CES 2023, formerly known as the Consumer Electronics Show, was presented in Las Vegas from January 5 to 8, 2023 and is the world’s biggest and most influential technology event as well as the proving ground for breakthrough technologies.

It is here that many of the big companies announced or launched their new products for 2023, although it seemed to be less than previous years due to high inflation, the economic downswing, less spending on non-necessities and supply chain constraints.

More than 3 200 exhibiting companies (60% Fortune 500 companies), including 1 000 start-ups, featured the latest technologies and next era innovations. CES 2023 was attended by more than 115 000 industry professionals, of which over 40 000 were international attendees from 140 countries.

Certain current and future key technology trends became evident at CES 2023:

Digital Health – numerous digital health innovations and brands were displayed, showing how fast the market is growing since consumers took their health into their own hands.

Innovations included digital therapeutics, mental wellness, wearables, women’s health tech, fitness and telemedicine. At-home urinary scanners, Smart watches that can non-invasively monitor blood sugar, and a wearable patch to prevent sexual dysfunction, were some of the innovative products.

Web3 and the Metaverse – For the first time, CES 2023 had a dedicated Metaverse area, demonstrating ground-breaking sensory technology to build immersive and interactive digital worlds.

The alternative reality we are heading towards was a strong emerging theme, and many products reflected the fusion of digital and physical experiences.

This retreat of humanity into the virtual world is understandable since the real world was quite a “horror show” over the past few years.

Matter - Matter was the buzzword throughout CES 2023, with most companies involved in smart homes introducing their Matter plans. Matter is an open-source interoperability standard that allows smart home devices from any manufacturer to talk to other devices directly.

This undeniably makes the smart home easier to set up, simpler to use, and more reliable to run. Matter has been jointly developed by Apple, Google, Samsung, Amazon, and several other smart home brands.

However, Matter as a standard is still unproven since very few Matter devices are available to be tested. But numerous announcements of new Matter devices and updates for existing products were reported at CES 2023.

Automotive and Mobility – With about 300 vehicle technology exhibitors, CES 2023 was one of the largest auto shows in the world. Keynotes presented by BMW, John Deere and Stellantis and products launched by global companies focused on self-driving tech, electric vehicles and personal mobility devices for land, air and sea. No doubt, cars are becoming consumer electronics.

Sustainability – The theme of CES focused on human security for all with the aim to solve global challenges such as food security, access to healthcare, personal income, environmental protection, personal safety, and community security.

Global companies like John Deere, LG, Samsung and Siemens demonstrated how innovation can conserve energy and increase power generation, address food shortages, create sustainable agricultural systems, provide sustainable energy solutions, power smart cities, support access to clean water, ensure personal security, and many more.

Start-ups – The show had a strong focus on start-ups with 1000 start-ups from countries all over the world that showcased their technology including renewable paper solutions to reduce CO 2 emissions; Artificial Intelligence (AI) to reduce food waste; solar technology to capture both electrical and thermal energy; personal safety apps, and more.

Television -- aside from all the brighter-than-ever TV screens displayed at CES, the most exciting concept was a wireless future where all the audio and video data can be received wirelessly from up to 10 metres.

However, inevitably some technologies did not really feature at CES 2023:

Smart home technology -- For many of the companies with smart home technologies, things did not go precisely as planned. One light on the horizon is the attempt of a unified front in the form of the Matter Alliance.

8K televisions -- Although Samsung and LG announced their latest 8K televisions at CES 2023, other television makers are abandoning the technology.

The problem is that after several years of 8K there is very little content available at such a high resolution.

Companies therefore rather upscaled their televisions and used AI-powered picture processing enhancements to enable 4K shows and movies to look like 8K quality. And it is difficult to tell the difference.

5G – After years of hype of all the things that 5G would enable, such as remote surgery, self-driving cars, and augmented reality, 5G had quite a low profile at CES 2023.

Not much came of the promises. All we have is at best a slightly faster version of 4G. Furthermore, 5G is the default option in many countries; almost all new phones are 5G compatible; it takes time to build an ecosystem; and soon we will be hearing about 6G.

Next week will cover some of the amazing technology.

Prof Louis C H Fourie is an Extraordinary Professor at the University of the Western Cape.

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