News You might have missed: Week of January 12th

^{Thanks to CES, this week was certainly not short of news so I thought that rather than picking announcements I would just share some thoughts on trends that might not be top of mind but are impacting the industry. Over the next week or so we will continue to share more on what we saw at #CES18 and what does it mean for the consumer market.}

^TVs

• ^{CES is always a big stage for TVs: thinner, bigger, brighter has been the trend for a long time now. This year we continued to see aggressive pricing by the likes of TCL and HiSense on 4K TV with a stronger focus on sound quality too with the addition of Dolby Atmos.}
• ^{I found the more interesting trend to be about making your TV humongous and invisible all at the same time. While thinness and bezel-less displays have certainly helped make the TV less intrusive in our living room, vendors are stepping it up a notch.}
• ^{Available now or later this year, with price points all in the higher tier, Frame TVs are becoming the next big thing. Basically, when the TV is not on, rather than having a big black piece of glass, the screen turns into a work of art of your choice.}
• ^{Presented, but with no details on pricing and availability, were the TVs that bring the concept of making the screen disappears to a new level. LG introduced a rollable TV and Samsung introduced “The Wall.”}
• ^{LG rollable TV is a 65” 4K OLED that is stored inside a box from where at a press of a button it rolls out. This allows the TV to literally disappear when it is not used but it also allows the screen to be adjusted to the content played. For instance, for those movies that are not shot in the standard 16:9 format you can roll out enough screen to avoid the black bars at the bottom and at the top of the image.}
• ^{Samsung’s The Wall is a massive 146” screen with MicroLEDs and no bezel. It literally can be set to look like a wall in your home thanks to a new modular concept that allows to cover such a large surface. Depending on the content you are watching you can also have a screen within a screen}
• ^{The last big trend was, of course, 8K introduced by all key manufacturer. While side by side comparisons with 4K make it clear that the new technology is bringing content to the next level it is very hard at times to tell the difference when content is only presented in 8K. As we are still growing the volume of content for 4K, I feel the talk around 8K is very premature and more of a tech showcase than a reality. What is interesting, however, is the approach some vendors are taking of scaling up the 4K content to 8K. As it was the case at the start of HD this is enough to get consumers to want more and be prepared to pay for it.}

^{The Chinese are still coming}

• ^{In mobile, we have seen the market being taken over by Chinese manufacturer for years. You just look at the top 10 market share of the past five years and you can clearly see that transition. Yet at CES it seemed that there are so many more tech segments the Chinese have their eyes on.}
• ^{In cars, this CES brought a brand new company called Byton that presented their answer to the Tesla 3 model, a self-driving SUV starting at $45,000. But who is Byton? They are the US branch and brand of the Chinese company Future Mobility Corporation (FMC) lead mostly by ex BMW execs. FMC was Harmony Auto spin-off that had Foxconn and Tencent as the main investors. In the latest round of funding for Byton, Chinese media reported investment from a Chinese retailer, a real estate holding company, and at least one state-owned enterprise. Most reviews from reporters who tried the car at CES were fairly positive. Yet, given the recent implosion by Faraday Future, the financial investment rather than the actual product is what investors and industry watchers are concerned about.}
• ^{In VR, Facebook VP of VR Hugo Barra announced during the Qualcomm press conference that Xiaomi would be their hardware partner for launching Oculus Go globally. Since Barra left his role at Xiaomi to join Facebook but retained an advisory position at the Chinese brand I have been waiting to see how he would bring the two together and I did not have to wait long to know. Xiaomi is also launching a VR standalone headset for China that looks a lot like the Oculus Go.}
• ^{In smartphones, Huawei renewed its interest in the American market with both Honor and Huawei and outlined their focus on building their brand in the US market starting with telling consumers how to pronounce their name “WOW WAY.” However, the biggest news was that there was no news on the AT&T deal which was expected to be announced at CES. I struggle to see how this last minute pull-out is political as nothing has recently changed with Huawei. Entering the smartphone market in the US without a carrier is extremely hard both because they control the channel but also because their brand adds gravitas to an unknown brand.}
• ^{Smartphones are also not only essential tools for consumers, but they are devices where there is a lot of emotional attachment, which makes trusting a new brand harder. Xiaomi’s move with VR seems to be an easier way to get to consumers and grow credibility and trust.}

^{Robots Everywhere}

• ^{From Sony’s dog Aibo to LG’s Cloi and of course Sophia there were many robots on the show-floor at CES this year. Sadly however, the show-floor was not the best place to experience them as a very noisy and connectivity challenged environment led to many demo hiccups.}
• ^{One thing all these robots have in common – well maybe aside from the pole-dancing robots – is that they want to be helpful around the house. From answering questions to fetching you a beer they aim to please. That at least is the promise. A promise that seems still quite a bit out.}
• ^{First, price point. Sony’s Aibo is about $1700, certainly not your average toy and more like a pure bred real dog minus the cost of food, vet bills and insurance! These robots are certainly not for everyone.}
• ^{Second, use cases. I think we are still very much in the phase that is showcasing the technology that is coming together to deliver a fully functional robot that leverages yes robotics but also AI so they can learn from their environment and just like our soon to be trusted digital assistants anticipate our needs.}
• ^{It is natural to ask if we really need all this help around the house, especially when demos focus on bringing you beer! Where I think these robots can really make a difference is not with full-body-abled people to make them even lazier but with disabled people and empowering them to live a more independent life.}