First feedback CES 2020 comments impressions: If there are many questions or statements that annoy me, these are the endless "what was the most striking innovation at CES?" "," What impressed you the most? "And" there are no breakthrough innovations this year ".

When you visit a show of 4,400 stands spread over an area of ​​250,000 m2 covering dozens of different product categories, some old, some new, it is obviously difficult to choose. It depends on his gaze, his centers of interest and also on his knowledge of the pre-existing market. Finding a remarkable product is a bit like asking someone who has lived in hibernation for 20 years, to take them for a walk in a shopping center, passing by an Auchan, a Fnac, a Darty, a Baker, a Leroy Merlin and a Tesla store, and then ask him what surprised or interested him. CES is a bit like that. It is a concentrate of technologies with upstream (components) and downstream (products) in almost all areas: mobility, automotive, personal computers, connected objects, video games, etc. It talks about health, agriculture, home, bicycle, batteries, telecommunications, everything goes there.

First feedback CES 2020 comments impressions

Another thing that annoys me, "this year, exhibitors finally presented solutions and not just products". I’ve heard it after all the CESs I’ve visited since 2006, and exhibitor marketing hasn’t actually changed that much, even though some interoperability standards have made it a little easier.

While I took offense at such an assertion a few years ago, I find that the show is beginning to begin to decline slightly. This can be seen from the decline in the presence of a few large exhibitors such as Intel and Qualcomm. The Chinese presence is also gradually decreasing, mainly due to the economic protectionism of the Donald Trump presidency. This year, exit for example the ZTE, Alibaba and Baidu. And Huawei was content to enhance the photo functions of its P30 Pro smartphone, but not the 5G that appeared in other models. The weaker Chinese presence was, however, compensated by a greater number of exhibitors from South Korea and Taiwan, who thus took up a good part of the space left free.

But the reason seems simpler to me than these geopolitical considerations: the consumer electronics market is in slow decline after experiencing several glorious decades. The major product categories are seeing their sales decline with, in order of arrival, cameras (for more than 10 years), PCs (since 2011), tablets (since 2014), smartphones (since 2017) in finally TV (since 2015). However, the presence of actors at a show depends on their marketing budgets which are in turn linked to their growth. The only categories on the rise are market niches in the connected objects segment outside the previous categories, but which are far from compensating. The same goes for wearables (watches, trackers), augmented or virtual reality solutions, connected health and connected home. But no new digital product category has managed to become "the new smartphone." We don't easily create a new generic platform in this world.

This decline in the major product categories is explained by a double phenomenon: penetration rates for major technologies which are high and have transformed the market from first equipment to the renewal market and cycles of updates which are slowing down, especially in PC, tablets and smartphones.

All this explains why the CES organizer is trying to give it a more "business to business" side with the development of new categories such as smart city, business solutions, tourism, with the remarkable presence of the company. aerial light, John Deere's connected tractors, present for the second time at CES, and the importance of the presence of the automotive industry's technological sector, especially on the equipment side (ZF, Bosch, Visteon, Faurecia, Valeo, Velodyne , Mobileye, LeddarTech, Quanergy, Innoviz, etc.) in addition to the major manufacturers (Nissan, Honda, Mitsubishi, FCA, Ford, Audi, BMW, Mercedes, Hyundai, etc.).

Despite everything, the technological offer is far from being static. It adapts to the times while falling within a supply market that pushes who better technologies without necessarily worrying about the real needs of users. Fortunately, there are many very useful nuggets. Useful solutions are often less visible in such a salon because they are less spectacular. They may also evolve more slowly.

Keynotes are one of the attractions of CES. I’m not going there anymore to save time and I watch them off-line once I’m back in France. The one that made the most buzz was the discussion between Ivanka Trump and Gary Shapiro, the head of the CTA that organizes the CES. The subject ? The future of work? The legitimacy of the President's daughter? The latter entrusted him with this subject, to prepare his future political career. About the ? Soothing.

By the way, when I'm in Las Vegas, I feel more and more like I'm in a real cinematic dystopia. Trump Tower lurking near my own hotel. The intervention of the daughter of the tower guy who is in the White House. Samsung's Neon photorealistic avatars, ready to embody human relationships. The massage chairs that can be found everywhere in the living room and for years, reminiscent of Wall-E. The debauchery of means. The gigantic size of the city and its hotels. Slot machines in casinos. The mind-boggling games from Google and others to attract visitors (example below), ready to queue for half an hour or more to enjoy them. The mind-numbing marketing messages and often the big picture. The huge 4 × 4 on the street. The streets heated up when it's 15 ° C outside. All this is delusional and even disturbing about the future of the human species.

