about how AI integrates with the state-of-theart farming equipment to assist in preparing the soil, planting, fertilizing, and harvesting crops to maximize efficiency. Bill noted that the farming principles that the rep talked about were the same principles that Bill’s father applied decades ago as a farmer—but today they are being implemented on a massive scale by machine and artificial intelligence. Continuing a trend from the past couple of years, we saw a huge growth in health and wellness technology. The (continued on page 16)
FEB/MAR 2020 | NASHVILLE BAR JOURNAL
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