Bend it, wear it, drive it

The International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is the biggest tech trade show of the year and a veritable phantasmagoria of light, sound and electricity. This year’s edition was as much a tale of redemption and transformation as it was a peek into how technology at large will unfold in 2014.

Analysts have repeatedly dismissed the relevance of CES in the recent past, claiming that it has acquired a reputation of being more about incremental innovation and flashy toys that never get past the prototype stage. This could not be more wrong. The nature of innovation is to move incrementally; to move in small steps that mesh with the overall ecosystem. Real big-bang innovations have remained exceedingly few and far between.

There are two broad trends that explain why this year’s CES witnessed moves such as Qualcomm and Intel getting into the fashion business, Audi and Mercedes-Benz suddenly having the word ‘Android’ in their vocabulary, Samsung planning a home invasion and Sony knocking down internal company barriers that were once sacrosanct.

The first trend started nearly ten years ago, when the consumer electronics industry took a sharp turn towards computing, leading to the personal computer becoming the king of consumer technology. The PC era was always obsessed with ‘features’, with the new things that software can be made to do. This obsession gave technology precedence over the customer.

Microsoft, for example, overwhelmed its competition by packing more features into the PC—effectively owning the box. But the idea of the PC—as a standalone, jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none-box—is now dead. It exploded into a number of devices and services, rendering the PC a commodity that is still unparalleled in terms of productivity, albeit not unique.

The second trend has only just begun. This number of devices, effectively known as the mobile revolution, has also started the process of transforming the modern smartphone into a commodity. The problem with PCs, smartphones and tablets becoming commodities is that it pushes the rest of the consumer technology industry into unprofitable niche categories that are used only for specific applications. One doesn’t need to look farther than the camera industry, for example. It is now a well-used cliché to say that the largest selling cameras today are mobile-phones.

“We’re seeing the trend of the smartphone leading us to growth in other industries,” incoming Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf told a packed and cheering audience at CES. Mollenkopf’s words could not have been more prophetic— for the challenge for the rest of the consumer electronics industry is to build to a future that revolves around the smartphone, which has become the only consumer electronic device that really matters. CES, therefore, saw companies trying to jump out of their well-defined boundaries. Qualcomm and Intel shed their images as microprocessor makers, with both companies showcasing smartwatches and software platforms that allow household objects to digitally communicate with one another.

Cisco heaped attention on the ‘Internet of Things’, a “$19 trillion opportunity” for connecting products ranging from cars to household goods. Sony showcased the initial success of its ‘One Sony’ concept, a strategy that allows its internal businesses to work with the aim of creating a ‘smarter’ future. The auto industry— represented by Audi, Ford, Mercedes-Benz and BMW—also realises that the ‘connected’ car will soon become a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

While most of the world is currently focussing on the transition from the commoditized PC to smartphones and tablets, the next shift is already happening incrementally; product by product and CES by CES. The devices on our body and those around us, whether they are headphones or washing machines, will be connected seamlessly to the smartphone—creating a new computing fabric known as intimate computing.

Even the bendable and curved 4K screens that were showed off by Sony, Samsung and LG— which seem impractical at best— are harbingers of the incoming intersection between the ‘Internet of Things’ and the rise of intimate computing. These are magical times. 2014, therefore, will be the year when the consumer electronics industry finally steps outside its comfort zone and engages society, fashion and the world at large.

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