Let’s not forget, however, that CES is the product of Las Vegas and an industry. The tares of the CES only reflect those of the latter. By removing Las Vegas from the equation, the problem would remain.

I will cover here some major trends observed at CES 2020 and in the past year with both transversal subjects (resilience, artificial intelligence, components) and others by classic categories of solutions (video, audio, photo, connected objects , mobility, etc.).

Resilience

The notion of resilience had already been highlighted in the 2019 edition of CES. This year has been in the swing. But apart from a small dedicated area in the living room, was this theme really visible? Yes, and in particular in Eureka Park where many startups are surfing on the need to create sustainable technological offers. But also in other unsuspected places that we will see.

This notion of resilience goes beyond environmental issues. We feel the need to create a more responsible digital offer and even manage a form of digital overflow. It even addresses the field of human resilience to digital abuse!

The preservation of privacy was highlighted, in particular during a debate involving an Apple representative for the first time at CES and probably in a major trade fair around the world. Privacy was also present through the abundance of "Edge AI" technology offerings that allow deep learning software to be run directly into connected objects.

We see an industry cohabiting that doubts its impact or not depending on the case. The delirium of big screens and 8K is in the latter category. Connected objects to better control its energy consumption are in the first.

The CTA once again presented the winning startups from its Eureka park Climate Change Innovators list. With the menu an air conditioning system evaporating water (ST Engineering Innosparks Airbitat Compact Cooler), a French solar energy sharing system (Sunleavs), photovoltaic solar panels with an ultra-transmissive glass improving 15 % efficiency (Edgehog), a carpooling application (RideSVP Green Carpool Network), a technology for manufacturing flexible electronic circuits (Omniply Technologies Mekal) and a solution to reduce fossil energy consumption using fuel based on in two classic wheels (Green Systems Automotives).

We can also quote Odd.Bot (Netherlands) and his Project.BB, a small robot with four wheels supposed to travel the beaches and get rid of dirt, especially plastic and add Zero Mass Water (USA) and Watergen (Israel) , two companies that offer a solution to recover water from the air, provided that an energy source is available, solar or other.

But resilience was emerging in many other areas. The technological offer meets very different human needs: leisure in general, physical movement, social and human relationships - in particular via mobile applications, and finally, what I will call the treatment of societal anxieties, in addition to the environmental issue.

The CES is therefore an opportunity to discover or rediscover countless solutions to treat the isolation of the elderly, health products and in particular in the diagnosis of various pathologies, video surveillance products and protection of openings for the home. connected (connected locks, connected doormen, etc.), cybersecurity solutions to protect communications and data, but also amazing products intended to assess and improve male and female fertility. We will have the opportunity to study them in detail.

Artificial intelligence

AI was the second transversal theme put forward by the CES organizer. Like software in general, it is on the way to become omnipresent in almost all solutions on the market: TVs use it to upscale videos in 4K and 8K or recommend content, smartphones use it with specialized processing units of their chipsets for voice recognition and real-time processing of photos and videos, the voice speakers are controlled by voice, the connected objects generate data making it possible to make forecasts and various recommendations, the videos of the surveillance cameras are interpreted by AI, the dictaphones become “AI recorder” for the Chinese Sogou, and so on. AI was therefore even more than in previous years a recurring message on a large number of stands.

First feedback CES 2020 comments impressions: Some developments were taking shape, however:

The battle for voice control continues with Google and Amazon, which are competing with big advertising boosters for the third consecutive year at CES. The positions do not seem to me to have changed significantly between January 2019 and January 2020. Amazon Alexa seems to always dominate the market ahead of Google Assistant, despite the ubiquity of the latter, especially in devices running Android and with these hundreds of men and women in white scattered on the stands of Google Assistant support companies, but doing little. Besides these many attractions designed for neuneus, a symbol of the futility of some empty marketing actions. In any case, like last year, you could visit the stands of Amazon (indoors) and Google (outdoors) with the use of voice commands in every corner of your home. The use that surprised me the most and seemed useful was this sink faucet from the German Kohler to whom we can ask "pour me such a quantity of water" in the pan, a product launched at CES 2019 .

