Limpert Tech on ALT 105.7 and iHeartRadio 1/5/19 - CES 2019 Preview

The Consumer Electronics Show, CES is the largest tradeshow and convention in the world.

It all happens this coming week in Las Vegas.

CES is the world's gathering place for all those who thrive on the business of consumer technologies. It has served as the proving ground for innovators and breakthrough technologies for 50 years — the global stage where next-generation innovations are introduced to the marketplace.

Owned and produced by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), it attracts the world's business leaders and pioneering thinkers.

 

Rick is here to give a preview of what may be hot at CES 2019, so have a listen:

1.  CES by the numbers... the numbers are staggering

 

2.  Tech for the Aging Population

Health gadgets aren’t just for the young. The elderly population is a growing business opportunity, and the category of “aging tech” now includes everything from smart hearing aids to connected toolkits for relatives with dementia. It’s an important area with plenty of problems to solve, but some of the biggest problems with caretaking are social, and the highest-tech gadget won’t do a thing if your grandmother refuses to use it.

Everyone grows old, but Americans are growing older more quickly. The number of Americans over 65 will double by 2060, according to a 2016 report by the Population Research Bureau, and the elderly are living longer, too. According to the Society of Actuaries, if a woman on a pension plan lives past 65, she will, on average, live to be 87.6 years; for men, that number is 85.6 years. “There are already risk managers and insurance people telling people out there to plan to live to 95,” says Laurie Orlov, the founder of Aging in Place Technology Watch. There is a place for technology here, though perhaps some of these companies haven’t thought through their concepts quite enough.

There will alert products at CES. Products also to prevent falls, medical issues, taking medication and more.

3. 8K TVs

4K and HDR tech are pretty much standard. Smart TVs, always a hot topic at CES, are still a mess of irrelevance since the TV is always secondary to the sticks, dongles, and boxes we connect to them, and creating smarts where it counts. One thing that consumers will always understand, though, is more pixels.

And that's why we're going to hear a lot about 8K at CES 2019. Let's be real: A TV with 7,680 x 4,320 resolution is a visual absurdity — there's no way you'd come close to seeing individual pixels at anything resembling a normal viewing distance.

4. Tech for Improving your Health 

This may be the CES to attend to stay healthy.

Sleep technology, for example, encompasses everything from mattresses to white noise devices to dedicated sleep wearables. Air purifiers are embracing smart tech and new form factors to convince more people to make them part of their lives. Technology for improving your health is changing from specialized medical devices for specific conditions to consumer lifestyle products everyone can benefit from, one category at a time.

5.  5G

5G is already here (Verizon and AT&T both have — extremely limited — active networks), but we're still weeks if not months away from smartphones that can take advantage of them. And even when those phones arrive, the transition isn't as simple as turning on a 5G modem.

Nonetheless, 2019 is poised to become the Year of 5G, and they hype train begins at CES, at least as far as consumers are concerned. If all goes well, CES 2019 will show the world what 5G will do for us besides just giving us faster smartphones. More secure smart-home devices, battery-operated remote sensors, and reliable tele-health apps.

6. Non traditional companies at CES

Insurance companies like Allstate

The Girl Scouts

Robots

Automotive companies

Apparel companies

Adult oriented companies