Halo at CES 2012!  

What’s new at CES?  What is the latest gadget that’s going to revolutionize the world?  Those are the typical questions one gets after visiting CES.  Well there were a lot of enhancements on products but nothing revolutionary as the tablet invasion of 2011.  2012 looks to be the year of how the tablet integrates with the rest of your consumer electronics including smart phones, TV’s, and even appliances.   

 

Tablets of different sizes and shapes were on display including the Galaxy Note (is it a phone or a tablet?) and the Sony Tablet P which folds up compactly so you can put it in your pocket!  Of course after tablet explosion of 2011 you get the accessories boom of 2012.  Every imaginable way you can carry, protect, and connect to your tablet was on display.  

 

Integration and interaction was another theme this year.  I saw a lot of demos of people playing virtual soccer, playing virtual musical instruments or having virtual kung fu battles.  This theme was big for gaming and spilled over into recognition controls for TV’s and such.

Speaking of TV’s looks like Samsung is cornering the market on super thin monitors.  OLED and LED TV’s are getting bigger and thinner. It’s amazing how manufacturers can pack such a brilliant screen into what seems like a paper thin display?  

 

 

Some cool gadgets I came across include a demonstration of the AR Drone 2.0.  Of course this hovercraft is controlled by your iPhone, iPad, iWhatever with a free downloadable app.  This thing has amazing control and in the demo they were showing off 2 Drones flying in perfect synchronization.  

 

CES seems to pose some interesting challenges and opportunities for retailers.  First off how much of this new technology will eventually make it to Canada?  I’ve gone to past CES events and saw a cool new phone and it took a year and half for it to show up in Canada.  Some of it never makes it to retail.

 

Next, how best to demonstrate and show all the new voice and touch interactivity now available in various CE products.  You need room to for customers to physically move around and see how their movement gets translated to video games or other motion control systems.  How do you show your customers how you can start watching a movie on your smart phone sitting on the bus to school, pause it, pick up on your tablet later in the day, pause, and finally finish it off on your super thin LCD LED smart TV at home?

 

What’s great about the consumer electronics category is that it is ever changing and innovating.  What’s challenging about the consumer electronics category is that it is ever changing and innovating.  Oh well.  I guess that’s what keeps it interesting!

 

Take a look below at some of the videos captured at CES 2012: