CES2020: all wrapped up

Well that’s CES over for another year. It was as hectic as ever, and probably busier than I have ever seen it. But in the end, we all survived it!

Over the last decade that I’ve been attending, CES has certainly morphed from being purely a consumer electronics show, into the amazing showcase it has become for automotive, IOT and robotics and machine learning. Of course, the focus on the consumer hasn’t completely disappeared with smart home, immersive entertainment and gaming as well as health and fitness. In fact, given our essential semiconductors can be found in every electronics design it is a perfect event for Nexperia.

Highlights from the exhibition floor

While there may not have been any must-have, next big thing announcements there certainly was a lot to see. Especially with robotics. Exoskeletons to help engineers lift heavy machinery during industrial repairs – if you haven’t seen them, think of a cross between Iron Man and a Transformer. Or Omron’s table tennis robot which now uses emotion recognition to tailor its game to the player’s frustration and skill levels. That kind of capability could revolutionize the way people interact with technology, everyday appliances and digital services.

Of the big trends, 5G was naturally a hot topic with all metro US cities due to launch the technology this year. That’s a huge infrastructure challenge to cope with 25 billion IOT connections by 2025. Of course, it is also a huge opportunity for all kinds of players, making possible everything from always-connected PCs to automotive companies becoming content providers.

There was more blurring of the boundaries for automotive. Automotive met aeronautic with the world’s first passenger drone and Hyundai’s S-A1 flying taxi - they are really going to set new standards for compact, lightweight power electronics. And emotion recognition was seen again in Driver Monitoring for ADAS systems.

It’s about relationships

For all the exciting demos, the real value of CES to a semiconductor supplier like Nexperia is the chance to meet so many players in the future of electronics in one place. Whether it is scheduled meetings with existing customers and partners or impromptu chats with innovators and engineers on the exhibition floor, it is a unique opportunity to share thoughts on where technology and the industry is going and how semiconductor suppliers can help it get there. Who knows, one of those chats could be the inspiration for the star demo at next year’s CES.

Hopefully, I will see you there.