Intelligent products run the show at CES
Source: Julie Jacobso
You could get an inferiority complex about the televisions and appliances you own after attending this week's International Consumer Electronics Show. The way the industry's biggest names are tossing around the word "smart," you're left wondering whether any of the electronics gear you have has a high-enough IQ.
Signs of the S-word in and around the Las Vegas Convention Center are everywhere: Panasonic trumpeting Smart Viera-branded televisions. Samsung proclaiming "The Future of Smart TV, Now." China's Hisense touting, "The first personal mobile Smart TV." And LG Electronics asking, "How Smart Is Your 3D?"
But it's not just smart TVs that are on tap. Manufacturers are talking up washers, dryers, refrigerators, cameras and fitness devices with brains to be proud of. The remotes that control various electronics are meant to be smart, too. Not to mention, of course, tablets and smartphones.
Even automakers are getting into the act. Ford CEO Alan Mulally's goal is to make its "hands-on-the-wheel, eyes-on-the-road and everything voice" automotive connectivity services such as Sync and MyFordTouch "the mobile app of choice."
"We want to collaborate with everybody. The ideas that are flowing are absolutely fantastic," he says.
While there are some real technological advances in play, "smart" is often as much a marketing ploy as anything. How much consumers will buy into the "smart" products trend is still a question for many companies.
It's a given that smart electronics connect to the Internet, or the cloud. But smart TVs and other smart devices also increasingly rely more on natural user interfaces: touch, gestures and, in some instances, voice. Apps are critical, too.
One potentially smart idea comes from Samsung. A slot built into the back of its Smart Evolution TVs allows users to insert an Evolution Kit that can add features to the set or bolster its performance. The South Korean technology titan says such "future-proof" kits will be available in 2013 and beyond, with more details to come.
Samsung's humongous booth at CES has "smart" written all over it, quite literally. On one wall you could read about Samsung's Smart School Solution, essentially an electronic blackboard that connects classrooms to the Internet. Elsewhere at the booth, the company showed off Wi-Fi-enabled cameras with "smart zooming" and "smart sharing" with social networks.
Some devices have features considered smart because of the way they automatically handle chores on your behalf. For example, the PrimeTime Anytime feature on Dish Network's new set-top Hopper DVR by default records all prime-time shows each night on ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC and stores them for eight days.
Coming soon is the $130 Fitbit Aria Wi-Fi Smart Scale. It tracks your weight, body fat and more, and automatically uploads all the data to Fitbit.com. The scale can recognize up to eight of the people who stand on it.
Apple gets some credit for driving the smart revolution because of its diverse offerings of apps for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch and the Siri voice-control technology it incorporated into the iPhone 4S, says Tom Campbell, who has helped launch products ranging from CD players to HDTVs.
Microsoft's Kinect gesture and voice controller for video games and its Xbox Live entertainment offerings also have had an impact, he says. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer says the company has sold more than 18 million Kinects.
Nintendo is incorporating "smart" features into its Wii U video game console, which is expected to go on sale between the middle and end of this year. "Wii speaks to your TV, connects to the Internet," says Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime. "By having this smart connection, the consumer won't have to ... buy multiple devices. It's all self-contained."
Wii U comes with an infrared tablet-like controller that has a wide 6.2-inch touch-screen. Depending on the game you're playing, your point of focus will be on the TV screen, the controller screen or both.
Samsung and LG both announced voice- and gesture-control features for upcoming TVs. And Samsung is adding facial recognition to cameras built into its sets. The camera recognizes who is working the controls at home and allows the family member to log into his or her own set of Smart Hub apps. Samsung is opening up its motion, voice-control and facial-recognition technology to developers who can produce their own apps.
LG also unveiled its Magic Remotes ― they're not called "smart" ― which give you four modes for interacting with your TV: gestures, pointing, a wheel or voice recognition.
Lenovo opts for Android TV
While more manufacturers are incorporating Google TV into their sets to make them "smart," Lenovo is taking a different tack.
