CES 2017 - The Shape of Things To Come

The ol' Schmoidster managed to finagle himself a trip to the big Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this year.  It's not really that hard if you don't mind working a booth and spending time in Sin City without actually sinning too much.  With that in mind, I want to thank ZTE USA for having me out there to help and talk about their Axon 7 unlocked phone (a steal at $399).

Because I was working a booth though, it did mean that I was not able to get out and see all of the IoT offerings until the afternoon of the last day of the show.  A time when many of the booths are beginning to shut down, the employees that are left are burnt out and are tired of discussing their stuff.  Many of the presentations that were not at the Las Vegas Convention Center were either already shut down or in process.

The Intel 'Tiny Smart Home' getting packed up

Still, I was able to hit a few booths and come up with a two spins that I doubt that the mainstream media are spending much time on: Market Crowding and Design.

Everyone in the Pool

It seemed that every booth of any size had some sort of Smart Home offering.  TP-Link, Intel, Qualcomm, Bosch, LG, Panasonic, Ericsson, Haier, Hauwei, Changhong... the list goes on.  Even the ZTE booth I was in had a Smart Home offering.  There was so many players that some of the older, more established brands like Jasco and GE seemed lost in the clutter.  Samsung even moved their SmartThings display out of their main booth over to the Aria hotel in order to cater to a more select clientel (those willing to make the hike, which did not include this guy due to working the booth I was being paid to work.  Stupid money.)

The part of this that was particularly depressing was the incredible sameness of all of the offerings.  Everyone had a hub.  Everyone had a small, white, square smart plug.  Everyone had a wall switch and a wall dimmer and a light bulb and a door sensor and a motion sensor and a gas sensor and a water sensor and a... it was all the same.  I'm sure that if I had taken the time to interrupt the sales guy from hitting on the model and get an actual presentation, I might have been able to get some level of differentiation, but all three of us (the sales guy, the model and your Schmoid) were too burnt out to bother.  My guess is that the talking points I would have received would not have varied as much as the various brands would have liked.  Instead everything was just another white, square plug module.

ZTE Smart Home

Panasonic Modules

HiSense Modules

iHome Modules

ChangHong Modules

This went beyond the physical into the software as well.  Everyone worked with one of the voice assistant systems (Echo and Google Home), if not both.  Everyone had a long list of the back-end systems with which they worked, all with the mostly the same sets of logos.  The whole thing felt like some weird sorority party where everyone wore the same dress, with the same hair, the same make up and the same shoes (because I have so much experience with sorority parties).

Better Bathing Suits

Which brings us the other topic: design.  The IoT needs better designers.  Admittedly, most of these are devices that will be hidden or should not stand out in a room.  However, that does not mean that some effort should be made to make them attractive.  White wall warts with rounded corners are at best inoffensive, but why settle for such mediocrity?

It turns out that the answer is not that easy.  There were a scant few manufacturers that stepped out and tried to design something that was different.  And the results were not great.  I'm going to pick on TP Link a little here because their product is soooooo far away from the norm.

Just look at those wall plugs.  They are big.  They have antennas.... everywhere.  They have design elements stolen from a MyFirst Smart Home children's play set.   In a word, they are hideous.  But... TP Link tried.  So mega props for that.

Jasco (and therefore, GE as well) is the other brand that tried and they appear to get it.

While they did not stray too far from the white wall warts, the design is more rounded and looks like something that belongs in the McMansion great room of the affluent.  I also really like their hinge mounted door sensor; it looks better and hides itself more cleanly.  Or maybe I'm a sucker for better in booth presentation.

And so that's my take on the IoT presence at CES 2017.  For actual reviews, you can go to Edgadget and Digital Trends and all the rest of the usual suspects.  I'll leave you with a pic of Carly Chaikin that I took while she was being interviewed at the CNET booth.  She claims that working on Mr. Robot has made her much more conscious and freaked out by cyber security.  As it should.