The evolution of electronics continued at the 2012 Consumer Electronic Show last weekend in Las Vegas, Nevada. These technology trends are no big surprise. Smart products are getting smarter. Thin products are getting thinner. And, hidden electronics are on the rise.
Smarter
Washers, dryers, refrigerators, cameras and fitness devices were some of the more popular “smart devices” featured at CES 2012. Smart tablets and phones were undoubtably at the forefront.
What caught my curiosity was the Android-powered “smart watch”. The Android smart watch features the ability to email, play music, place phone calls and connect to the internet. With the advent of Siri and the possibilities it holds for home automation, a smart watch device might be a more practical solution when controlling audio/video, lighting, shading, hvac, security, or any other function. The smart watch is due out in March and it retails for $300-$15,000 depending on how much bling you desire (gold and diamonds). We’ll see if this product picks up any steam, and how functional it is once the world has a chance to play with it.
Thinner – What’s an Ultrabook anyway?
They are super lightweight laptops that want to be like a tablet but are not ready to give up some of their laptop features. One of the more buzz worthy Ultrabooks was the The Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga. With its 360-degree flip-and-fold design, it dazzled with its versatility.
As far as ultra-thin TV’s, the LG 55-inch OLED TV won CNET’s “Best of Show.” At 4-millimeters-thick, this display has features such as internet and passive 3-D capabilities. Release is scheduled for the second half of 2012.
Hide and Sleek
We are big fans of hiding technology and keeping interiors the way designers and architects had planned. We have featured the hidden technology of Trufig and Sonance several times on this blog, and for good reason. Their products help merge technology and design together. We see this hidden technology trend continuing on the rise.
Apparently ,so does Samsung. They announced their transparent smart window screen. It’s a giant transparent display that can replace an entire window. When the display is off, it looks like your regular window. When the display is on, it acts like a display. There has been a lot of chit-chatter of this technology for the past decade. One of our first post was of Corning’s “All Glass Future”. This product is another step towards their vision.
Key Takeaway: CES 2012 was as expected, smarter, thinner, and out of sight!