January 29, 2025 • 21 mins
Join Paul Amadeus Lane on The Tech Zone for a special episode live from the floor of CES 2025! Paul sits down with Ben Arnold, Executive Director of Industry Analyst of Consumer Technology at Circana, to discuss the hottest trends and innovations emerging from the world's biggest consumer electronics show.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:19):
In this world of technology, things are ever changing, rearranging.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
You need someone to help you out. I know someone
who can come and take a journey with me. As
we go through the land of technology. You'll never be alone,
You'll be working.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Paul.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
I'm an dance laying in the Tech Zone.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Take a little trip with me and hopefully you can
see how the hood, suburbs and main street are all
connected no respect.
Speaker 4 (00:50):
Can I mean we.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Network across the globe because it's a global marketing in
case you didn't know, and since we all about information flow,
let me be the first one to work from you
to Tech Zone with Paul Arma Date Slaine. Let's talk
tech because technology changing the game. It's so good in
the hood, it's everywhere. Now let's get into the show
because we love going a Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Hello and welcome to this edition of the Tech Zone.
What is up?
Speaker 3 (01:16):
It's me Paul ahmadea Slaine. I am your hostess with
the mostess. You know, it's all about cees here. We're
live here on the floor in the West Hall and
it has been an amazing CEES so far. I had
an opportunity to see some pretty amazing innovation firsthand. You're
talking about educational tech. You're talking about ad tech. Any
(01:41):
tech out there, you will see it. I even found
out what Samsung is doing when it comes to smart
home technology and the IoT they have something called Bali
and Bally is amazing.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
So Bali can let you know what type of wine
to have with your dinner. So let's have it.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
See if you're having that bone in Rabbi steak and
you have two bottles of wine. Let's say you have
your Thunderbird and your boom Farms Strawberry Hill, and you
ask Bali, which one of these wines should I drink
with my Rabbui? Balie gonna tell you. So that's what
I love about all the great things happening here at CES,
(02:20):
and I had the distinct opportunity to moderate a panel
on user generated design talking about how technology can help
ones like myself or part of the disabled community, and
what companies are doing to make sure that one size
fit all can actually happen. So it's been an amazing CES.
(02:42):
But what makes ES more amazing is running into some
amazing minds out there whom I've had an opportunity to
know for many, many years, and one of them is
joining me right now we're talking about the awesome, the
amazing Ben Arnold. Ben is the industry analyst at Sirkana.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Ben. What's going on man? How you doing, Paul?
Speaker 5 (03:08):
It's awesome to see you. I know we see each
other at cees every year. Well we're not at ces.
I keep up with you on LinkedIn and it's nice
to see you in person.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Hey, good to see you too, Ben, Ben, you always
look look amazing when I see you.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
You have to let me know what I need to
do so that I can look.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
Look fit and healthy instead of every time you see me,
I've gained like five or ten more pounds, So you
got to teach me how I can reduce the poundage.
Speaker 4 (03:34):
All right, it's just positive, positive thoughts, all right.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
I love that. I love that I'll be thinking positive.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
Believe when I've be seeing that Popeye chicken commercial, I'm like, oh,
I'm a positively getting this car. I get me some
spicy chicken. But now, but always great to see you, Ben.
So what's your c has been like?
Speaker 4 (03:51):
It's been busy, lots of meetings.
Speaker 5 (03:54):
Lots of cool products to check out, following all the trends,
a lot of things that you've been hearing IoT, which
you mentioned artificial intelligence, how does that impact our consumer
electronics products? Just really trying to follow a lot of
these stories, and you know, from our vantage point, consumer
electronics sales have been a little bit soft over the
(04:14):
last couple of years, but we've definitely seen the sales
pick up this year. And it's great to have that
story and come to cees and see all of the
new awesome products that people are showing off and been.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
One of the things that I found out that I
thought was amazing was how gen Z are really the
drivers behind a lot of the spending when it comes
to to consumer tech and what makes that happen.
Speaker 5 (04:42):
You think about gen Z, I've got a couple of
them at my house. I mean, they are connoisseurs of technology, right,
they know what they're doing. They're all over things like
streaming services, They've got favorite brands. They you know, do
things differently in technology than you and I do. And
it's a it's a big cohort of consumers. They've got
(05:04):
spending power and so that's why their tastes and preferences
are driving so many products and features and things like that.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
And Ben, let let's talk about twenty twenty five, and
what are some things that that that that that are
forecast things that that we're going to see in twenty
twenty five are the potential keyword.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Taxes not teriffs.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
Is that going to impact, you know, the the analysis
of things of what could be or what may not
be because of some of the uncertainty out there.
