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CES meet-up with Steve Koenig: Trends in technology

Are you planning a technological project, an innovation? To be successful in global markets? Wondering what is going on in the world of technology? Meet Steve Koenig, CEA director of research and CES. Steve is working not only with giants such as Intel and Yahoo, but also follows news that appear on start-up scene or in the area of ​​software and application development and new technologies such as wearables. The native Texan working at CEA since 2004 in that time was named one of America’s most influential marketers in technology and consumer electronics.

CES is the largest trade show in the world, focusing on technology and consumer electronics, which will take place on the 6th to 9th January in Las Vegas. CEA  is the American Association, which brings together 2,000 technology companies, focusing on innovation and market development.

Mission of CEA is to expand global tech industry & promote innovation: policy, industry standards, market research and events like CES.

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Global consumer tech spending

2010 … 921 billion  —–>  2015… 1,030 billion

Where’s the opportunity?

China and India: populous countries with a good degree of economic prosperity and massive growth that we’re expecting to continue. We expect them to lead. Startup companies all the way to LG or Apple are looking to spots like China as a spot to really grow their business.

What drives the tech market?

  • innovation: we take innovation very seriously at CEA. Without innovation there wouldn’t be creativity.

  • disruption: example of TOWER RECORDS. It used to be a music store where people were buying CD’s and tapes. But we changed the way we are consuming music and TR is not anymore in the business. Now it is happening with iTunes. People are still buying music but they are also streaming it from Spotify. iTunes are being disrupted. The acquisition of Beats wasn’t about the headphones but rather about the radio. It is going to be the future, it is gonna keep growing.

  • These two things are like yin and yang and they drive the industry forward. It is a vicious circle and natural function we want to see continuing at CES.

Mass products

  • iPad: People are very familiar with tablets but the market is being disrupted by the big iPhones. If you have a phone with 6 inches do you need necessarily a tablet? Probably not.

  • Smart watches: Very unproven. Big business – but the main concern is the technology itself – not everybody wants to wear technology. Whenever you ask somebody to wear technology, it makes it personal. I can put mobile into my pocket, that’s fine. But Google glasses, that’s a further challenge.

  • 3D printers

Another trend we see because of digital is the collapse of products. It is like an explosion. To underscore the trend for you — 80% of global consumers is tied up among 7 products — and almost 40% goes to smartphones.

Trends: What we can see in CES now?

These things are overlapping each other:

  • internet of things

  • sensorification

  • power management

  • wearable technology

  • biometric

One trend that is often underreported is biometrics. We are going to need a more secure method to secure our data and information. We carry with us a lot of sensitive data. We will hear a lot about these trends in the future.

What’s Next?

People often think that gaming is going to be the biggest thing. Maybe.

  1. Virtual Reality / Augmented reality

  2. Digital Health

  3. Smart Home

Examples / Health:

  1. Mobile app: Are you chewing your food enough?

  2. Kolibree toothbrush: Track and improve your dental hygiene

 

  1. Hapifork Smart Fork: Eat slowly, lose weight, feel great!

 

Examples / Smart Home:

  1. Smart Things: Control and monitor your home from one simple app

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  1. Connected home: e-shop at Best Buys

Samsung and LG are all over this. Samsung says people will demand three things of their smart homes: “Show me, know me and tell me.”(Read Samsung’s vision for home of the future here). It’s a massive company from appliances to computers. They are connecting all the stuff. Another buzzword is ecosystem. Everybody wants to sell their ecosystem. Will this foster more purchasing within families? Maybe. But you will see this particularly from Samsung and LG pushing this smartphone trend. Samsung is gonna have their little home that is connected to all these devices.

Q: Is there a country or set of countries that hasn’t been on your radar and appeared recently? Why?

Steve: We had several leaders from african regions coming to CES. A lot of these countries are actively seeking investment to build communication infrastructure. Nobody is going to build a factory in Botswana – if there is no communication infrastructure. You have to have A and B before building C. Smartphone is most of the time the only tech they have – but they use it literally for everything. So my answer is — African nations.

We would like to invite you to attend the 2015 International CES in Las Vegas

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Why? Learn more about:
Technology trends: startups, fitness and sports, automotive, unmanned systems
Marketplaces: 3D printing, education @technology, eureka park, family tech, fitness tech, gaming, health and wellness, iproducts, kids and technology, lifelong tech, robotics, senors, smart home, smart watches

Follow CES on Twitter. Steve Koenig was brought to Wayra CEE by NetClub.
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