The 2017 Consumer Electronics Show ended this past Sunday after an incredible week of new…
The 2017 Consumer Electronics Show ended this past Sunday after an incredible week of new product showcases, launch hiccups (sorry Faraday Future), great panels, wonderful networking, client entertainment and parties, overused buzzwords of ‘Reimagined’ and ‘Reinvented,’ Amazon Alexa’s coming out party, and for those of us with a booth – about 1000 short pitches about our product and scratchy voices brought home to our spouses. However, we’re not here to talk about us or our product (although we were honored with a CES Innovation Award), but products our team found intriguing, smart home products we saw on the floor, what our thoughts are about the “smart home” and what we liked about CES.
So, from TVs to VA/AR to cars to robots to drones to smart things that do it all, these are the top products that stood out from the crowd, according to the team at IOTAS.
Sce Pike; CEO @ IOTAS
“My overall #1 item was the Magical Instrument guitar called MI Guitar. The best smart home related product was Sleep Number 360 Smart Bed. I need to sleep more…hopefully this will help me!”
Matt Greene; VP Sales & Marketing @ IOTAS
“It’s difficult to name one item, so I’ll break the rule and name two…well, three. The new Under Armour Smart Shoes were incredible. Nike is probably a bit nervous and shaking in their shoes. Sony’s A1E series 4K HDR OLED TVs. Wow, the color and audio were amazing and game changing. The best smart home related product was the Samsung Family Hub refrigerator. The idea has been on the market for a little while but this new model is incredibly impressive and the future of the connected smart kitchen.”
Winslow Sandler; Director of Field Operations @ IOTAS
The Blade 3000 AR Smart Glasses. “I’m not easily impressed and honestly much didn’t impress me at CES this year. But these blew my socks off. The reason they’re my favorite is because in a show with hundreds of AR glasses all basically doing the same thing, these were the only ones that didn’t have a piece of hardware sitting in front of your pupil, nor make you look like Jordy from Next Generation. These project from the side onto the lens, so they look and act like conventional glasses, except with a screen hovering out in front of your vision. Just, wow.”
Jeremy Steinhauer; VP Data Science @ IOTAS
“I really enjoyed Pico Brew, the personal craft beer brewery. Hey, my days are long….The e-Ink TV was pretty impressive. Just the range of display platforms and high res from any angle…”
Robert Huston; UX Designer @ IOTAS
“Energous showcased a product that allows wireless charging within 18 feet of their charging pad. Pretty useful for anything in your home, really.”
Jin Lee; Operations Manager @ IOTAS
“Hello Kitty speakers. Hey, don’t judge me.”
Whitney Ramey; Customer Experience Manager @ IOTAS
“Samsung Lifestyle TV Frame. It’s a crazy new concept TV from Samsung called the Lifestyle TV. In a nutshell, it never shuts off. Instead, it displays your movies and shows like any other TV while you’re watching it, and it becomes a big piece of art or a digital picture frame when you’re not. I have always thought of tv’s as huge eye sores, and this kind of helps me hide my tv addiction. Is that bad to admit?? I also loved the Xenoma – Smart Apparel Company. e-skin enables the user to monitor motion, breathing, pressure, body temperature and other functions. Pretty sweet.”
James Motley; VP Engineering @ IOTAS
“I enjoyed the Smart mirrors, although it really didn’t help Jeremy Steinhauer out at all. He still looked the same! In all seriousness, the new Nortek zwave 500 series and Enerwave’s new line of products were very impressive. The Sony Walkman in the archives area brought me back to my early days also. Well, it’s not new. Yet, it still impressed me. I’m kind of old school”
Collectively, what impressed us the most about CES was that for many of the products being presented, most were already in the market or coming to market in the following months and it wasn’t purely science fiction. The ability to finally connect most devices to our lives is amazing and here with us now….not just for homes, but for people’s lives. The smart home is just a snapshot of the connected living we will all be a part of in the very near future. Quite frankly, the smart home is truly here and mainstream. Exciting times we are living in in regards to technology.
Until next year!
Matt Greene & The IOTAS team
*all photos used are courtesy of company websites