CES 2015, Platform Edition: The Internet of Things and Wearables

By Nathaniel Malka

(This is part one of a two-part review of CES)

This year’s CES welcomed 170,000 attendees who gawked at countless products from more than 3,600 exhibitors. As always, some left us drooling while others left us scratching our heads. From wearables and Internet of Things gadgets to VR and autonomous cars, there is a lot coming out that will add real value to our lives as consumers.

Of course, we kept a close eye on any platforms that popped up, where, thanks to network effects, the value goes beyond just the intrinsic value of a great consumer electronic product.

Here’s what caught our eye at CES 2015.

The Internet of Everything

The area that made the biggest splash was the Internet of Things. Established brands and younger upstarts alike showcased an explosion of products for the “smart home.” From gadgets to gimmicks, IoT is now truly becoming the Internet of Everything.

The category’s largest platform players were all represented even if they weren’t all in attendance. Apple’s HomeKit, announced last June, saw its first round of products, including notable entries from Schlage, Chamberlain and iDevices, whose Switch smart plug and accompanying app allow you to control other devices.

Samsung co-CEO Boo-Keun Yoon also made the company’s push into IoT the focus of his keynote, with Samsung having acquired SmartThings in August. And new product partners joined the “Works with Nest” collaboration of open-source development built by Google.

One brand that brought its A-game was Whirlpool, one of Nest’s big-name integrations that was announced last June. Whirlpool’s Kitchen of the Future concept showed a connected hub for cooking appliances. Examples included the ability to display recipes and other media while cooking and a smarter apparatus that better transfers heat and can help you avoid burns. While Whirlpool’s devices will hook into smart-home platforms like Nest’s, the presence of screens in the kitchen combined with gesture controls will give the company tremendous potential down the road to create a platform for the connected kitchen.

 

 

This year also saw safety- and security-focused brands enter IoT. While Netatmo won plaudits for its sleek Welcome device, we especially liked ADT’s app-driven approach with Pulse and First Alert’s OneLink. Both of these have potential as platforms whose value will increase as the number of devices and users they connect to grows. (And how important will this network value be, given the high cost of smart-home products!)

Over the next five years, the number of U.S. households with-smart-home systems is projected to rise from 2MM to 15MM. The most common question, asked in both the Mobile keynote and Smart Home SuperSession, is how the market and technology standards will evolve to ensure interoperability amid the explosion of products. We echo Christopher Schlaeffer, founder and CEO of yetu, in throwing down the gauntlet for data security. With so many devices knowing our most intimate movements in our homes, how can we devise secure technology for the smart home?

Wearables

Wearables was the only other category at CES that could compete with the smart home for hype.

At the high end, Sony showed off the SmartWatch 3 Steel, while Garmin’s Fenix 3, also on Android Wear, married sleeker design sense with solid all-around activity tracking. These releases along with Withings’ Activite Pop are a step forward for design where it has been lacking.

In general, though, the proliferation of smart wrist wear has not been accompanied by real advances in features driven by a deep understanding of consumer needs. Anticipation for the Apple Watch, announced in September 2014 and launching in spring, was palpable. Will Apple once again define a category’s design language and features, or will this year’s Mobile World Congress deliver any products to steal Apple’s thunder? And what entries by other hardware leaders or luxury brands such as Tag Heuer, rumored for late 2015, will bring further design sense to the space?

Much of the high hopes for wearables comes down to the expectation of convergence. Examples include payments features for retail, convenient control in the smart home, or various integrations with car tech. In one demo, Samsung’s Gear S, launched in November 2014, showed off its integration with the BMW i3 as a remote control for the driver-less car. (The BMW i Remote app for Samsung’s Gear was honored at the show.) For now, however, the area driving most of the progress in wearables is health and wellness.

More on that, plus VR, AR and Media, in part two of our review next week.

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Filed under: Platform Innovation | Topics: CES 2015, internet of things, platforms, Wearables