The battle for AI components is raging, both in data center equipment and in edge computing and connected objects. Many exhibitors from this field attended CES: Nvidia, Intel, Horizon Robotics and the French STMicroelectronics, Cartesiam (hosted by the latter), Kalray (hosted by NXP) and GrAI Matter Labs. And then of course, the Qualcomm, HiSilicon and other Mediatek which equip smartphones and set-top-boxes. There is the question of AI power consumption on the drive side as well as inferences. AI built into connected objects also better protects privacy. After the Snips and Linagora (present on the Business France stand at Eureka Park), others are offering ways to manage voice control locally.

These AI components are also provided in the form of software such as Cyberlink's FaceIA, a face recognition brick that can be used by developers of applications in security or for motion capture intended for video games or Mindtech Global (UK). and his Chameleon, a tool for generating synthetic images for training neural networks for recognizing objects in their context. Many automotive OEMs also specialize in AI-based processing of data from sensors and other cameras.

AI in health is increasingly present, especially in the context of medical imaging, even if it was not the main theme of the health and IoT exhibitors at the show. The variety of diagnostic tools is astonishing, some proposing to do a health check-up just by examining our face with a webcam. This obviously does not replace a real health check-up with biological or radiological examinations.

Many exhibitors are trying to create emotional AI, namely systems with sensors that detect our emotions and allow us to adapt content and solutions according to our state. They often work with connected watches and trackers, but also with electroencephalogram capture helmets, the famous BCI (brain computer interfaces).

The AI ​​is also overly flavored. At LG Electronics, we classify advances in AI in four stages: efficiency (task-oriented), personalization with self-learning capabilities (objective-oriented), reasoning (mission-oriented) and finally exploration. (goal / purpose oriented). That's a lot of conceptual talk. Ultimately, all that to put their ThinQ home AI that manages refrigerators, washing machines that analyze it to determine the best program, robot vacuums and TVs.

Finally, and this made a lot of talk, Samsung made the event by presenting on a stand apart, Neon, an AI capable of generating ultra-realistic human avatars in real size on giant screens. I obviously went to watch this closely to understand what it was doing exactly and how. As a first approach, the solution combines techniques used in cinema (3D scanning of real people, special graphic effects, photo-realistic rendering) and AI bricks to apply expressions and movements on demand to the characters scanned in addition speech like in an Amazon Alexa conversational agent. Beyond the technical prowess, I do not hide from you that this presentation moved me ... negatively. I had the unpleasant feeling of a superhumanization of AI at the potential expense of real human relationships, which I tend to favor. It’s a variety from the famous Strange Valley. Samsung has probably oversold the thing to make the buzz.

Components

Another transversal component of CES that commentators often overlook, that of electronic components in general. The CES is a good den. We see for example what Texas Instrument, Murata, Infineon, NXP or Omron can offer in components for connected objects.

Intel and AMD were pushing their latest generations of processors, in 10 minutes for the first and 7 nm for the second. They are dueling in the market for laptops, desktops, game consoles and servers. Note also that 7nm manufacturing has become the new standard for mobile chipsets, AI, laptop chipsets (AMD) and GPUs (AMD, before Nvidia goes there in 2020). It allows both to increase the capacities of processors while limiting their energy consumption.

One of the battles visible at CES 2020 is that of components dedicated to 5G for consumer products. This concerns in particular modems from Qualcomm, Huawei, Samsung and Mediatek. A slightly hidden issue is their energy consumption, especially in very high speed millimeter bands (around 26 GHz) and the integration or not of this function in the main smartphone chipset. Qualcomm is the first to offer it with its Snapdragon 765G intended for mid-range smartphones. It integrates all the functions of 5G in the chipset at the price of less functionality on the video and AI side. We will see it integrated into smartphones announced at the MWC in Barcelona at the end of February 2020.

Connectivity and mobility

CES 2020 is like every year pretty soft when it comes to innovations in smartphones. And for good reason, the main manufacturers make their announcements outside trade fairs and the others mainly around the MWC in Barcelona, ​​at the end of February in 2020.

