It seems to me an odd circumstance – after all, the C in CES
stands for Consumer. In this modern world where technology touches nearly every
business category, why wouldn’t a
professional whose job it is to understand consumers be at CES?
I
myself didn’t discover the wisdom of attending CES until last year, when it
came to my attention that at $0 for an exhibition floor pass, I really had
nothing to lose by checking it out. What I didn’t realize is how much I would
gain.
There are an infinite number of reasons that I personally find CES valuable, from getting to see my firm’s clients showcase their technology, to hearing industry leaders speak about innovation, policy, and strategy, to anticipating what media technology changes are likely to impact my business over the next 1-2 years. But mostly, I find it valuable to form my own educated point of view on innovation, instead of relying on that of others.
In
the scheme of CES, I’m still a relative novice with only two shows under my
belt. Still, it didn’t take me more than one day on the floor to
realize that there is a noticeable delta between what you hear about CES, and
what you witness when you’re there. That’s not to say you can’t learn from
reading: four days after finishing my tour of CES 2015, I learned about this possibly
awesome, possibly catastrophic brain-altering technology that I was blissfully
unaware of 14 floors above me, as I enjoyed a Fat Tire in the Wynn Tower Bar
last week. http://qz.com/325070/this-brain-altering-wearable-could-end-our-dependence-on-drugs/
But what’s different in person is the nuance, the
interactions, and the opportunity to think critically about what you’re seeing.
You get to try on the smart watch to see that it’s twice the size of your
wrist, with spotty functionality in public spaces. You get to observe the color
palates of 4K in person and wonder if 4K technology is going to change retail
signage and billboards before it changes living rooms. You get to see how
direct competitors showcase the same type of technology in their own unique
ways, and field the same questions with varying levels of ease and accuracy.
You get to experience, instead of observe, the world of
consumer innovation. And here’s what
I’ve taken away from that experience.
1. In the best moments at CES, you get to feel and touch and really understand how new developments can
change the world. Sometimes those
developments aren’t at the forefront of the media buzz or terribly glamorous at
first glance. And that’s why I want to talk about Qualcomm and their IoT
exhibit.
Before I dive in, here’s a snapshot
of how Qualcomm sees the IoT landscape.
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| Well this drives home the opportunity, doesn’t it? |
This unit below is, in essence, how you’ll be able to effectively transmit that WiFi you’ll need for a true Internet of Things Smart Home that doesn’t hang up or buffer or time out at every turn. It’s not pretty or sexy. But it’s important. It makes all the imagination and application possible.
It also allows households to manage their WiFi more effectively. Below is a prototype interface demonstrating how internet performance improves using Qualcomm’s “multi-user” technology. In the demo below, it’s showing speeds that are twice as fast, using their multi-user” modem, and the speeds are also broken down by where the WiFi is being transmitted in your home, so you can manage the capacity more efficiently.
So why did this stand out to me, you wonder?
Well, to begin, it’s so far advanced that it won’t be obsolete anytime soon. We don’t have multi-gigabit internet in the US, or anything close to it. Google Fiber, at 1 Gbps, is as close as we’re getting, and that’s only been rolled out thus far in a few neighborhoods in exactly one mid-sized city.
Second, it mitigates one of the more fundamental hurdles to IoT adoption, namely bandwidth constraints. Have you ever done a speed test on your modem, and wondered why you’re paying for 100Mbps and getting 20-30? This device can make that more optimized, and at higher broadband speeds even efficient enough to run a full smart home. It’s not as “cool” as a mobile app that allows you to set your thermostat from your phone. But it’s the engine that will allow you to do that, while you stream Netflix in one room, download an HD movie from iTunes in another, and communicate remotely with your dishwasher that it’s run time.
A quick Google search tells me this device escaped the attention of major media last week. But it didn’t escape mine.
2. It can be telling to see firsthand what the hype is all about – and if the hype is deserved. The most interesting example of this to me was DISH’s Sling service. As both a researcher and consultant in the OTT space, I’ve been anxiously awaiting DISH’s OTT bundle rollout and initially found it clever that they integrated their acquisition of Sling TV into their new OTT service.
Then I went to their exhibitor booth.
Then I went to their exhibitor booth.
I looked around and saw partnerships with
Amazon, Roku, and XBox (pictured below). That’s when the real headline hit me:
a service is only as valuable as its distribution. In this case, if you have a
Chromecast, Apple TV, Samsung BluRay player or SmartTV, PS3 or PS4,
congratulations, you can’t get this new service. Sling’s OTT service is an
interesting first move, and perhaps it will grow to include other distributors,
but right now it looks a little closer to dipping a toe in the water than
diving right in.
