Vehicles and increasingly connected devices and services to access the metaverse will be honored this year during the great annual mass of technologies and electronics that opens on Thursday, January 5 in Las Vegas.
From January 5-8, 2023, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) will take place across 40 acres, from hotel booths to outdoor spaces dedicated to automobiles. This fair should be the one of the massive return of exhibitors and investors, after two editions compromised by the pandemic.
From inflated gadgets to artificial intelligence
In 2021, he had queued up. And in 2022, “there were big empty halls, CES was a shadow of itself,” recalls Avi Greengart. The Techsponential analyst rejoices at the prospect of “the return of crowds, mobility difficulties and closed-door meetings – everything that makes a trade show!”
On this year’s program, many vehicles (cars in search of autonomy, electric boats and planes, connected agricultural machines), gadgets inflated with artificial intelligence and a new category: Web3, that is to say the new generation of the Internet, which includes the metaverse.
The organizers have announced that they have sold all the stands available in the West Hall, the space dedicated to manufacturers and suppliers. These companies will promote their software, predicts Kevan Yalowitz. “We believe that by 2040, about 40% of all vehicles on the road will have computer operating systems that can be updated remotely.”
“Creating Experiences”
This evolution will pave the way for developers to “create experiences” for drivers and passengers, as well as users of any digital service.
Therefore, more and more vehicles will participate in the “battle for consumer time”, one of the central themes of CES 2023, according to the expert.
“We are seeing some consumer annoyance arising from the number of requests. A third of the users of the main streaming services canceled at least one subscription in 2022, and this trend will continue,” he stresses, citing a study carried out by Accenture in ten countries.
Hence the need for the different mobile platforms and applications to offer increasingly compelling experiences, especially in the metaverse, which is currently struggling to convince. The metaverse, which is supposed to embody the future of the Internet, consists of immersive universes accessible in particular through virtual reality (VR) or augmented reality (AR).
Less Crypto After FTX Deal
It was already a dominant theme at CES in 2022, hot on the heels of Facebook’s pivot, renamed Meta, to these technologies. A year later, the social media giant has poured tens of billions of dollars into its Oculus VR devices and platforms, scaring off investors who see it as a bottomless pit.
The CES Web3 category will bring together companies specialized in the sector, and also in blockchain and cryptocurrencies. Many engineers hope that a decentralized Internet will one day emerge from these technologies.
The implosion of this cryptocurrency platform and the arrest of its boss Sam Bankman-Fried, who had popularized digital currencies, concluded a dark year for the sector.
African startups for the first time
The new products that will be presented at CES were designed during the pandemic, recalls Avi Greengart, who therefore expects many objects to facilitate remote work. Health will be on the minds too, from day and night connected accessories to the latest innovations serving emergency physicians.
The area of the fair called Eureka Park should host some 1,000 start-ups from 20 countries, with a large French delegation, but also young Ukrainian shoots and, for the first time, African ones, with companies from the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Whatever their innovation, most exhibitors will show their progress in terms of sustainable development.
Robots will not be left out. Visitors will encounter stuffed animals with big innocent eyes, amazing humanoids, and high-performance drones in the halls.
“I think we’re going to see great advances in personal robotics, for the home, and also demos inspired by technologies originally designed for the military,” says independent analyst Rob Enderle. “But there will also be a lot of cheap scrap,” he adds.
Source: BFM TV
