Exploring CES 2024: Software Innovations, Trends, and Insights

CES 2024 was bustling with excitement, drawing a massive crowd and featuring a wide range of exhibitors covering everything from consumer electronics products and services that cater to both the general public and professionals, permeating all aspects of work and life.

For those hoping to discover groundbreaking new products, you might be left wanting. The real buzz in recent years seems to center around Open AI's announcements, with their innovations having the potential to disrupt entire industries. The multitude of products on display here leverage less glamorous technology in new combinations to address existing or potential problems more efficiently, more powerfully, lighter, and sleeker. If you have something new that can help consumers, this is the place to showcase it.

I'm not an avid electronics enthusiast, but rather an early majority pragmatist on the Technology Adopt Lifecycle who cares about solutions that genuinely solve problems. I casually observed categories like cars, TVs/monitors, speakers and headphones, fitness bands, and medical devices, enjoying the fair-like atmosphere—your car can fly and dig, your robotic arm can make latte art, but what does that have to do with me? However, appreciating the design of electronic products, the sheer excitement and fun of sound and light, and understanding what electronic machinery can achieve at certain costs and price points is enlightening.

I found the startup and AI areas most intriguing and paid them the most attention. Software, FinTech, Web & Mobile Apps, and productivity tools for personal and corporate use were interspersed among the various hardware solutions.

AI

Rabbit R1 appears to be the only notable portable LLM hardware, lacking a booth but generating significant interest. It's puzzling why one would need a dedicated hardware for AI apps when a smartphone can perform the same functions, and possibly even better. Insights from experts are welcome.

booth.ai employs generative AI to assist e-commerce in photo editing: upload product photos and input text descriptions to generate images, such as adding backgrounds, changing people, or altering poses.

AiD / Cream creates detailed comic images and colors based on artists' sketches. A demo I tried showed impressive results, although the comics weren't overly complex.

Plaud Note, a card attached to the back of a phone for real-time recording, addresses the iPhone's inability to record and uses AI to quickly generate summaries. The product is well-made but not cheap.

vcat.ai generates marketing videos from the details of your product webpage. Although it sounds fancy, the URL merely imports materials from the web page, requiring manual template selection and adjustments in their system afterward.

Keeneat.com offers background music generation for creative professionals, along with a marketplace. This seems marketable, given the increasing number of video creators and the limited, expensive stock music available.

Blovo ChatGPT for animals allows you to inquire about anything pet-related.

FinTech & Enterprise

FinTech's visibility at CES was surprisingly low, with only five companies present, one of which was absent. The largest booth belonged to South Korea's Shinhan Bank, proud of their many years at CES. Their interest in CES stems from showcasing cashier machines as human teller replacements, aligning with the trend towards banking digitization and automation. The biggest challenge mentioned was adapting the UI/UX for older users, as high-net-worth VIP customers are not their primary target.

Woongjin is Korea's leading rental and subscription management system, integrating finance, payment, and insurance solutions, serving many large Korean conglomerates.

Blockchain

veintree (press release) offers identity verification through vein patterns on hands, claiming advantages over iris recognition in terms of anonymity and not requiring specialized equipment. It's being explored as a factor in multi-factor authentication, similar to Windows Hello and Face ID, and is seeking blockchain partnerships, like with Solana, to create a hand-based Worldcoin.

Fog Hashing sells Bitcoin mining machines for home use and professional data center solutions. Due to high electricity costs in California, they recommend mining in other states.

Flux token, an L1 PoW blockchain, supports distributed data centers running data storage, CMS, docker droplets, etc., serving as a platform for censorship-resistant DApps.

Pay.cool is an open-source decentralized crypto payment network from China, enabling consumers to pay merchants with cryptocurrencies. The app's design and their unclear offerings were noted during a conversation, though they are seeking mining partners.

DeluPay from France offers crypto payment solutions. Only their business card was seen, with their website in French, indicating incomplete internationalization.

Health

There were numerous Sleep Tech products, such as motionsleep's snore-control pillows, bokuk's temperature-regulating duvets, frenz's brainwave-monitoring and bone-conduction music headbands, and Lumos tech's sleep masks.

eclypia introduced a non-invasive glucose-monitoring watch.

aqara uses AI and spatial technology to improve elderly care.

Maintaining good physical health and sleep habits is an effortless way to save money. Good health is invaluable.

Tips for Exhibitors

Exhibit location matters: Avoid corners, small meeting rooms, and dead-ends with low foot traffic. Being in the main hall with popular exhibitors is more effective.

Pre-scheduling meetings and using hotel suites for product displays or business discussions can be a cost-effective strategy.

Hardware is easier to exhibit, especially with performance aspects, unlike software, which relies on engaging taglines, flyers, and demos to attract attention. Descriptive scenes and explanations are essential for less obvious hardware.

Exhibitors engrossed in their phones or in private conversations deter visitor engagement.

Sharing a booth among similar businesses, though unofficial, can help manage budgets.

Booking CES space early is crucial; arrangements can usually be made if plans change.

Branding should be visible to assist visitors with note-taking and photos.

If your demo is impressive, include your booth location on materials to attract more visitors through secondary sharing.

Tips for Attendees

Keep an open mind: Exhibitors are seeking industry connections. Criticism should be reserved as many are there to find or offer solutions within the industry.

The Innovation Awards can help narrow down interests amid the overwhelming variety of products.

Evening events and after-parties offer leisure and networking opportunities distinct from the more formal daytime exhibitions.

Protect your CES badge; replacements are costly.

General Observations

South Korea's presence was notably strong, driven by their need for international markets. Their broad category representation and the dedication of individual exhibitors, including non-English speakers, were impressive.

Apple's absence makes sense, given their ecosystem could overshadow many smaller exhibits.

SQPV glass presents solar panels as glass, though the appearance is somewhat grey, potentially fitting for skyscrapers with lower light transmission requirements.

ProtoHologram impressively projects holograms into a display box.

Elon Musk's Boring Company has a loop under LVCC, offering a unique but ordinary tunnel ride experience, only made notable upon realization of its significance.

Conclusion

For consumers, CES 2024 is a haven for electronic enthusiasts to experience and purchase products at discounted rates. It may not cater well to those already familiar with the market and looking for niche advancements.

For businesses, it's an ideal venue for hardware manufacturers and e-commerce to build supply chains and find collaborations, less so for pure software companies.