Instead of opting for Google TV, which allows users to surf TV listings and the Internet using Google's Chrome browser and use apps, Lenovo is powering its first smart TV with Android software 4.0, known as Ice Cream Sandwich. The TV is slated initially for the Chinese market.
Some of the latest TVs also are going the high-power route with robust dual-core processors. Models with such chips, for example, can display videos on an ESPN app that wouldn't play on TVs with a standard processor.
"People are getting used to apps," notes Campbell, and they see television as "more and more of an information center. You want to be able to use it in the same way that you use your tablet, or your iPhone or Android phone."
Yet getting the masses to tap into all that their TVs can do remains a tall order. "When consumers buy a PC, the first thing they'll do is connect it to the AC to get some electricity, then they'll connect it to the network," says Sony executive Kaz Hirai. "We need to get to that sort of stage where you go and buy a TV, plug it in first, and the second thing you do is plug it into the network for all the wealth of content that you can access."
To encourage such activity, the TV industry must generally produce more inviting and customizable on-screen interfaces, an area where Apple, long rumored to be working on a television of its own, has excelled.
But even with Apple reportedly poised to enter the fray sometime this year, the TV business could continue to struggle. Heading into CES, the Consumer Electronics Association projected factory-level sales of $202.4 billion in 2012, up from $195.2 billion a year ago. That's a modest rise of just 3.7(PERCENT), and the CEA is projecting a 6.5(PERCENT) decline in the TV and display business.
And while the number of broadband-capable homes with smart TVs is gaining, the growth is not gangbusters, according to Brett Sappington, research director for Parks Associates. The percentage of broadband-capable homes with smart TVs connected to the Internet has risen from 8(PERCENT) in 2010 to 10(PERCENT) in 2011.
And "smart TVs" aren't necessarily at the top of consumers' must-have lists. Despite all the hoopla around newfangled smart features and Internet connectivity, CES has always been about big, beautiful televisions.
At this latest shindig, attendees elbowed one another to catch a glimpse of thin, stunning 55-inch televisions from LG and Samsung with so-called OLED (organic light-emitting diode) displays. Sony showed off a gorgeous 55-inch prototype set based on the Crystal LED Display technology it is developing with super-sharp pictures. TV manufacturers are also pushing "4K" televisions with four times the resolution of today's state-of-the-art HDTVs. Sharp Electronics marketer Christopher Loncto expects the 4K TVs to reach buyers over the summer. No pricing has been set, but you can expect 4K TVs to be costly.
Beyond televisions
"Smart" technology is conquering other areas of the home as well. Building on the promise and hype of recent years, the laundry list of smart connected appliances is on the rise. Smarter appliances can monitor energy use, send alerts to your smartphone and more. Along those lines, Whirlpool demonstrated a washing machine that can alert you remotely when it's time to put clothes in the dryer. Samsung and LG washers have similar capabilities.
The latest LG washers can exploit a feature called Wi-Fi Smart Diagnosis. If an issue arises with the machine, it can troubleshoot the problem via Wi-Fi. If you hold a phone next to it, it will emit a tone that can tell a repair technician which part needs to be ordered.
Among LG's other innovations: a smart $3,200 refrigerator coming this summer that has a compartment that can cool a can of cola or beer in just five minutes and a bottle of wine in just eight minutes.
Some LG refrigerators also let you manage food inventory. For example, it might tell you the milk is sour before you open and taste it. You can remotely access your refrigerator from a smartphone to generate shopping lists and even change the temperature of your freezer from afar using your phone.
Though it sounds very cool to track what's in your refrigerator, you'll need an app and will have to scan a shopping receipt or bar code with a cameraphone, a chore many consumers may not find so smart.
For its part, rival Samsung sells Wi-Fi-enabled refrigerators with such apps as Picasa for photos and Epicurious for recipes.
It remains to be seen, of course, whether selling smart will be a smart strategy for the electronics industry. But the push for more intelligent electronics promises a bevy of neat products for consumers.
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