Consumer Electronics Show 2018: Business and Enterprise Expectations

As we prepare for our on-site coverage of the Consumer Electronics Show 2018, we are looking for those products and services that have business or enterprise applications. You would be surprised at just how much is out there in these two areas.

Richard Hay, Senior Content Producer

January 5, 2018

3 Min Read
Consumer Electronics Show 2018

For an event labelled as a Consumer Electronics Show, there are a lot of products in the business and enterprise categories that can be found. I have been able to lay out a plan across my four days on the ground to bring you news in this area from a consumer focused show.

Here are some of the key areas I will be looking into while I am at the Consumer Electronics Show 2018.

Voice Control

We already know that the smart speaker market is dominated by Amazon with Google and Microsoft playing catchup. As I wrote recently, just having one of these speakers in your office can drastically increase your usage of the service. It looks like other companies are starting to build up their own voice control capabilities into their products or using existing ecosystems to add that option to their services.

Internet of Things (IoT)

This category has been growing for some time now, and ranges from simple devices that connect various items to the Internet to collect data and those with much more detailed capabilities. One area that was big at CES 2017: secure routers that help provide security to the IoT devices that do not have that ability built in. By learning the data patterns, these routers could recognize when attached devices might not be doing what you expect them to do.

The overall IoT push continues in the name of saving money and resources in the enterprise or business organization. These products now cover a wide range of services from the aforementioned data collection, security, and environmental sensors. In addition to these capabilities, new product/service categories are emerging that provide tools to collate and analyze all of this information so it can be turned into actionable data. That, in turn, helps to automate processes so that companies get a return on the infrastructure investment.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)/ Machine Learning (ML)

These behind-the-scenes technologies impact nearly every service that can be used today in business and enterprise applications. Last year, I wrote about how Microsoft approaches AI as an invisible force behind the smart services they offer customers. Other companies take the same approach, and the mentions about AI and ML in the Consumer Electronics Show 2018 email flow have been very frequent. One company is even demoing an emotion chip for robots and AI machines. While that particular deployment reminds me of the Star Trek movie where Data installs his own emotion chip, I’m very interested to see this among all of the AI/ML items on my list, and if it has a true impact on those applications.

Cyber and Physical Security

This is a category that has a lot of crossover with the AI/ML and IoT categories above, and several vendors are showing off products and services that enhance these two approaches to security. Included among this category are traditional networking companies like Netgear and new offerings of Private and On-Premises Cloud services to compete with the big three (AWS, Google, and Microsoft).

Translation Services

Making sure you can do business with every potential customer is an important approach to your products and services. Translation tech brings together machine learning, artificial intelligence and speech as a primary interface. One of the companies I plan to visit has what appears to be a universal voice translator, and another one appears capable of translating sign language.

Odds And Ends

Some other odd areas I have planned to check out include: wireless charging, turning tactile surfaces into touch interfaces, co-working spaces, ergonomic furniture, and docking stations. The needs of a mobile workforce create the demand for technologies that make those employees more productive when they are on the go and when they drop in for a recharge before heading back out again. There are even a couple of companies touting Augmented, Virtual, and Mixed Reality solutions for enterprise/business related work.

Stay tuned here at ITPro Today and on my Twitter account (@WinObs) for our coverage throughout the Consumer Electronics Show 2018.

About the Author

Richard Hay

Senior Content Producer, IT Pro Today (Informa Tech)

I served for 29 plus years in the U.S. Navy and retired as a Master Chief Petty Officer in November 2011. My work background in the Navy was telecommunications related so my hobby of computers fit well with what I did for the Navy. I consider myself a tech geek and enjoy most things in that arena.

My first website – AnotherWin95.com – came online in 1995. Back then I used GeoCities Web Hosting for it and WindowsObserver.com is the result of the work I have done on that site since 1995.

In January 2010 my community contributions were recognized by Microsoft when I received my first Most Valuable Professional (MVP) Award for the Windows Operating System. Since then I have been renewed as a Microsoft MVP each subsequent year since that initial award. I am also a member of the inaugural group of Windows Insider MVPs which began in 2016.

I previously hosted the Observed Tech PODCAST for 10 years and 317 episodes and now host a new podcast called Faith, Tech, and Space. 

I began contributing to Penton Technology websites in January 2015 and in April 2017 I was hired as the Senior Content Producer for Penton Technology which is now Informa Tech. In that role, I contribute to ITPro Today and cover operating systems, enterprise technology, and productivity.

https://twitter.com/winobs

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