3.
On the
flip side, there’s equal value in seeing what isn’t getting hyped and maybe should
be. DISH Network is now introducing a slick IP set top box with a unified
guide that includes Netflix, Pandora, and other internet apps. Everyone says
they’re doing that. DISH actually is. And a tour of two different search and
discovery technology exhibits tells me that cross-platform discovery is ready
to roll, as soon as distributors actually put their content on IP set top
boxes. If DISH is making a splash, I’d
say they’re making a bigger one on their traditional side than on their OTT one.
4.
There is
no better place to imagine and understand how we can better integrate consumer
insight into innovation. The CES floor is full of products that appear to
have bypassed any sort of consumer testing, or outright ignored what it said.
(I’m talking to you, 3D televisions.) It’s a petri dish of inspiration for how
the consumer insights industry can do a better job of infusing our expertise
into the innovations of tomorrow.
Let’s indulge in a few examples of this.
Example
1: The Shirt Camera. FirstV1sion is one of the cooler technologies I came
across – basically it’s GoPro for clothing - a camera built into a compression-style
shirt that athletes can wear on the field/court. It’s a clever idea, with
immediately obvious applications not just to sports, but other types of
documentary style production.
The coverage of FirstV1sion makes some
lofty promises, such as “It´s completely imperceptible to the player” and “The
player won’t be able to tell that he is wearing it.” (See the full description
here: http://nxtinsight.com/10-upcoming-wearable-prototypes/)
Imperceptible on-field videography is a
heck of a value proposition. Unfortunately, it’s probably only true if the
player has no nerve endings, sweat glands, or breasts. This clothing was on
display at CES, and for a spandex athletic shirt, it’s perceptively heavy and
padded in the chest area, and undoubtedly sweat-inducing. Also, the camera was
overheating to the point of being untouchable. (The guy at the booth responded
to the last criticism with, “Well, it’s been on for hours.” To which I thought,
“Have you been to a sporting event?”)
The product has clear promise, but it doesn’t
appear ready for launch. And sometimes, understanding how a product doesn’t
deliver upon its promise is exactly the type of insight that a startup team
needs.
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| A heavily padded center with a piping hot camera. |
Example
2: Wearables, in General. If I had to give CES 2014 a logline, it would
have been “Wearables: A Story of Unwearable Accessories.” To be fair, the wearables of 2015 are decidedly
less unwearable than those of 2014. I might actually wear these Toshiba frames,
for example, if I could put my own prescription in them. (Sidebar: can we stop
pretending that bespectacled nerds are going to wear glasses over their
glasses? Just because it started with Google doesn’t mean there’s a forthcoming
fashion trend of “six eyes.”)
But we still have a long way to go in
delivering wearables that people want to, well, wear. Take for example this
fitness wearable from Sony, which apparently assessed that cheap bling is what
women want to wear while working out. Or, ever.
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| Pink bling: I might have thought this was cool workout gear when I was 6. |
Example
3: The Selfie Drone. While some products just aren’t there yet, others seem to misunderstand their
customer value proposition altogether. Enter Zano, a drone that will take
selfies for you. As I posted on my personal Facebook page, as a society we have
bigger problems to address than arm length if we start buying drones to take
selfies. A flying camera might actually have some uses – security coverage, for
example. But I’m going to go out on a limb and say that vanity is not the right
market position for this product.
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| My selfies don’t want to go to new heights. |
Example
4: In-Dash Tablets. Then there are the times when there just seems to be a
glaring societal danger at stake, for example having what is basically a WiFi
connected tablet in your automobile dashboard. Setting aside the inevitable
repair cost and outage issues, I couldn’t help but wonder how many automotive
deaths we might cause by allowing people to surf the web while they drive. Even
if it’s voice controlled, we humans have cognitive limits, and there’s a lot of
science to back up our lackluster multitasking skills. It’s fun to look at this
stuff, but there’s a certain sadness to the realization that some creative
innovation arguably shouldn’t make it to market, even if consumers want it.
Indeed, what a researcher brings to the table
in attending CES, is a certain wisdom for understanding why consumers buy-in,
why they hesitate, and when they maybe don’t have their own best interests at
stake. Never underestimate the value of
understanding the consumer psyche in evaluating which innovations will hit the
mark – and which will not.
