If this is your thing, you can geek out here: With most of the other keynote segments focused on GM’s expansive technologies, it felt to me for the first time, that cars really belong at CES. The presentation highlighted GM’s new Ultium Battery Platform and the technology behind it. Mary Barra never used those words, but the pacing of the presentation was quite similar: a few expected elements followed by some genuinely surprising news. It had the feel of those historic famous Steve Job’s Apple debuts, where he would introduce all the expected new products, and then utter those words “oh, and one more thing”, right before unveiling something jaw-droppingly cool. But it was Mary Barra’s keynote presentation that was also electric. Sure, there was the repeated news that GM will be introducing 30 new electric vehicles in the next 5 years across all their brands (Chevrolet, Buick, Cadillac and GMC, which will include the new Hummer sub-brand). This keynote was electric in more ways than one. Perhaps with all the accelerated change wrought by the pandemic, 2022 will finally be the year of some real advancement. This happened all while connected to the alleged 5G band of WIFI on my router.įor the fourth straight year, we have the same takeaway about 5G: 2021 will be more marketing hype than reality and the 5G we think we are using on our new devices is not yet true 5G. But the promise of this 5G future was once again tempered by the reality of today’s 5G: while watching the Verizon keynote showing all these impressive use cases, the screen image froze (multiple times), the stream buffered, and chunks of content were lost. Verizon showed off several impressive use cases:Īdmittedly, all interesting and exciting stuff. On a more micro level, we really do not yet know what new innovations 5G will unleash. In truth though, it is hard for us to comprehend how 5G will alter our day to day lives. The idea that 5G will enable autonomous cars and the continued explosive expansion of the Internet of Things is now widespread. In listening to the Verizon keynote and various conference sessions, there is a consistent broader and better general understanding of what 5G means for the future. Of course, there are many more handsets and devices at this year’s show that promote 5G compatibility, but the benefit of 5G to the average consumer is still unclear, other than the fact that it is something new. We have been reporting on 5G at CES for four years now, and frustratingly, the state of 5G does not feel tangibly different today than it has in any of those four years.
Here is Part One of my observations and takeaways from CES 2021. That said, there are a few things so far that have stood out about this year’s show: at least one impressive keynote, a few cool immersive digital exhibitor experiences, and generally, the ability of CES to still create excitement and hope around the idea of technology enabling a better future for all people. Consequently, the “discovery” aspect of CES – finding an unexpected new product at a remote booth at the Las Vegas Convention Center – is difficult. The key challenge of this virtual CES is that the navigation of the show on their digital platform is akin to shopping on Amazon: you can’t find what you’re looking for without knowing in advance what you’re looking for. It was difficult to envision how a show as expansive as CES, the largest annual show in Las Vegas, could be adequately recreated on a laptop screen. My sentiments can best be summed up by the photo montage above (the Las Vegas strip properties’ coordinated shout-out to the show on Sunday night): By Robert Acquaotta, SVP Integrated Media
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