We could physically observe the fallout from the puff of smartphones with a folding screen. First presented by screen manufacturer Royole at CES 2019 and then launched at MWC 2019 by Huawei and Samsung, they are not all the rage. Samsung has announced that it has sold half a million in 2019 which is not extraordinary. You could observe closely and touch the folding smartphones of these three companies on their respective stands. Added to this was a small folding flip-screen smartphone from Motorola, which belongs to Lenovo (below). These folding smartphones are currently far too expensive and not that practical for everyday use. Not to mention Samsung which was forced to delay the launch of its Galaxy Fold after the discovery of manufacturing defects.

The main observable evolutions of smartphones are in their photo function with even more objectives and integrated telephoto lenses without counting the improvements in image processing brought by the DSP and NPU (AI bricks) of the new processors which equip them.

The first commercial 5G smartphones were announced in early 2019. Samsung announced that it had sold 6.7 million in 2019. As the 5G offers of telecom operators are nosing in some cities, smartphones are really starting to come out of the woods. But they are not yet truly benchmarked. It will come. Note the 5G smartphones called "pre-6", which means that they only support the frequency bands below 6 GHz and not the millimeter bands above, around 26 GHz. This is not a big deal at first because current mobile applications do not yet need the theoretical speeds provided by 5G, even sub-6.

And the practical applications of 5G? The first cases of applications were presented at CES 2020, notably for the broadcasting of 8K video, like the France Télévisions experiment at Roland Garros in May 2019. I saw this at Sharp. And the applications in health? What about high resolution VR? I saw nothing of it. Moreover, the stands of smartphone manufacturers who presented their 5G models were not at all taken care of to promote application solutions. And for good reason, there are not masses of them. It is said that they will be b2b first. It is possible but we must not underestimate human creativity which is able to quickly take advantage of any new technological capacity. Applications based on virtual and augmented reality could play this role.

Transport network

The CES maintains its place as the leading trade fair for transport technologies, mainly road.

Electric propulsion and autonomy are still on the program. Usually, one can observe a gradual evolution of single, two or three wheeled means of transport each year. We had successively Segways over 10 years ago, hoverboards, then scooters and finally two electric wheels (bikes and motorcycles). This year, I have not identified any changes. There were many manufacturers of scooters, especially Chinese, but not that much.

It is on the technological side of assisted or autonomous driving vehicles that innovation is most visible at CES. Byton returned for the third time, promising to deliver in 2020 his M-Byte presented for the first time at CES 2018.

We can observe the battle of LiDARs between the traditional Velodyne versions with their expensive rotating laser and the new so-called solid-state versions without moving parts as at Innoviz, LeddarTech or Quanergy without counting the high resolution radars which are starting to compete with LiDARs like at Vayyar. AI is playing an increasingly important role in the field to consolidate and interpret the data from these different sensors. Note the presence of the French Outsight which is a best-in-class in this field with a multi-frequency LiDAR and high-performance interpretation AI. He won a real CES Innovation Award and announced partnerships with Faurecia, Safran and ADP.

What about hydrogen? It was highlighted in particular by Faurecia, which launched in 2019 a joint venture with Michelin, Symbio, to develop a complete range of fuel cell propulsion. But apart from that, the good old Lithium-Ion battery with or without cobalt, dominating this CES 2020.

The big question on the deployment of autonomous vehicles is not to determine a precise date for their advent but the pace of their adoption which will depend on many parameters: on what types of roads will they circulate, at what speed, with what type of vehicle (light, utility, truck, special vehicles) and in cohabitation with which other vehicles? Progress and adoption, including regulations, will be assessed as each of these parameters evolves.

But the autonomous driving ecosystem is structured with route planning solutions like the Israeli NoTraffic, with the remote control offered by the Frenchman Lextan who discreetly exhibited in the transport pavilion of Business France, with vehicle simulation stand-alone for their development at Metamoto and Cognata.

How are drones evolving? The CES consecrates their professional uses and the software solutions that accompany them, in particular for automatic guidance. It is found in these flights grouped in the events. To note a great subject of interest crossing drones, aerial imagery and agriculture: hyperspectral imagery which allows to analyze with great finesse the composition of soils and crops. But the CES was not very abundant in drones. DJI had its usual stand, but which I appreciate more for the small stabilized 4K camera Osmo Pocket than for its drones which have become commodities. And then, underwater drones which are mainly leisure activities like at Sublue. The funniest are these few amphibious drones capable of flying in the air and floating on the water to film underwater like the SplashDrone 3+ from SwellPro.