Speaker 5 (05:40):
Absolutely, it's something that we're tracking at our firm, trying
to understand when do we see terraffts hit the market,
our consumers buying up right now before they hit, you know,
that could be a dynamic that's happening in the market.
Speaker 4 (05:58):
And what I fall back on is.
Speaker 5 (06:00):
There seems to be a pretty rich pipeline of products
and innovation and technologies.
Speaker 4 (06:05):
That we will see this year.
Speaker 5 (06:07):
That you know, will help continue to grow the market
even as we account for things like tariffs. So one
thing I've seen a lot this week has been smart glasses.
I've seen some amazing smart glasses and advancements from what
we saw last year. I demoed one last night. I
(06:29):
don't think I can say the name of the company,
but I had these glasses on. They told me to
reach out and pinch and I grabbed a bubble that
was in air, and then I was able to throw
the bubble right, So the right that was an actual
object that was I was seeing in the glasses and
I was able to interact with it. And to take
(06:52):
that a step further, they had another feature which incorporated
generative AI. So you put the glasses on and you say,
imagine a purple basketball. Purple basketball pops up in front
of your face, and you can reach out and grab
it and look at it and you know, throw it around.
So I think we'll find the use case for these things.
(07:16):
Surely it's like games and other creative pursuits, but this
is just kind of the starting point of what we
expect to see. And I think the other thing is
that smart glasses, maybe for someone who'm a smartphone, is
maybe a little bit difficult to use eye tracking, voice recognition,
(07:38):
artificial intelligence. You know, this is just another way to
interact with the you know, digital world, you know, using
using different inputs. Right, not necessarily your your hands or
your fingers, but your voice and your eyes and other things.
So that's what's really exciting to me is is pushing
the envelope in some of these areas.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Well.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
Then you're speaking my language, you know, talking about you know,
except stability and inclusion, you know, because that that that's me.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
I love that.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
It kind of reminds me of what a friend of
ours that we know, Sean Dubervac said many years ago.
He said, our human bodies will become the interface, and
we're starting to we're starting to see that now with
all these different inputs. And one thing that I noticed
when you were talking about the smart glasses, that that
you were able to demo Jesus the way your face
(08:25):
lit up and and and talk about just the sensory
impact that that had on you trying that out where.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
You reached out, grabbed that bubble and kind of threw it.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
Did that kind of take your mind and body on
the trip when you were able to do that.
Speaker 5 (08:40):
I got to tell you, I've talked to people about
this experience that I had, and I said, I saw
magic last night.
Speaker 4 (08:46):
I got to interact with magic.
Speaker 5 (08:48):
And as you can imagine, I have tried a lot
of these products, a lot of the earlier generations, you know,
tons of VR headsets and things, and they've all been
really cool, but I haven't been able to have that
type of an experience where I'm really you know, interacting
with this digital overlay. And the other thing is, you know,
the things in space, they know that there's a there's
a wall on the side, so it can bounce off
(09:10):
the wall. It knows that there's a floor, It knew
that there was a couch in the room, and you know,
objects could sit on the couch.
Speaker 4 (09:17):
So yeah, I'm I was very excited about that. And uh,
you know, whether it's.
Speaker 5 (09:23):
Creation, entertainment, gaming, there's so many places that a product.
Speaker 4 (09:27):
Like that can go.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Yeah, I agree, I agree.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
And what about when it comes to to jen ai
or AI in general, what are some things that we're
seeing that in twenty twenty five that we should kind
of keep our eyes on.
Speaker 5 (09:40):
Well, certainly, you know, from my vantage point consumer electronics
A the products that are you know, using generative AI,
whether it's you know, maybe a program that you use
on your computer that's powered by a graphics card that
allows you to you know, produce video by us writing
(10:01):
in a prompt.
Speaker 4 (10:02):
Uh so, things like that. Uh, I think.
Speaker 5 (10:04):
The the area of creation is ripe for disruption. And
of course creators are a huge trend at CES this
year as well, so many camera sales and accessories, new cameras,
you know, mobile photography, but also the the process of
creating these things are I think is going to change.
(10:26):
And you know that just says that are you know,
technology is smart and I think now the the onus
is on users to figure out how to harness that
and and that's and that's really one of another huge
trend that we're seeing at the show that kind of
blends creators and AI together.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
And what about when it comes to smart home technology
kind of touched on it a little bit. Is there
is there anything anything in particular with smart home technology
that that that that you're really looking at and be like,
oh yeah, and y'all better watch this right here.
