The Two Poles Of 2021Ces: "Black Technology" Appears Frequently, And "Cloud Exhibition" Is Cold

Despite the impact of the global epidemic, CES 2021 still meets with the participants as scheduled. On the evening of January 12, Beijing time, CES officially opened for four days.

What's special this year is that the venue of the exhibition moved from traditional Las Vegas to online, becoming the first full-scale exhibition since CES was founded more than 50 years ago. The online exhibition is divided into four major parts: 5g, intelligent city, digital medical and intelligent transportation.

As the most important science and technology exhibition in the world, CES every year is an important stage for leading technology enterprises to show top technology. In the history of CES for many years, the audience has witnessed the birth of many scientific and technological products that can be regarded as creating history and promoting industrial revolution. Even, since only two of the four digital exhibitions were successfully held in 2020, CES is the best place for manufacturers to "show their muscles" for a year.

"In addition to the further development of display technology, the in-depth application of AI technology in wearable and home devices has further improved the intelligence and personalization of future consumer IOT devices." Pan Xuefei, manager of IDC's China market research, told 21st century economic reporter.

However, the way CES "opens in the cloud" this year makes it less lively than in previous years. According to the consumer Technology Association (CTA), the organizer of CES, last year's CES attracted more than 4500 enterprises from 161 countries and regions around the world, with 170000 visitors. However, this year's CES has significantly decreased compared with the same period last year, with more than 1960 booths.

It's not my favorite CES, but we've done our best. " CTA CEO Shapiro said. IC photo

Next generation display technology

There are many eye-catching trend products on CES this year, from transparent display screen to new smart home products, to the recent hot automatic driving, which have been widely displayed on CES.

On the first day of CES opening, Hisense, LG, Samsung, Skyworth, Sony and TCL all launched large screen smart TV on CES. Samsung, LG and other manufacturers have exhibited the next generation LCD with stronger backlight and higher contrast, but the routes are different.

Samsung vigorously promotes qled and microled technology to replace the current hot OLED display technology, so as to throw out Samsung Neo qled and micro LED TV. Among them, 110 inch micro LED TV products won the "Best Innovation Award" in this exhibition. The products will be launched in China in March, and then successively landed in the global market.

LG adopted the new panel technology of "OLED Evo" and new "light emitting elements" in the G1 series TVs on display, in order to improve the display effect of TV. According to LG officials, the technology can increase the luminous rate by 20%. As a result, the resolution, clarity and brightness of the LG G1 series TV are significantly improved.

In addition to the traditional large screen TV, transparent display and scrollable screen are also highlights of CES this year.

During CES, LG launched a 55 inch transparent OLED TV, which can be used in business occasions such as restaurants and shopping malls. According to the data, the TV has 40% transparency, providing clear image quality and being as transparent as glass. It can display the user's sleep duration, heart rate, etc. in the half up state, and then it will be a complete large screen TV.

TCL has demonstrated two new types of scrollable OLED screens in CES this year. One is a 6.7-inch AMOLED cloud scroll screen, and the other is TCL China Star's first 17 inch ink-jet printing flexible display screen in the world.

Among them, the 6.7-inch AMOLED cloud scrolling screen takes the design of small smart phones as an example. It can quickly "pull out" the flexible screen hidden inside by sliding the casing, extending from 6.7 inches to 7.8 inches. The ink jet printing flexible display screen has a deployment size of 17 inches, which can be expanded from a small screen to a large portable display.

"Display technology has always been one of the most important display parts on CES, and this year is no exception," Pan Xuefei pointed out. "Emerging display technology represents the forefront of screen interaction development. Combined with the release of high-end chips from home appliance manufacturers, these applications in smart TV have further strengthened manufacturers' determination to try to build them as home interaction centers."

"As consumers who stay at home have to turn to home entertainment, the global pandemic of the new epidemic indirectly drives the potential sales of consumer electronics such as TV," an industry observer told the 21st century economic report. "Consumers' demand for television has increased, and manufacturers have accelerated the pace of new technology development."

The rise of mobile robots

At the consumer electronics show in 2021, LG and Samsung both introduced new robots for cleaning homes and businesses.

Among them, LG demonstrated cloi UV disinfection robot, which was first released at the Korea International Electronics Exhibition (KES 2020) in December 2020.