What about passenger drones? There were no more demonstrations than in previous years. We noticed the renewed presence of the huge and improbable Bell Helicopters Nexus and that of a Hyundai machine developed for Uber, which therefore dropped Bell Helicopters. There are many test flights for these drones and other electric VTOLs, notably in Dubai, but these go through the certification process with difficulty, whether they are autonomous flights or not. They also have very limited autonomy due to the energy density limits of current batteries. There was also an Israeli startup showcasing a flying car, but it escaped me, especially on a one square meter stash in the middle of the Israeli startup village.

Mixed reality

The mixed reality market seems to have reached a plateau. Technologies are slowly evolving on the visualization side. They are progressing more in the side as in the positioning and detection tools of the user's hands, or in various systems of physical returns.

In one year, Microsoft Hololens 2 has become a benchmark, as has Oculus Quest. HTC Vive is fluttering a bit. And Magic Leap disappointed, at least in relation to its somewhat oversold promises. Besides, we saw very few on the show.

The physical key points of VR headsets remain their spatial and angular resolution, their viewing angle generally limited to 110 °, their rendering latency and their level of autonomy. Standalone headsets typically rely on the latest generation Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset. The extreme cases are 4K dual image VR headsets and a 210 ° viewing angle. But they are big consumers of machine resources. I was able to test it at XTAL and the rendering was really nice. I did not see the pixels. Lack of luck, that makes a helmet of almost 800g whose wearing is quickly tiring. This is the case for that of Pimax.

CES 2020 was teeming with systems that add physical realism to VR, from fans to haptic clothing to armchairs mounted on jacks (below that of Forum 8, courageously tested by Dimitri Carbonnelle). And for good reason since video games are the first mainstream use of virtual reality. All this in conjunction with over-inflated laptops or towers equipped with beautiful GPU cards from Nvidia or AMD or their OEMs.

Finally, it is in terms of content and applications that this market is evolving, rather for professional uses such as in industry, health, real estate and tourism.

Connected objects

The Sands' large hall was full of connected items for home, family, health and sports like every year. The most prominent categories are those of sleep where the creativity of startups is fairly developed, more or less connected sex toys that were even more numerous than usual and everything that allows you to monitor your babies or pets. There are countless cat litter copycats.

There are more and more health-related objects, including various diagnostic tools that analyze your blood, urine, or even capable of determining some health parameters by observing your face with a simple camera. The MedWand tricorder is amazing in its compactness.

In the field of well-being, CES 2020 was full of solutions claiming to capture our emotions, help us sleep better, or do meditation. Much of it is based on brain wave capture (EEG) helmets. The most astonishing is that of the French NextMind which analyzes the brain waves of the visual cortex recovered with 9 EEG sensors, and deduces what we are looking at thanks to a little AI. It can be used especially for video games.

Another category that still interests me is that of cookware, or more or less connected objects dedicated to cooking. The most common is the more or less elegant copy of the legendary Thermomix. But there are also connected ovens like June, Whirpool and Anova, the latter allowing slow steaming. And the stupidizing in the cookware is well filled with, in particular, this equivalent of a Nespresso to generate its fresh olive oil from ice cubes seen at Oliofresco on the Italian pavilion. It’s a permanent hunt for economic models with recurring revenues. So much so that this model precedes the function. This becomes absurd like these capsules from Tigout (USA) which allow you to prepare cupcakes and the "custom" oven that goes with it. We reach the pinnacle of the absurd without counting the various systems for preparing cocktails.

Connected locks and surveillance cameras were once again plentiful on this CES. Note the Netatmo connected lock which is not connected to the cloud and comes from a “phygital” approach to this product category.

On the robotic side, the domain is still advancing at the speed of the snail slowed down by the turtle. We always see the same telepresence robots, service robots aka rolling tablets that do not hear what is said in the noise, and small programmable robots for educational purposes. Certainly, some robots try to capture human emotions and adapt to them, but it is, fortunately, very rudimentary.

When writing the CES 2020 Report, I was very interested in the batteries, which some manufacturers exhibited in CES 2020. This is one of the key points in the development of mobility. No miracle solution was visible at CES 2020, especially since it does not yet exist. The best batteries are currently the different variants of lithium-ion batteries, especially those that use solid electrolytes as at Prologium.

