It’s the beginning of the Tech New Year. The Consumer Electronics Show, commonly referred to as CES allows companies from all branches of technology to showcase forward looking concepts such as 8K Televisions, to the unveiling of new flagship products like the HTC Thunderbolt – the first true 4G LTE Smartphone for the United States.
History
CES first started as an offshoot of the Chicago Music Show in 1967. The keynote speaker for that conference was the chairman for Motorola, Bob Galvin. Attendance at the first CES was approximately 18,000 people with over 100 exhibits and company showcases. Today average attendance numbers exceed 150,000. Early in it’s lifetime, the show was held twice a year in Chicago(summer) and Las Vegas(winter). Starting in 1995, the CES changed to a travelling format, holding the event in various locations. However this had only limited popularity, with the planners eventually settling on holding the show once a year in Las Vegas permanently in 1998, where it has been ever since.
The HTC Thunderbolt was unveiled at CES in 2011. Photo by: HTC
Notable Unveilings
2004 – Blu-Ray holds their first US press conference, showcasing the Technology to the US market.
A demo of Samsung’s Flexible OLED Display at CES 2013. Photo by: CNET
2011 – Android stormed the 2011 show with unveilings of the Droid Bionic, the innovative Motorola Atrix 4G and HTC Thunderbolt, the first 4G LTE phone available in the United States starting the arms race for the fastest network. The Motorola Xoom garnered attention for being the first tablet to run the new Android Honeycomb OS.
2013 – Samsung unveils Flexible OLED Display Technology. This technology would go on to be used in the curved screens of the Galaxy S6 Edge and Galaxy S7 Edge several years later.
As you can see, some of the technology shown off at this expo is nothing short of monumental within the realms of Smartphones and Smart Tech. As of late mobile phones have waited until the Mobile World Congress in Spain for unveiling. But within the United States, there is no other electronics show like it, combining the bleeding edge of Computers, High Definition TV’s, Smart Phones, Wearable Tech, Drones and Entertainment. So if you’re ever wondering where the next big thing in Tech is going to be, just keep an eye on the news coming from CES.