The DPP has published its popular report on the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES). CES 2021: What consumer trends mean for the media industry unpacks the trends from this year’s show and combines them with a broader analysis of the technology market. The report was enabled by DPP member companies Lumen and Cognizant. Its findings prove of huge significance for the media industry.
CES 2021 went online, and had its fewest attendees and exhibitors for over a decade. But, the DPP argues, this could mark the beginning of a roaring twenties for technology.
“As many have observed, the coronavirus pandemic accelerated tech adoption,” says DPP CEO and author of the report, Mark Harrison. “Many have characterised this as a consumer-led tech revolution. But it wasn’t. It was a business-led tech revolution - from which consumers are going to be the beneficiaries.”
Harrison has reported on CES for 12 consecutive years, putting him in a unique position to look at consumer technology trends over time. This year screen-based hardware products, from TV displays to computers, had their strongest year since 2015 - a reflection of how, during the pandemic, consumers turned to their screens to combine work, entertainment and games.
But when it comes to real innovation, in areas such as AI, IoT (the internet of things) and sensors, the big story was in industry.
“In some respects CES 2021 marked the death of the gadget,” says Harrison. “Lots of vendors tried to tell us life is now all about air purification. It isn’t. It’s about how AI and related technologies are enabling businesses to transform their operations - usually so they can then serve consumers through just one, all important, gadget: the smartphone.”
CES 2021: What consumer trends mean for the media industry identifies and analyses six key trends from this year’s show, as well as providing individual market updates on 24 consumer technologies. It is available to download by DPP members here.
Mark Harrison will discuss his findings, and what they mean for media companies, in a special webcast with DPP CTO Rowan de Pomerai on Tuesday 26 January 2021. DPP members can sign up to attend here.
The DPP’s next report will be its annual DPP Predictions, curated by a group of experts from within the DPP membership, and available to the entire industry, in early February 2021.
