CES 2014: What To Expect From This Year’s Segment

The international CES is one of the biggest event for electronics and technology showcase of the year. Each year technology fans and addicts look forward to this event which tends to showcase the upcoming technologies and concepts which may come to light later that year. This year’s Consumer Electronics Show, CES 2014, which is scheduled for 7-10th January, should not be any different. This event should chosen by many companies to debut and display their innovativeness that should dominate our attention over the coming months. In addition, the event will also give space to statements of appliances and inventions that will help us to have a more accurate view of what the coming years are holding for the world of technology.

Taking into account the historical event as has been presented by some companies so far, it is hard not come with different expectations about what will be presented soon in Las Vegas. In this article, you can see some of the key innovations that might show up in this year’s biggest technology fair of the world – which we will try to feature later.

Smartphones

Following the trend of the last CES, smartphones should be one of the highlights of the CES 2014. Among the expected new releases, there should be the launch of an international version of the Xperia Z1 Mini from Sony, and LG GX official revelation, that device should bring an intermediate point between the Optimus G and Optimus G2.

CES 2014 should also mark the debut of the Chinese manufacturer Meizu in the U.S. market - a movement that, if successful, may result in an expansion of the company to other Western countries. In addition, there is also the likelihood that Oppo would bring the newly announced Oppo Find 7 (world’s first smartphone with 2K screen) to Las Vegas, even if only to arouse the attention of investors and media specialist in the area. While ZTE may be waiting for MWC 2014 to reveal the Grand S II to the world, it seems that there are high chances that the device might make its debut during CES 2014. Featuring a 5.5 inch display with 1080p resolution, the gadget might accompany the Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 chipset and 2 GB of RAM.

The participation of Samsung, one of the biggest names in the industry, is surrounded by uncertainties. While some rumors indicate that the South Korean company may give focus to devices with Tizen operating system, other information indicate that it may be ready to announce the launch of Galaxy S5 during the fair – as a result of the drop in sales of the Galaxy S4. In addition, Samsung may also be ready to show more details of the Galaxy Round , one of the first devices in the market to feature a curved screen.

The year of 64-bit processors

Although the stage of CES 2014 should be the announcement of impressive devices, the real star of the show should be the new 64-bit mobile processors. According to information released by DigiTimes, Samsung, NVIdia and Broadcom are working to produce quad-core CPUs with 64-bit architecture, which has become a priority for the industry after Apple publicly disclosed its A7 chip. Besides these names, Qualcomm should also bring changes in the way with already confirmed Snapdragon 410.

The new processors should be shown both in traditional presentation slides as for conceptual apparatus that will allow the general public to have at least a quick glimpse of what they have to offer. Among the prominent handset that can arise at the fair is the second generation of NVIDIA Shield, kind of a portable video game console capable of streaming games to PC.

Desktops and Notebooks

Although the PC market is experiencing a slight decay in recent years, that does not stop the developers and manufacturers to continue investing in this segment. Proof of this is AMD, who announced the APU 13 during Developer Summit (event occurred in November this year) and also has big plans for CES 2014.

The manufacturer might host a large party to promote the premiere of their series APUs equipped with HSA technology. The company will use all their resources to establish the Kaveri architecture that promises to enhance the performance of computers to allocate a greater workload to your GPU.

Capable of running up to four Steamroller x86 cores with up to a 512-core Graphics Core Next GPU simultaneously, the architecture is an important step on a field of heterogeneous systems. As the first Kaveri desktops are scheduled to hit the market on January 14, 2014, CES is the perfect opportunity for AMD and its partners show the public a wide variety of devices.

To wrap-up things, the company might also show products with Beema and Mullins APUs, developed for tablets with fanless cooling, hybrid devices and notebooks. Promising to offer twice the performance per watt compared to their predecessors, many gadgets with this technologies should be available at the event. Intel should also not be left behind, bringing many Ultrabooks to the event equipped with Haswell architecture and various Windows 8.1 tablets equipped with the Bay Trail architecture. The focus of the company (whose CEO would be present in one of the event's opening keynote) should be to show good balance between processing power and energy consumption provided by their products.

Steam Machines and hybrid devices

Although there must be the announcement and premiere of a handful of computers, the main focus in this case should be in one particular device - the Steam Machines. Besides the prototype presented by Valve in November this year (sent to 300 lucky participants of their Beta test), a wide variety of type computers would be presented by the partners of the company.

