CES 2015: Tech industry looks beyond smartphones and tablets

We’ve come to the end of the biggest technology trade show that usually decides the tech trends for the upcoming year.  In the past couple of years, we’ve seen phones and tablets take the centre stage, but this year it was different. We’ve moved beyond phones and tablets and the products displayed at the CES this year will vouch for it.

Smartphones have reached kind of  stagnation when it comes to the hardware. A better processor, sleek design, bigger display, and what next? Last year, we saw companies attempting to bring some innovations via unique software features and most of them came across as gimmicks. How often will you use the heart rate monitor or some other fancy feature in a day, after all. Having said that, smartphones still remain an eminent part of our lives and it is wiser building newer avenues around the device category rather than attempting further improvements in it. And the companies know it well.

From smartwatches and drones to connected home and cars, new categories took centre stage at the CES, whilst maintaining their easy accessibility via smartphones, at least most of them. Yes, it was all about creating these new avenues, which will work fantastically with the support of your smartphones, at least for now.  So among a handful of phones and barely any tablets (further hinting about its extinction), we saw it all.

Wearables for that matter are the best way to personalize things, without pulling the smartphone from your pocket. That’s why companies have started pushing connected health services and other elements like voice recognition that will make accessing and communicating with wearables and their tiny screen convenient. Find out why we think smartwatches aren’t just a fad, but here to stay .

Internet of Things also seems to be gathering pace and looks like a new phase of the Internet is ready to begin. Yes, after personal computing, mobile computing and wearables, its going to be about the objects around us that we use in our daily lives. Yes, what else could offer complete personalisation than things we require everyday. The CES 2015 has managed to convey this message out loud. Even companies like Belkin , that are known for their storage and networking products have showcased new connected sensors that alert users when the bulb is switched on to if they’ve left the window open.

A few years ago, drones weren’t a part of your usual tech conversations. Looks like the advent of e-commerce and the fact that Amazon is testing it, has just made it mainstream. Now, we have companies like Intel who used a drone to demonstrate the beauty of its RealSense depth-sensing camera at its keynote. Using Intel’s RealSense camera a drone is capable of autonomously navigating while avoiding objects and people in the surrounding area. The drones are smart to identify the escape route. After some catching up with the mobile world, looks like Intel now plans to make its product future-ready and ensure its not late to the party.

Intel’s rival Qualcomm also showcased its latest innovation in the field of robotics through Snapdragon Cargo which is a flying and rolling robot, built around the Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset. The Cargo also comes with its own integrated flight controller.

Finally, we saw the CES 2015 clearly indicate that connected cars are the future of automobile industry . In fact, Audi’s team took everyone by surprise by showing off their wearable that connects to the car. At CES, we saw Ford’s Mark Fields’ spill the beans about the company’s approach that is to focus initially on connecting cars and their drivers to the mobile Web, with apps as the building blocks, and work on sensors and software that eventually will enable the development of fully autonomous vehicles in the next decade. On the other hand, Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz took a different approach. The new Mercedes prototype at CES could drive itself down city boulevards while passengers used hand gestures to call up information about restaurants along the route or receive invitations to party from friends nearby.

While we don’t see much hope for tablets, a whole new world around the smartphones is slowly cropping up. It’s to early to say and debatable whether the new connected world and wearable products will eventually bid goodbye to the smartphone era.