Gaming And Voice Assistants Emerge Victorious From CES, Says Juniper Research

Analytics firm Juniper Research has weighed in on the products shown at this year’s CES in a paper entitled Consumer Electronics…what’s next? Disruptors, Innovators & Cash Cows – the best of CES 2017.
The firm highlights Amazon’s Alexa and other voice assistants as the standout product category of the trade-show.

According to them, “Alexa, alongside other smart home players, looks set to catapult the smart home into mainstream awareness in 2017 and beyond. Alexa uses voice and cloud account integration to join the dots where other systems have

previously relied on discrete hubs, which systems like Alexa now render unnecessary”

The firm also says that “there were few breakout innovations at CES 2017, but many products are ‘coming of age’. For many sectors, from wearables to IoT (Internet of Things) sensors, VR (Virtual Reality) to consumer robotics, refinement and increasing sophistication was on display.”

Juniper Research found that dedicated gaming laptops and desktops were one of the show’s major growth areas.

“Many manufacturers released games-focused laptops at CES, including some new entrants to the dedicated games category. These are targeted at all price points, although the stand-out entrants to the category are targeting a premium experience, with screen innovation from Razer taking centre stage,” they say.

In comparison, the drone and wearables markets look to be losing momentum.

They say, “there were no game changers, with most companies focusing on foldable selfie drones, bringing consumers in with low-cost devices, but few distinctive features.”

Meanwhile, “the wearables market is now slowing down in pace and production.”