The expectation is that the specialized device in PC games should be available with various specifications and price levels, which will make it attractive both for enthusiasts of traditional gaming consoles and for gamers who demand an experience with maximum graphical fidelity (and are willing to pay for it).

However, the most anticipated announcement should be made by Gabe Newell company, which will finally reveal when the Steam Machines will be available through traditional sales channels. The company should also reveal more details about Steam OS, Linux-based operating system that is already publicly available in its preliminary form.

CES 2014 should also mark the debut of a wide variety of devices with hybrid formats (like tablets that can be transformed into laptops) and products with multiple operating systems. There will probably be a device from ASUS which able to boot both Windows as well as with Android, which was revealed in a teaser released by the company on 23 December this year.

Finally, manufacturers like Razer should seize the days of presentation to reveal to the world their new lines of accessories. Headphones, mice and keyboards should be renovated and some of the products that can draw the attention of enthusiasts who are willing to invest expensive gadgets to have on hand with product promising better performance and durability then the average gadgets.

Televisions

There isn’t much expectation regarding Televisions from CES 2014. The expectation is that the segment only give further details of what has already been demonstrated at IFA 2013, highlighting mainly products capable of working with 4K resolution or having curved displays.

LG is one of the firms willing to invest in these concepts (which should debut its first TV with WebOS operating system) and as well as Samsung, which should bring a product with curved screen of 105 inches at the event. The expectation is that both companies, together with names such as Sony, bring a few products with flexible OLED displays to Las Vegas .

There is also the possibility that companies like LG will exhibit prototypes of TVs capable of working with 8K resolutions (something that Sharp did in 2013). However, the most awaited news for consumers - a fall of prices 4K devices - unfortunately might not be announced during the event.

Wearable Gadgets

Contrary to market expectations, the wearable gadgets have not come to explode in popularity during the second half of 2013, even with the release of the controversial Galaxy Gear. However, this isn’t preventing them from reaching hard to CES 2014, which should give special attention to the area of exercises accompanied by digital devices whose display area will increase by 30%.

While familiar names like Fitbit Force and Nike Fuelband might draw some attention in the event, other devices should also catch your eye. Although product known as the Sony SmartWatch 2 and Qualcomm Toq should have a presence in Las Vegas, the expectation is that many smart gadgets will announced in an attempt to draw attention which is currently devoted to the elusive iWatch (Apple) and Google Watch - products with many discussions and rumors, but so far have not been officially announced.

Among the companies that have already confirmed their products are Burg Limited, COOKOO, Kronoz LLC, Dencco Brands, MetaWatch and Neptune. However, higher expectations are driven to Epson, the organization usually associated with printers that promised to bring several innovations in the field of wearable electronic devices.

3D Printers

There should also be exhibits to display the capabilities of the most powerful 3D printers on the market during CES 2014. With working demonstration depleted from October 2013, these products should will be dedicated mostly to build complement handling and creating robotics technologies. Among the highlights of this segment should be the keynote of Bre Pettis, CEO and founder of MakerBot.

Presentations

Despite several executive speeches are scheduled for CES 2014, two of them stand out among other programs. They are the presentations from Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo!, and from Kazuo Hirai, president and chief executive of Sony - the commonality between them is the fact that both companies have taken in crisis with a mission to change their trajectories in the market .

Marissa, who gained notoriety for giving new directions to Yahoo!’s business, will introduce some of the strategies and ideas that she believes are essential to define the future of the industry. Hirai should take a similar stance, with the primary mission to explain how the revolution in products, services and networks will dictate the new wave of innovation that we see in the electronics industry.

Automobiles

Although this is not the focus of CES, the event will have a placeholder for powerful vehicles that have at least some unprecedented technological resource. Among the highlights, there should be the Ford Mustang 2015 - official car of the event - and the partnership between Audi and Google to bring Android to automobiles.

Only Predictions

These were just some of the predictions and expectations the ABC Trick team has regarding CES 2014. Due to the large scale of the event, it is almost impossible to list all the news, products and technologies that will be presented in Las Vegas during the first days of January in a single article. Thus, we may have overlooked some rumor or prediction regarding the event, which does not necessarily mean they are not interesting or relevant.

Anyway, keep watching the website to check out all the news related to one of the biggest technology events of the world. Apart from bringing the main updates of the event as they arise, we will also try to analyze products and bring a deeper insight of what will be presented during some of the busiest days of the year for fans gadgets, computers, smartphones and other powerful products.