5. CES is a useful reminder that evolution happens gradually. During my inaugural visit to CES last year, I found that to my surprise, most of the innovations didn’t seem all that innovative, inasmuch as they weren’t breaking news to me. This year, the developments again weren’t about “wow!” surprise, but rather about a step in the right direction. 3D printing is actually printing useful items (I witnessed the printing of a prosthetic hand, which is a dramatic improvement from the bevy of plastic figurines of 2014), curved screens now seem to have a purpose if you’re setting up a control room, and I can see the value in 4K for production editing and digital billboards, until prices come down enough for it to take off in the living room. So was I blown away by anything? Not really, but half the insight lies in seeing how questionable products from last year can evolve into potentially useful ones this year.
6. There is a curious amount of “me too” copycatting at CES. And nothing provides a better lesson in the value of thoughtful brand differentiation than a lap around the accessories sections of the show. As one article I read noted, “How many selfie sticks does a person need?” I wondered the same thing about headphones and speakers, two other themes of this year’s accessory onslaught. While most of the booths were bathed in an indistinguishable repetition of neatly organized headsets and handheld speakers, a few stood out from the crowd…for all the wrong reasons.
We’ll start with the booth that assumed consumers really want different sets of headphones for every device in their household. Alas, this doesn’t really dovetail with the “please make my life easier” theme that we hear in all media tech research with consumers who are not early adopters.
5. CES is a useful reminder that evolution happens gradually. During my inaugural visit to CES last year, I found that to my surprise, most of the innovations didn’t seem all that innovative, inasmuch as they weren’t breaking news to me. This year, the developments again weren’t about “wow!” surprise, but rather about a step in the right direction. 3D printing is actually printing useful items (I witnessed the printing of a prosthetic hand, which is a dramatic improvement from the bevy of plastic figurines of 2014), curved screens now seem to have a purpose if you’re setting up a control room, and I can see the value in 4K for production editing and digital billboards, until prices come down enough for it to take off in the living room. So was I blown away by anything? Not really, but half the insight lies in seeing how questionable products from last year can evolve into potentially useful ones this year.
6. There is a curious amount of “me too” copycatting at CES. And nothing provides a better lesson in the value of thoughtful brand differentiation than a lap around the accessories sections of the show. As one article I read noted, “How many selfie sticks does a person need?” I wondered the same thing about headphones and speakers, two other themes of this year’s accessory onslaught. While most of the booths were bathed in an indistinguishable repetition of neatly organized headsets and handheld speakers, a few stood out from the crowd…for all the wrong reasons.
We’ll start with the booth that assumed consumers really want different sets of headphones for every device in their household. Alas, this doesn’t really dovetail with the “please make my life easier” theme that we hear in all media tech research with consumers who are not early adopters.
 |
| So if I have both an XBox and a PS3, I need different headphones? |
Then there’s the headphone booth with
personnel who spoke extensively about quality and Bluetooth integration,
without the ability to demo product sound. Let’s contrast that with my trip to
Costco a week earlier, during which a store rep was able to connect his mobile
phone to a sound bar via Bluetooth to showcase the sound quality for me before
I purchased the product. I’m not saying it’s a bad idea to differentiate your
brand and booth design on high-end quality. I am saying it’s a questionable
differentiation when your product demonstration capabilities are weaker than a
wholesale club that sells toilet paper in packages of 64.
Next we have the standout strategy of,
“we’re colorful!” Unfortunately this was about half of the headphone booths.
Some credit goes to this dinosaur-sized pair
for standing out, though the lack of 360 degree branding kind of misses an
opportunity. Whoops.
And finally there's the selfie stick barrage –
rows and rows of indistinguishable booths that look like this. The city of
Shenzhen is very invested in selfie stick manufacturing, and on some level the
“me too” nature of accessories at CES is a fascinating insight into Chinese
culture, and its predilection for efficiently mass-producing sameness.
On the flight home I sat next to a fellow attendee from Shenzhen who manufactures mobile accessories. Last year he had a booth. I asked him how that went, and why he didn’t have one again. His response was, and I quote, “It was a waste, I only got 30 cards and half weren’t [in my field].” It drove home the reality that investing in a booth at CES requires an equal investment in brand differentiation.
7. You can nonetheless learn something about brand strategy by paying attention to who does differentiate themselves cleverly, and how they go about it. Two big surprises stood out to me:
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| I need an LG Signature Kitchen. |
Panasonic:
It would appear to me that Panasonic is trying to be the adventure brand of
electronics. I don’t know if it’ll work, or if consumer research supports this
approach from a strategic standpoint, but I do know that at least their booth
looked different enough for me to stop and check it out. And in a sea of uniformity,
that matters.