Speaker 4 (10:57):
Well you talk about AI.
Speaker 5 (10:59):
I mean, that's another category that AI is going to impact.
And you know, we've had smart speakers for almost a
decade at this point, so we've been talking and having
conversations with speakers. I think the assistants are going to
get much smarter. You're going to have much more natural
conversations with your smart speaker in the future because those
(11:19):
voice assistants Alexa, Google Assistant, you know, have been augmented
with better intelligence and more kind of natural experiences that
you can interact with. And on the camera side again,
a lot of this AI conversation around being able to
identify objects, identify things that are in a camera. There's
(11:41):
been news of the Nest security cameras, so Google they're
going to incorporate Gemini AI into the cameras. So while
now if a animal runs past your camera, it can
tell you, oh, an animal ran past your camera, but
with Gemini AI, it would be, uh, you know, a
(12:02):
kid goes past your camera? Oh, is a kid in
a red sweatshirt on a bike road past your your lawn?
And I think that's that's exciting as well. And it
you know, it just makes the experience a little more personable.
Uh you know, it brings a little bit closer to
the user. And I think the key here is like
(12:22):
the natural language, so it's doesn't spit it out and
kind of technology speak. It's no, a kid in a
red sweatshirt on a bike road past your lawn. And
I think that's something that all consumers can can use
and relate to.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
Wow, I'm sitting here like that would be pretty amazing.
Kind of reminds me of futuristic stuff. Remember, like old
sci fi shows. We would watch their movies and and
they would do a scan on someone and take exactly
who they were and and and do like a three
dimensional you know, kind of turn a three hundred and
sixty degree turn.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
And and that's that. That that's awesome.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
And what are some other trends have been that we're
seeing that that that are really going to shape the
way we live, work, and even play.
Speaker 5 (13:10):
Well, certainly in the area of say appliances, connected appliances,
connected refrigerators, which we've had at the show for a
really long time, and the hardware was there, but not
necessarily the applications. Right, what do you do with a
connected refrigerator? But now we're beginning to see smart cameras
in the refrigerator that can tell you, you know, what
(13:33):
ingredients you have in the fridge, and take it a
step further and say, okay, well you can make this
recipe with what you have. This recipe with what you have.
So I mean, talk about a life enhancement. And right,
I've got a family and kids, and I've got to
make dinner every night. If I just had an assistant
tell me, okay, you've got all these ingredients and you
can make a tun of cast role. I mean, that
(13:54):
would make my life a lot easier. So we're beginning
to see more tangible advances on that front, which is
really exciting.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
All right, Ben, now you got me intrigued.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
Now now, or what's your favorite dish to cook for
the family.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
I make.
Speaker 4 (14:08):
I make a lot of tacos and burritos.
Speaker 5 (14:10):
Yes, yes, yeah, we you know, we don't We don't
live in California, so we don't have like a great
supply of awesome Mexican food. So that's what I pretty
much make it at home.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Now.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
The type of tacos that we make, we grew up.
It's called ghetto tacos. Yeah, we had we had the
ghettle talk before it probably had a get okay, okay,
ground beef, cheese, lettuce. Now I put ketchup on mine
because to me, it's like a cheeseburger. So I put
ketchup with my cheeseburger with my corner tea is fried hard.
(14:43):
You know that's that when you said tacos that I'm
right there. I am definitely right there with you. And
so we talked about smart home technology. We talked about
ai VR. You know you mentioned about about VR any
any other industries or any other modalit or or different
use cases out there when it comes to tech that
(15:04):
let's say ones are not thinking about now, something like
that kind of going under the radar that that we
should be be aware of.
Speaker 5 (15:12):
Well, certainly, fitness is one that that everyone is very
focused on, and really from a lot of different fronts,
we've seen innovations in like activity trackers and smart rings.
Speaker 4 (15:24):
That's become a very hot category.
Speaker 5 (15:27):
You know, taking it back to VR, everybody's talking about
fitness as.
Speaker 4 (15:31):
A use case for VR.
Speaker 5 (15:32):
So you put the headset on and you know, maybe
it takes you to a workout room or maybe you're
exercising on a beach in San Diego and you know
you're doing your calistinus and exercises and the headset can
track what you're doing, and you know, did you do
those those those lunges properly?
Speaker 2 (15:51):
You know.
