By Steve Winter and Kenny Fried, special 草莓传媒 correspondents
NEW YORK — While the Consumer Electronics Show doesn鈥檛 truly begin until Jan. 5, 2017, 鈥淐ES season鈥� officially launched Thursday in New York when the Consumer Technology Association hosted its annual CTA Trends Market Research Presentation and 草莓传媒 Conference at the Metropolitan Pavilion.
Staged in conjunction with CES Unveiled 鈥� essentially a coming-out party for more than 50 new products and innovative exhibitors 鈥� the event served as a profile for the next phase of all things to come, technologically speaking.
What will be the hottest trends for 2017? According to CTA President Gary Shapiro, the focal points will span seven key areas.
鈥淚n January in Las Vegas at CES 2017, we鈥檒l see a lot of hot emerging categories,鈥� he said. 鈥淥bviously virtual and augmented reality is real and growing very quickly. Robotics is growing. Self-driving cars, we鈥檙e seeing more there than ever before and it too is becoming real 鈥� connected cars 鈥� the whole infotainment experience; safer cars with active collision avoidance. We鈥檙e also seeing drones 鈥� rapid growth there with so many uses now, not only for consumers for fun, but also for business and other safety related uses.鈥�
Watch a video about trends at the event:
According to Shapiro, other trends that will still be prevalent are 3D printing, health and fitness, sports and athletics.
鈥淭echnology today is helping people not only lose weight and stay healthy and there鈥檚 a lot in the sports and athletics area, not only for professionals, but for amateurs to learn about what they鈥檙e doing more,鈥� he said.
One term, Shapiro said, that has actually already jumped the shark is the concept of 鈥淚oT鈥� or the Internet of Things.
鈥淓verything almost is IoT, so we don鈥檛 even talk about that anymore as a trend,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut it is about connecting sensing devices and doing something with the information whether its safety, predictive intelligence or its other things. So many companies are coming up with ideas and trying it out in the marketplace so development in connected home is real in so many different ways, whether it鈥檚 closing your shades at sunlight automatically or keeping your utility costs low by having smart things responding to different conditions in the weather.鈥�
One company that鈥檚 taking full advantage of this trend is San Francisco-based SmartBeings, whose upcoming product, WooHoo, is designed to coalesce every smart device in a user鈥檚 home into one fully-automated, easy to use hub.
鈥淎s we smarten up our homes, we learn quickly how difficult it can be to orchestrate all the devices in a meaningful way, often trapped in the mode of 鈥榤aking it work鈥� as opposed to 鈥榤aking it work for you,鈥欌�� said SmartBeings鈥� Chief Strategy Officer Himanshu Kaul. 鈥淥ur company 鈥� driven by a passion for combining device intelligence with content-rich applications, led to the creation of this product.鈥�
From connected home, health and fitness to the emerging trends in robotics, it was all there on display in New York City; but in truth, it was merely the tip of the iceberg. After all, the real show is still two months away.
Stay tuned 鈥�
Steve Winter and Kenny Fried are 草莓传媒 contributors who work for聽, a Sage Communications Company.
