Information coming out from CES analysts indicates an increase in demand for consumer technology, with the head of research for the organisers of CES claiming this could exceed the 10 per cent achieved in 2021, and that consumers are investing in premium brands.
Also set to drive sales is ‘Matter’, a platform that bring products and Companies together in the home.
Steve Koenig, VP Research CTA, claims the US market is set to be worth $505 billion dollars, which is a new high for the industry.
The CTA’s report shows that consumers are upgrading to 4K Ultra HD TVs and smart home products, such as doorbells and appliances.
They are also investing in premium brands to create a better experience for themselves, as well as services such as connected fitness devices.
Premium content services are also growing, with the average consumer subscribing to eight different paid services from the likes of Foxtel and Kayo to Amazon Prime, Disney and Netflix.
He admitted the industry is still facing some large challenges, with supply chain issues and chip shortage, but Koenig sees light at the end of the tunnel in both cases.
He claims supply chain should ease and shipping costs are coming down, but delays remain. “It will take the better part of 2022 before we unravel this challenge,” he says.
For the chip shortage, the short-term solution is to squeeze out more product volume from existing facilities.
The real fix for the problem, he says, is to build more chip-making facilities. “It will take time to build the facilities. Once we have these new fabs, by the middle of the decade, we will also have a greater geodiversity of chip facilities.”
Current trends are 5G and AI, but could soon include the Metaverse.
“5G will provide the connected tissue for innovation in this decade,” says Koenig. “In 2022 we will start to turn from a consumer-centric focus of 5G to industrial IoT—increasing cloud infrastructure, digital transformation, and so on.
“The Metaverse is closer than you think, he continues. “The building blocks are here—cloud, 5G, haptics, volumetric video—now we have to assemble them into an experience. The next gen of the internet will create immersive experiences and over time—within 10 years— these experiences will become inextricably linked with our reality.”
An example of this can be seen in the Hyundai Mobis, located in West Hall at CES 2022, where users can create an avatar to test drive a virtual Hyundai.
Also highlighted was that some of the biggest names in Big Tech, including Apple, Amazon, Google and Samsung, have teamed up to develop a new smart-home standard called Matter.
The aim: to ensure home gadgets you buy in the future all play nice with each other, regardless of who made them or what virtual assistant you want to use when interacting with them.
“Today, when you look at a smart-home-connected device, you have to look at what ecosystem it works with,” says Erik Kay, a vice president of engineering at Google. “Where we’re going with Matter is that you don’t have to think about any of that.”
When you consider how territorial some of these companies can be, it can be tough to imagine all of them working together on a project like this. But for once, things will be different, they claim, and with any luck we’ll get our first glimpse at Matter-compatible gear during CES.