Video and TV

This is the change in continuity on the television and video side: the manufacturers continue to push forward the beauties of their screens on the colorimetry side (they are beautiful, my saturated colors), brightness and dynamic (for even more photo- realistic and my black is more black than black), resolution (8K, that the eye cannot distinguish with average screen sizes) and size (below 75 inches, you missed your life). OLED screens continue to impress the barge, but I still have doubts about their real advantages compared to good quantum dots LCD screens that improve their colorimetry. This is all the more so since the manufacturers have brought up to date precision backlighting to improve the contrasts and the famous blacks (which hardly exist in current audiovisual production).

Micro-LED-based screens were more common, among almost all manufacturers, and especially for very large screens intended for professional display. In TV, they compete with OLED but are still far too expensive. Samsung presented an even larger version of “The Wall” of 238 inches diagonal and in 8K made of Micro-LED panels whose separations are not detected at all.

Manufacturers are pushing 8K TVs in all directions while deployments of 4K are still in progress and broadcast content in this format is not yet legion.

To make matters even more confusing, DTS was pushing IMAX certification for home theater installations, complementing the THX certification for multichannel audio. It was notably obtained by Sony for its high-end TVs.

In terms of content, the ATSC 3.0 starts slowly in the USA. It is the analogue of high-resolution DTT and European HbbTV. Only LG Electronics supports it in Smart TVs launched at CES 2020 and intended for the Korean and US markets. American broadcasters do not rush to the gate to adopt it.

SVOD continues to rake uses at the expense of broadcast and the dominance of Netflix is ​​only heckled from afar by Amazon Prime Video. In short, Netflix has been a staple in any connected device and for at least half a dozen years.

Photo

Hybrid cameras are now kings even if professional SLR users have not yet adopted them massively. Their price and weight advantage is not that obvious. In any case, all categories of cameras are seeing their sales decline, even the hybrids.

This is due to smartphones that are becoming more and more sophisticated on the photo side, including in low light and powered by AI. In 2019, we even saw 100 mpixel sensors for smartphones appear. It’s big no matter what, despite the ability to aggregate pixels by four to generate a 25 mpixel image with better sensitivity. Note that the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 chipset supports sensors up to 200 mpixels just in case. It’s really not reasonable!

Audio

The audio is declining every year at CES. The audio high-end area has almost completely disappeared from the Venetian hotel floors.

There are always as many Bluetooth headsets and earphones for your smartphones. The innovations are rather in the earphones for the hearing impaired or allowing simultaneous translation of conversations. Ambient noise cancellation is still a key feature, especially for successful CES audio demonstrations.

High resolution audio (HiRes Audio) is not really marketed by manufacturers, including smartphones, even when they support it. This is related to the overflow of features that are difficult to value at the same level.

Multichannel sound doesn't change that much and makes you dream less. It is increasingly powered by monoblock speakers and is therefore only a substitute for it. Few households can install a Dolby Atmos device with 11 speakers at home! The flagship audio products for the home are connected speakers supporting Amazon Alexa and / or Google Assistant as well as sound bars for TV.

Personal computers

This year was marked by the adoption of the latest generation (9) of Core Intel processors which are gradually improving performance and autonomy and integrating an NPU for the first time to accelerate AI applications.

In 2019, we saw attempts at dual screen laptops from Asus and Lenovo, but they are not widely adopted. At CES 2020, Dell and Lenovo presented their first foldable screen laptops, but creating as many problems as they solve. Indeed, to have a keyboard, you have to add an external one on the lower part of the laptop.

The CES is above all an opportunity for manufacturers to present their new players laptops, equipped with the latest GPUs, most often Nvidia RTX. One found in particular at the Taiwanese MSI just like at Dell.

3D printing

The 3D printing area continues to melt under the Las Vegas sun every year. It is increasingly dedicated to professional applications. These are very relevant for visitors who are product creators and need prototyping or even 3D manufacturing tools. The most prominent printers are those that create metal parts and use innovative materials, especially composites. Multi-material printers are no more common than before.

And for the general public, go your way. 3D printers for Mrs. Michu are toys that don't do much, except for soulful DIYers who want to experience them.