According to reports, the robot is 1.6 meters high and adopts an autonomous mobile design, which can easily move between tables, chairs and other furniture. At the same time, the robot has UV-C ultraviolet function, which can effectively kill 99.9% of Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus within a radius of one meter. It is suitable for areas with large traffic such as hotel rooms and restaurants. LG said the robot will be available in early 2021.

Samsung demonstrated the jetbot 90 AI plus robot vacuum cleaner, which will be launched in the United States in the first half of this year. With lidar, 3D sensors and object recognition technology, the robot can determine the best cleaning path and avoid obstacles. According to reports, jetbot intelligent vacuum cleaner uses Intel's AI technology and will compete with IRBT's Roomba sweeping robot.

Samsung also launched two mobile personal assistant robots, including BOT care and BOT handy. BOT care personal assistant robot can act as a robot assistant, interact with users through AI technology, and remind users of appointments and to-do items. BOT handy has a robotic arm that can help users with household chores such as taking clothes, doing chores and putting tableware in the dishwasher.

In addition, Uber also shows two types of robot adibot series that disinfect space through ultraviolet lamp. Adibot-s can be pushed into a certain room or a specific area for disinfection; adibot-a is equipped with lidar, which can draw room structure diagram independently and carry out mobile disinfection.

It is obvious that this year's new epidemic has affected the direction of many technology industries, and users have begun to pay more attention to personal health and family environment. Steve Koenig, vice president of CTA research, pointed out that smart home devices related to environmental health have become the trend of 2021ces. Some analysts predict that there will be more and more household appliances that can be controlled without touching in the future.

Cloud show is cold

In 2020, affected by the epidemic situation, only ces and IFA will be held as scheduled among the world's four "digital exhibitions" - CES, MWC Barcelona, IFA and Computex.

As a result, this year's CES may become one of the "most informative" exhibitions in history.

Moreover, this year's online exhibition mode, compared with the previous "one-off" exhibition, also has more value-added functions such as looking back in 30 days. According to Gary Shapiro, CEO of CTA, this year, CES registered members can review keynote speeches, online meetings, etc. within 30 days, and most of the links have reserved Q & A sessions, so people can ask questions online.

However, CES, which is frequently seen in black technology this year, is still in cold weather, with less than 2000 exhibitors, less than half of last year's, and its attention has been greatly reduced. The 21st century economic report reporter inquired Baidu Index and found that on the day before the opening of CES last year, the CES search index was as high as 19252, and the search index on the opening day was 12217. However, before and after the opening of CES this year, the highest search index was the next day of the opening, with a search index of only 3783.

In fact, although it seems that digital exhibitions can make global technology players more convenient, many CES watchers still tell 21st century economic reporters that they have no sense of participation.

Even the new products that once could be seen only after crowding to the exhibition stand, the impression presented on the Internet this year is limited by the audience's own hardware and software facilities. "I tried to open the link of a manufacturer's booth, but I didn't open it for several minutes, and then I gave up." One participant told 21st century business reporter, "when you open the web buffer, you can kill most of your expectations for any product."

Not only is the experience of seeing new products discounted, but as the annual "wind vane" of consumer electronics, the exchange and collision at the exhibition is also extremely valuable. However, this year's face-to-face communication is difficult to achieve. "I used to be in the venue for several days when I attended the meeting. I just looked at the website and news reports in these two days, which was not particularly interesting." Said the person.

Behind the cold weather of CES this year is the result of the global epidemic. In fact, in June last year, CTA also said that ces2021 was still planned to be held in the form of offline exhibitions, but in order to prevent and control the epidemic situation, some measures would be taken, such as regular cleaning and cleaning of all places in the venue, disinfecting hand sanitizer in the venue, widening the corridor of the exhibition area, so that participants can keep social distance.

However, as the global epidemic situation, especially in the United States, has not been effectively controlled, the CTA announced in July 2020 that due to the inability to ensure the safe gathering of tens of thousands of people, the activities could only be held online.

"It's not my favorite CES, but we've done our best." Gary Shapiro, CEO of CTA, points out. CTA and its partners hope that even though the scale of this year's event is larger than expected, they still expect the exhibition to return to normal next year.