CES2019

Cleverpet wins CES Launchit competition with electronic game hub for dogs

6 January 2016 by Steve Blum
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Click for the obligatory cute puppy video.

An electronic game for dogs won top honors yesterday at the Showstoppers Launchit competition for startups at CES. Cleverpet is basically a canine version of the old Simon game combined with an automated feeding station that dispenses a little bit of food when the dog hits the correct lighted pad. It gives dogs something to do when they’re locked up in an apartment all day while the rest of the family is at work.… More

Huawei claims third in smartphones, aims at Apple

5 January 2016 by Steve Blum
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Huawei knuckles down on smartphones.

From barely a blip on the radar – 3 million units – five years ago, Huawei broke out of the pack in 2015 with 108 million smartphones sold and a 10% share of the global market. That keeps it in third place worldwide, behind Apple and market leader Samsung, which has a 28% share. Speaking at the company’s press conference at CES this morning, consumer business group CEO Richard Yu said they’re aiming to pass Apple – currently with a 12% global smartphone share – and move up a notch into the number two spot within two years.… More

Chinese policy builds parallel demand for tech, broadband

5 January 2016 by Steve Blum
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4K televisions and home automation, two product categories that are particularly tied to broadband demand, grew significantly in 2015 and the trend is expected to continue into 2016, according to market research presented yesterday at CES in Las Vegas, by the show’s organiser, the newly rechristened Consumer Technology Association.

Home automation accounted for about 9 million units. The $1.2 billion in revenue that generated is an 18% bump over 2014.

On the other hand, CTA researcher Steve Koenig said it looks like 13 million 4K sets sold world wide – outside of China – in 2015.… More

Cryptomarket wants to be eBay of bitcoin

5 January 2016 by Steve Blum
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Keeping it mainstream, says Blasko.

You can bid to buy pretty much anything on eBay, at least anything legal, but you need a straight up credit card or bank account to do it. And you can find sites on the dark web that auction off pretty much anything illegal, where you can pay with bitcoin or other alternative cryptocurrencies. At least until the FBI shows up. The difficulty comes when legal buyers and sellers try to negotiate online and settle up with bitcoin.… More

Lowes leans on AllJoyn, mobile app for updated smart home platform

4 January 2016 by Steve Blum
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Smartphones loom large in Lowes’ plans.

Lowes is rebooting its Iris home automation platform. There are two big differences: the new system is mobile-centric and it was developed in-house with support for Qualcomm’s open source AllJoyn protocols, according to a company spokesman at CES Unveiled this evening.

The platform, which currently supports about 70 products ranging from light switches to thermostats to hot water heaters, is now controlled primarily via an app that’s available for both the iOS and Android operating systems.… More

On my way to Las Vegas for CES 2016

4 January 2016 by Steve Blum

It’s kick off time for in Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show, excuse me, International CES, I’m sorry, CES. The name keeps changing, but its essential nature does not: a madhouse packed with flashing new products and a couple hundred thousand bewildered and bedraggled geeks. Including me.

My strategy this year is to take advantage of as many fast and furious mass showcase events as possible, take a deep dive into a handful of booths and spend more time wandering the ever growing exhibit floor.… More

Three fundamental trends to look for at CES

3 January 2016 by Steve Blum

I love seeing the new products at CES every year, but the real value of the show is the opportunity to pull back and look at technology from the 40,000 foot level. In particular…

  • Will the Internet integrate things or just link things to your smartphone? So far, no mainstream platform for tying together a broad spectrum of home automation or personal electronics or other lifeforms lurking in the Internet of Things has emerged. Based on pre-show buzz, Lowes is making another try and the AllJoyn wants you to believe it will link all things.

… More

The "C" in CES does not stand for complicated

1 January 2016 by Steve Blum

How hard can it be?

The trade show originally named the Consumer Electronics Show, and then rebranded as International CES and now called simply CES, put on by the trade group formerly known as the Consumer Electronics Association, now called the Consumer Technology Association, kicks off in Las Vegas on Monday.

A lot of the pre-show buzz, judging by the press releases and interview invitations I’ve received, is coming from companies that aren’t traditionally associated with consumer electronics, but have figured out that the best way to sex up their quotidian products – garage door openers, stove hoods, cookware – is to include a microprocessor and some kind of RF networking capability.… More

Tizen chases the IoT dream with a less is more approach

13 June 2015 by Steve Blum
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Or maybe just the future of washing machines.

The Tizen operating system is at the center of Samsung’s Internet of things strategy, according to a company blog post. Backed by Intel and others as well as Samsung and originally intended to be an alternative to Android in the mobile phone space, Tizen’s focus appears to have shifted to embedded systems…

Tizen requires less processing power and memory, thereby ensuring faster device speeds while consuming less energy…

Because it is lightweight, Tizen is optimal for use across a wide spectrum of smart connected devices in the IoT space.

… More

Smartphone sales grow as Chinese brands bag bigger global share

16 February 2015 by Steve Blum
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Chinese smartphones loom larger.

Trying to track shipment figures for any global consumer electronics product can be a tricky business – piecing together the puzzle requires access to many sources with many agendas – but that said, market research company TrendForce has spotted a significant trend: collectively, Chinese smartphone manufacturers grabbed a huge share of the worldwide market in 2014.

According to TrendForce, manufacturers shipped 1.2 billion smartphones last year, with Chinese companies accounting for 450 million, or 39% of the global total.… More