CES is one of the most famous technology fairs around the world and is carried out every January in the vibrant city of Las Vegas. Every year all the consumer electronic titans – think of Intel, LG, Microsoft, Sony, Samsung, Panasonic and so many more –  showcase their newest products while smaller startups also get the opportunity to present their groundbreaking creations.

2018 marked the show’s 50th anniversary: from self-driving cars to AI pets, 2018 CES promised to bring the latest trends in the tech world!

Our colleagues from the Sales Team, Peter and Said, went there to represent 5CA. They got the chance to see the release of all sorts of new products and experience some of them first-hand (while showing off their 5CA bags)!

According to Said, the main stars of this year’s CES were personal assistant robots with AI and Alexa enabled products; especially AI robots geared towards the customer service (for receiving guests for example). There were also lots of smart home devices such as fridges that can suggest recipes based on the food you have in them; talk about time-saving!

Pete also adds that products that protection and anti-hacking devices were also a very big thing since risks have increased with all the new technologies.

Aside from looking at the brand-new shiny things, Pete and Said paid a visit to the booths of our clients who were present at CES like AMD, B&O Play, Immotor, Razer, Sennheiser and Philips. Immotor’s new release created a big buzz, as they introduced a new subscription system which allows replacing your scooter batteries on the road whenever you’re running out. The pilot for this system is being run on a few Chinese cities and we cannot wait to hear how it turns out!

Apart from visiting our clients, Pete and Said also met with one of our agents, Antoine Vaba, whose stunning and innovative computer made it to the top 10 of CES 2018 according to the French website Vonguru! Together with his friend Maxime Cazaillon, they created Monkey Bidouille, a customizable PC that looks like a luxurious audio device from the 70s! Antoine tells us:

We got to personally explain the project to 800+ people during the show, meeting a lot of industrial designers, big tech companies, retailers and people from the industry. We received amazingly good feedback and have some very interesting people interested in our product (either buying or investing). My friend and associate is working full time on the project now, and I just recently moved to the NL. I still help with a lot of things remotely (5CA proves it is possible!)

This year showed a lot of strengthening regarding these various fields: where in previous years brands just presented a lot of new and different products, this year they had a clear product and market in view. For example, in the case of some drone companies, they went from products geared towards the general public to being specifically designed towards security companies.

Said tells us that there are 3 main areas in consumer electronics that have a lot of growth potential: 3D printing, drones and wearables. The ‘wearables’ field has expanded a lot and gone from just bracelets to rings, headbands and headsets and also to encompass things like sleep supervision devices that measure when you are in deep sleep, when to wake you up, for how long and uninterrupted you sleep, etc.

Said’s favorite things to see were: the Modo motorized carry-on bag that will drive you around the airport as well as the impressive LG HD 8k immersive screen system that made you feel like you were right there!

Pete, on the other hand fell in love with the 3D printed figures and enjoyed meeting his hero Deadpool (we’re not sure which product he was promoting…)