Google who has not had a major presence at CES, is set to return in an effort to push their new range of products including new Chromebooks.
The big search Company is set to deliver Chrome Unboxed on the showroom floor where information on an upgraded Chrome OS device along with a large number of products featuring the Google Assistant as well as Chromecast built-in will be shown.
Traditionally, Google’s presence at the massive Consumer Electronics Show has always been indirect as third-party manufacturers feature the latest hardware with the Android operating system, Chromecast and other Alphabet products.
Last year, Google hosted a small, pre-event Made by Google party but did not have an actual booth or product showing at CES.
This year, that all may change.
At CES 2017, Samsung launched the iconic Samsung Chromebook Plus and Pro making it the first Chrome OS device to have a centre-stage presence at this annual event. The only problem is that the device did not make it to Australia.
Not only does Google have a sizeable, free-standing building at this year’s event but they also have eight hospitality suites booked in the Tech South building.
The big question is why such a sudden and grandiose presence at an event that previously held little direct interest to Google?
The last time Google was at the event was in 2017 when Google CEO Sundar Pichai hosted his second Google I/O.
He and other Googlers announced several new “AI first” products and features, including Google Lens, Smart Reply for Gmail and Google Assistant for iPhone.
Pichai also had updated user stats for some of Google’s core devices and tools. There are now two billion active Android devices, 500 million active Google Photos users and 1.2 billion videos and photos uploaded to Google Photos every day.
What I have been told is that Google is set to use the event to directly target Microsoft with a whole new line up of Chromebooks to complement the recently launched Pixelbook.