Blockchain

There were around forty companies at CES 2020 highlighting a Blockchain or a cryptocurrency. It’s not easy to explain and demonstrate. The themes of electronic payment and means of payment were not particularly highlighted.

Quantum

What about quantum? He was present at CES in two main forms. First, with the venerable IBM who presented a complete model of his 20-bit Q System One Q announced at CES 2019. I saw three IBM engineers take turns explaining quantum quantum to passers-by in three minutes. Doubtful that they could not absorb it too much in one go. And then, it did not miss, I came across several companies that put forward the quantum side of their offer with hints of quantum washing. For example, a quantum glucose measurement system called Gluco Quantum. In addition to Samsung which continues to present its Quantum.ai processor for its 4K and 8K TVs. We will have an opportunity to discuss this later.

And then of course, there was the presentation of the Forteza report at the National Assembly in Paris on January 9, 2020, without my being able to be there physically. I related the main lines in Les ambitions de la France dans le quantique, published on January 9… from Las Vegas.

Human experience

Visiting the CES is also a rewarding human experience, even if it's always a little too much between French people. I made my visit accompanied by different people met more or less fortuitously. The first day with Evlampia Thoreau, consultant in marketing and operations, in particular in virtual and augmented reality, then another day with three deputies, Laure de la Raudière, Eric Bothorel and Christine Hennion and finally, the last with Stefane Maynard de Benomad , an exhibitor of the Business France pavilion dedicated to transport.

It was also the Convergence evening organized by La Tribune, IMT and Business France, an opportunity to meet the great diversity of French people visiting the CES, even if the speeches were not exciting. There were easily 800 people. And we meet a number of friends and acquaintances in the aisles. And then the dinners and meetings with Fanny Bouton, Dimitri Carbonnelle, Alain Regnier, Jean Rognetta from Forbes for a memorable interview, Rodrigo Sepulveda-Schulz, Stéphanie Hajjar (from Leroy Merlin), Alexandre Zapolsky (Linagora), Elisabeth Partouche, Serge Soudoplatov, Jean-Pierre Corniou and all those I forget.

You can also experience the reception of exhibitors which goes from best to worst. The best part is Canon, where I am recharging the battery of my DSLR which was dead, or discussions with Technicolor or Broadpeak teams in the Venetian suites. But also the visit to the stands of Central Hall on Friday morning when there is hardly anyone, like at Sony, and the demonstrators are available as well as the visit to the suites of Taiwanese exhibitors like MSI and Thermaltake who are not choosy. by firing the opportune ones.

Worst of all, these invitation-only stands cannot be visited without an appointment. Each year, I test the relational and marketing flexibility of these exhibitors. The disappointment was great at Microsoft whose access to the showroom was denied me when it was not crowded and after having yet explained what I was doing at CES. Unable to speak to a media relations / analyst representative, nothing to do with my past at home and no information available on what was presented, not even a business card with an Internet link. This is the zero degree of marketing! Too bad for them: I would not write anything about what they were doing at CES 2020. It is also the reception of not really nice American hostesses on the Valeo stand who did not want to hear anything and could not put me in relation with the French teams of the company who know me well! Processes are good, but taking into account people and flexibility is a little better. Here it is, it says.

Human, it is also to observe with difficulty all these people employed in the shitty jobs of CES and Las Vegas. The hostesses who must smile all day long on the stands. Demonstrators who repeat scripts that they didn't write 100 times a day and that make no sense, like what I saw in the company of deputies at IBM with a game of colored balls supposed to explain the machine learning, big data and the cloud.

First feedback CES 2020 comments impressions: These are the hundreds of men and women in white temporarily hired by Google, who are almost useless and whom I have already mentioned. He's the elevator guy from the Venetian who spends his time between the lobby and floors 29/30/31. She is the (very pretty) lightly dressed dancer on the very touristic Freemont Street and whose role is to attract hours of customers to an outdoor bar. It is the night security guard paid $ 20 an hour and having to line up two jobs to make ends meet who watches the showroom for products that have won an award and who hesitates for November 2020 between Trump and Sanders / Warren, but not if Biden wins the primary (sighs). These are all Hispanics who exercise the service trades in hotels. It is also the policeman who manages an access light to the Las Vegas Convention Center, with whom I spoke for a few minutes about security and traffic in Las Vegas and who extended my hand to thank me for the discussion just before I cross. A little humanity in this world of brutes does not hurt !.