Panasonic also had some great
sports applications that caught my attention, not the least of which was a
partnership with SAP for an analytics platform that tracked sports stats and
performance. Talk about a cool, transparently beneficial application. As I commented on how valuable this would be
as an enterprise tool for professional and college sports, the guy standing
next to me retorted, “And then before you
know it, it’ll be in Little League.” I laughed out loud, and then realized it was
probably the truest statement I’d heard all week. 
8. You can also learn some clever ways of thinking about customer segmentation. Credit goes to Panasonic again, this time for an intriguing use of transparent customer segmentation with a headphone product suite tailored to distinct psychographic customer segments. The display almost demands that you find yourself among the segments, without being too heavy handed or analytical about it. (Although I think they’re missing a segment I like to call, “the headset misplacer.” I’m not saying I’m in it, but do any of these headphones come with GPS locators for the multitasking professional?)
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| I *am* a trendsetter! I’ll buy that set! |
9.
Sometimes,
the biggest hurdle between a company and its customers… is the company itself. One of the things that has baffled me on both
of my CES journeys is the degree to which companies spend huge sums of money to
be entirely unprepared or off the mark at CES.
These are just a few of the curious strikeouts I came across this year:
Language
Barriers – Hisense is a really cool Chinese electronics company that you
probably haven’t heard of because it’s about to roll out in the U.S. And I’m
not just saying they’re cool because last year they hired the Jabbawockeez to
perform in their booth, although that is the reason I discovered them in the
first place. (I won’t go as far as to say it made sense, but it was markedly
less weird than the Marilyn Monroe impersonator or Go Go dancer I saw this year
in other booths.) They have intriguing products like Roku TVs and kitchen
lights that can project down touch sensitive internet onto the counter. I was completely sold on the awesomeness of this company, and wanted to
learn more. Unfortunately, nobody working the connected home portion of this booth
spoke English. Not the wisest idea when you’re exhibiting at a trade show in
America.
Products
That Don’t Work – If you are exhibiting at an electronics show, it seems a
reasonable expectation that your electronics should work. Take this touch
screen in-flight entertainment system for example. I touched the screen.
Nothing happened. I tapped it a few times. Nothing. I looked around for someone
to help me. Nobody. I left.
Products
That Make You Cringe - This year, Toshiba won my award for the most
awkwardly disturbing showcase with its “Communication Android” exhibit. With a
physicality that is roughly as human as a crash test dummy, and a robotic voice
that lacks Siri’s sense of humor or Teddy Ruxpin’s warmth, Android lady offers
a certain je ne sais quoi. And I mean that literally, I really don’t know what
she offers, other than the distinct feeling of discomfort that comes from
wondering what on earth Toshiba was thinking. “I. Can. Smile.” she assures bystanders with a Stepford Wife
inflection and clothing ensemble. And then her lips move ever so slightly into
a position of a grimace usually reserved for that moment in a long car ride
when we regret having downed a cup of coffee before hitting the stretch of road
with no rest stops. The sign says it’s the robot of tomorrow for the service
industry. So it’s creepy and designed
to put more people out of work? And now I find myself questioning both the
judgment and quality of Toshiba. I
imagine that’s not the message they were trying to send.
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| Pretty in Pink or just Weird Science? |
10. Lots of
smart, interesting, successful professionals go to CES. For my first 36
hours in Las Vegas, I didn’t go to a single exhibit. I attended a tech
entrepreneur networking event, and was introduced to a number of clever
startups. I had drinks with a group of other media researchers, and plotted our
collaborative empires. I listened to the CTO of the United States captivate a
room full of female executives with stories about influential female engineers
and code breakers. I chatted with an Israeli entrepreneur about mobile
technology and visiting Tel Aviv. I listened to the head of the FCC discuss net
neutrality, navigating Title II regulation, and being called a Dingo by John
Oliver. I learned more from others in 36 hours than I probably will the rest of
the year in my office.
Of course, there’s nothing quite like
CES to remind you of the human essentials. As I left town, fatigued from head
to toe from miles of walking and hours of standing, it struck me that maybe
this woman I noticed in the Qualcomm booth was onto something even more
profound than the Internet of Things and 3D printable prosthetics: sometimes you just need a break from technology.
Now there’s an insight.
Kerry
Kerry
