Post CES 2017 Part 2 with Ben Bajarin

Ben Bajarin from Creative Strategies and Techpinions joined us in a two part conversation to discuss the recent Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2017 in Las Vegas. In the 2nd part of the conversation, we dived deeper into the themes that Ben has summarized in the earlier episode focusing on the TV, home automation, digital assistants and self driving cars.

Here are the interesting show notes and links to the discussion (with time-stamps included):

Ben Bajarin (@benbajarin, LinkedIn, Techpinions profile) from Creative Strategies and Techpinions.
CES 2017 Part 2
- On Bigger, Brighter, Thinner TVs
  - How are the Asian OEMs leading and how has the technology from TV are evolving, for example, Samsung with screens, and Foxconn now with Sharp LEDs? [1:05]
  - TV screen technology moving from OLED to Quantum dots [3:03]
  - Market entry strategy into US for China technology companies or OEMs such as Xiaomi and Huawei using televisions. For example, LeEco is going into the US through the television. An interesting example is with Walmart selling TVs that are made by Philips brand. [5:32]
- On Year of the Smart Home
  - Voice hubs such as Echo & Google Home have dominated the conversation. Where does that lead with Apple TV or other home automation gadgets such as NEST? [8:40]
    - Lenovo smart speaker
  - Should Apple make a speaker similar to the Google Home or Amazon Echo? [11:07]
  - Are robotics part of the smart home narrative, for example, we see a lot of home robots: Softbank’s Pepper, LG’s Hub Robot? [13:30]
- Cars are interesting again
  - Do you have to go to CES or move onto a car show such as Detroit Motor Show afterwards to see where mobility and transportation are going? [17:27]
  - Are we going to see a self-driving car soon? Is that car coming from the traditional automotive companies or technology companies (Uber, Google, Tesla, Apple)? [19:40]
    - Tesla as the best example for the reality of a self-driving car.

References:
- A Few Big Themes from CES by Ben Bajarin (Requires Subscription)
- A very Producty #CES2017 by Steven Sinofsky
- Cars as feature phones by Benedict Evans
- Podcast: US Retail Trends – what sold and what didn’t in US Consumer Tech

Podcast Information:

The show is hosted by Bernard Leong (@bleongcw) and are sponsored by Ideal Workspace (Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn) with their new Altizen Desk on Indiegogo (Twitter, Facebook, Medium). Also check out Ideal Workspace’s new standing desk, Altizen and sign up for their mailing list. Sound credits for the intro music: Taro Iwashiro, “The Beginning” from Red Cliff Soundtrack.