“Data Driven Thinking” is written by members of the media community and contains fresh ideas on the digital revolution in media.
Today’s column is written by Darren Herman, Chief Digital Media Officer of The Media Kitchen and President of kbs+p Ventures, both of which are part of MDC Partners.
AdExchanger asked Herman to give us his ‘take’ on this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
This past evening, I took time to sit back and decompress from walking the South and Central Halls of the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show. In doing so, I wanted to isolate high level trends I saw in Las Vegas and what we can expect those trends to translate into over the next 12 to 24 months.
Let’s be realistic: This is not the only trends piece coming out of #CES2013; it’s one of hundreds, if not thousands. Reading this and then matching it up with a simple Google search (http://bit.ly/VJeT8t) would help you piece together what people thought was interesting at CES.
The overall sentiment of the day was evolution, not revolution. I did not see things that were revolutionary but I did see a lot that built on last year’s CES.
Technology is Becoming Human
To some it’s about the bytes. But to most, it’s about the human interface of technology and that was apparent this year at CES. I felt that the exhibits were much more human and displayed the technologies, be they tablets, desktops, cameras, laptops, navigation systems, or smartphones in much more relatable ways. Very rare was it a hardcore tech vs. tech sales pitch but it was much more about how humans could use the technologies and how it makes their lives easier.
Big Data for You
Big Data isn’t just for marketers or operations folks. I swung by the “Health & Fitness” area of the exhibit hall and saw quite a few companies providing data back to their users which would help with the quantified self. Polar, Fitbit and others were ahead in this race of helping people optimize their health through the use of data.
Not Necessarily Bigger but Crisper
It used to be that bigger meant better. However, a television can only be so big inside of your home or office before feeling way too out of place. We saw quite a few screens that were deploying either OLED or 4k (or higher) technology that were amazing. While our mobile device screens probably won’t have these technologically advanced screens yet because the price point is too high, we are seeing a trend towards much crisper and better visual technologies.
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