Feb 16

What worldwide event do iconic brands and celebrities like Ferrari and Tim Tebow get together? This year’s 2013 International Consumer Electronics Show was the biggest in the event’s history, in terms of attendees and floor space. It turned out to be the most successful conference for 24kMedia and me as well.

2013 CES Las Vegas Convention Center Central Hall By Bill Cody
2013 CES Las Vegas Convention Center Central Hall By Bill Cody

Soul Headphones Ludacris 2013 CES By Bill Cody
Soul Headphones Ludacris 2013 CES By Bill Cody

From smartphone accessories to celebrity appearances and announcements by automobile companies, like Ford Motor Company, next gen technology was everywhere around the 1.87 million net square feet of exhibition space.

Soul Headphones Tim Tebow 2013 CES by Bill Cody
Soul Headphones Tim Tebow 2013 CES By Bill Cody

Renaissance Las Vegas 2013 CES
Renaissance Las Vegas 2013 CES 24kMedia’s Gold Sponsor

2013 is the year that 24kMedia gained a fantastic Gold Level Sponsor. The Renaissance Las Vegas, conveniently located at the corner of amazing and awesome, is within walking distance of the Las Vegas Convention Center. If you are heading to Las Vegas for a conference, do look into what they have to offer. Their staff was more than helpful from morning to evening each day that I visited the property during CES.


2013 International Consumer Electronics Show Videos by @24kMedia

The progression of people attaining smartphones around the world means that people will want to customize and accessorize their mobile technology. The mobile devices today are in some respects matching the capabilities of desktop systems. As more of us go mobile for the entire day, we naturally want to have a choice of what to buy. Manufacturers are getting smart to this fact and are engaging celebrities and other top brands to make their devices stand out from all of the others.

Accessories for mobile devices, vehicles, the home and everything in between were being shown off for worldwide distribution at CES. Some of the most notable companies exhibiting, which demanded the largest audiences during the conference were Samsung, Ford Motor Company, Sanho HyperShop, MyFC, Case-Mate and Otterbox to name a few good ones.

iJustine at 2013 Samsung Smart Lounge
iJustine at 2013 Samsung Smart Lounge

Samsung showed off products in multiple categories, such as home entertainment, appliance, mobile and photography. Sure, there is some crossover, but that’s intentional. The latest and greatest for home entertainment is the world’s first curved OLED TV screen. It was a beauty to see in person at almost any angle.

As the fastest growing home appliance brand in America, Samsung showed off the flex duo oven where it can cook multiple meals at two different temperatures in one oven. The T9000 LCD French door refrigerator with four doors and 32 cubic feet of available storage space has integrated apps like Evernote, to help display recipes and keep notes for later. It can convert zones of the refrigerator to a freezer, simply incredible.

Mobile and photography go together at Samsung. For this category, the company showed off their upgraded camera tech inside of the Galaxy SIII, Galaxy Note II and their always-connected Android quad-core Galaxy Camera. The Galaxy Camera has 4G + WiFi connectivity with a full sized touch screen on the back. Take a photo with its 21x optical zoom and instantly share it on social networks and save it to a Dropbox account.

Ford Motor Company 2013 CES Booth By Bill Cody
Ford Motor Company 2013 CES Booth By Bill Cody

Of the many car companies showing off vehicles and in-car tech during CES, Ford Motor Company made an incredible move by opening up their dashboard software to app developers. Independent developers are now able to visit a site http://developer.ford.com to get started. The car company had about 20 apps integrated with the Sync AppLink system before and at the show, they announced nine new ones.

Ford Mustang GT 500 2013 CES By Bill Cody
Ford Mustang GT 500 at the 2013 CES By Bill Cody

The potential growth for apps in the dashboard can be very large, considering there about over 700,000 apps in the Apple iTunes App Store. GM announced a similar open developer program, however Ford went above and beyond by announcing that other automakers could use its Sync AppLink platform for free.

Digital app development was one of the biggest topics during CES. Accessories for smartphones and other mobile gadgets were a close second. There were hundreds of companies from around the world making cases, films and batteries but a few of them stood out.

Sanho HyperMac Get More 2013 CES Booth
Sanho HyperMac Get More 2013 CES Booth

Standing apart from the others in a crowded space like gadget accessories is the key to making it in the consumer electronics business. Sanho’s Get More booth was one of the most innovative at the show. They make excellent external backup military grade battery packs. I’ve owned one of their earlier models for over a year. Their newest, the HyperJuice Plug comes in several metallic colors, has a retractable wall plug, two USB ports, easy to read indicator lights in 10,400mAh and 15,600mAh.

Sanho’s backup batteries are great when you are near an electrical grid. For those of us that adventure past the grid, a company called MyFC makes a new type of portable charging battery pack combo unit. The PowerTrekk is one of the coolest consumer electronics devices I saw at CES. It actually makes it’s own power and stores it in a secondary battery, all from a reaction of water and sodium silicide. Combined, the 2,000mAh battery and fuel-cell chamber are about the size of a few smartphones stacked on top of each other. When there is no other power available, MyFC’s PowerTrekk is a nice option to have.

Intel 2013 CES Booth
Intel 2013 CES Booth

Chargers and battery packs were a large fraction of the accessories on display at the conference. So much more was available, including cases, covers and films. Those add-ons are a big business and a few of the largest companies promoting their latest and greatest were Otterbox and Case-Mate.

Otterbox typically has several booths with their accessories on display and this year was no different. A few months before the 2013 CES, Otterbox made the move of acquiring Wrapsol, an excellent company in the protective film wraps business. Last year I reviewed a Wrapsol protective film that I still enjoy using over a year later. In the coming weeks, I’ll be reviewing the Defender series of rugged cases made for adventure, the new iPad and iPhone 5.

Travis Barker Pioneer 2013 CES Booth
Travis Barker at Pioneer’s 2013 CES Booth By Bill Cody

Case-Mate’s newest case designs for smartphones and tablets have built upon last year’s successes and then some. They were hard at work building partnerships too. In late August of 2012, Case-Mate and Vaja from Argentina came together to offer custom premium leather products for tablets, smartphones and notebooks. Customizable high end tech accessories are on the rise and may just become a profitable trend for the companies like Case-Mate willing to expand in this direction.

It was great to see the consumer electronics industry elevating itself to a level not seen in many industries during a global downturn in the economy. Thankfully, the show had many bright spots and it appeared as if buyers were flooding the exhibitors to secure orders for the year. Crowd funding services made it possible for many of the smaller companies to create innovative new products and exhibit at CES. Larger companies, like Ford Motor Company, went further in 2013 by announcing the availability of in-car dashboard development software, a giant step for the auto sector.

Unlike any other city in the world, Las Vegas brought together, according to the Consumer Electronics Association, a $204 billion industry in 2012, up five percent from the year earlier. The city and convention center made it possible for bloggers, press, manufacturers, designers and buyers to engage each other to make the 2013 International Consumer Electronics Show the best ever.

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