Speaker 5 (15:51):
I feel like fitness is always a trend at ce
S and outside of ce S that the technology industry
is trying to add value too. And it really seems
like this year with the advancements in on the fitness
side of activity trackers and and what's happening in VR,
you know that we've seen some some growth there too.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Ben.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
You know, I leave every cees saying, wow, it can't
get any better than this, but it always does. It's
like something comes out like who would have thought. You know,
you've you've worked for the CTA before, but who would
have thought that Delta Airlines would be given a keynote ses.
Speaker 4 (16:34):
It's it's it's great and I love what ct A.
Speaker 5 (16:37):
The unofficial tagline at CTA is every company is a
technology company.
Speaker 4 (16:42):
And that's that's true.
Speaker 5 (16:43):
Every company has to interface with technology in some way,
either it's an app or in the actual product that
they produce. You know, how they are are reaching consumers,
how they're marketing their products. Everybody has to keep an
eye on this space because it's it's changing very quickly
and it's uh, it can be a multiplier to your business.
So that's why I'm here every year. Of course I
(17:04):
love gadgets and consumer electronics and everything, but I want
to see how the kind of the larger trends in
technology are boosting businesses.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
And Bill, let's talk about what with what your company
focuses on in the tech world in this space of
of analysis and and things that that that that they
do to help us out, you know, the shape technology
as we see you today.
Speaker 5 (17:28):
Sure, well, Sirkana is UH. We are business intelligence company.
We track sales of products that you buy at retail.
So you go to Amazon and you purchase a pair
of headphones that gets trapped in our data and so
we roll that information up UH and produce reports and
it gives us a view for you know, especially in
(17:50):
the consumer technology space. You know, how are different categories
of products performing, our sales growing, our sales declining, Who's
got all the market share within these categories? And then
the other piece is we study consumers. Which groups of
consumers are buying products, what are they buying, how much
are they spending?
Speaker 4 (18:11):
And so it really gives us a great view.
Speaker 5 (18:13):
For how consumers are you know, purchasing technology, and it
really you know, through our forecasting and you know, we
get a view for where the market is going. And
a show like this is perfect for us because we
get to see all the innovations before they hit the market.
We start to think about, okay, well, what types of
(18:35):
consumers are gonna be looking for these products?
Speaker 4 (18:38):
How do these products.
Speaker 5 (18:39):
Change over time with new features and as new brands
come in and lower prices. So all of those things
are in our space, and that's that's really where I
spend a lot of my time.
Speaker 3 (18:52):
Awesome and Ben, before I let you go, anything else
you'd like to share with with the audience, share with
the tech world.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
The floor is yours.
Speaker 5 (19:00):
So everybody asked me what what what's my favorite technology product?
And at Sirkana, I track a couple of different verticals.
One of them is smart home and the last year
for Christmas, I was gifted a smart bird feeder. So
it's a bird feeder that goes outside. It's got a
camera on it and the camera identifies what types of
(19:21):
birds are.
Speaker 4 (19:22):
Coming to the bird feeder.
Speaker 5 (19:23):
So we've got you know, cardinals and different sparrows and woodpeckers.
And I'll tell you this, it is as entertaining as
watching TV. And I know, I'm I'm getting I'm getting
up there at age, but I could sit and watch.
Speaker 4 (19:36):
The bird feeder for for hours.
Speaker 5 (19:38):
I know this a little bit of a sidebar, but uh,
you know, it's it's technology, it's AI, it's cameras, and
it really kind of you know, satisfies my technology.
Speaker 4 (19:49):
Interest in a bunch of different ways. But I think
the kind of.
Speaker 5 (19:51):
The larger view, right is that you know, tech is
here to add value to our lives, to improve our lives.
It's a huge industry that we're all in vested in.
We want to see it succeed. We want to see
you know, great products that are useful to consumers. And
that's that's really what I'm I'm here to to focus on,
to champion and to you know, to report on.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
I love that. I love that, Ben.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
I myself, I I have koi in my backyard, so
I would love to see some technology that would allow
me to see my koi underwater and you know, give me.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Some some pretty cool tips about them.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
Oh that's a cohaku, or that's a cheetah wosery, you know,
that's all these different things.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
It's too cold to feed them right now. Give them
a treat, you know, that would be pretty amazing.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
And Ben, and thank you so much, you know, for
sharing that, and uh looking forward to catching up with you,
Sue and my friend.
Speaker 4 (20:44):
Absolutely, I'm hey, I'm convinced.
Speaker 5 (20:46):
Unveiled next year twenty twenty six, we're gonna see that
underwater UH fish camera, smart camera, UH to take care
of the KOI fish in your backyard.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Hey, let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
That is the amazing Ben Arnold. Ben is one of
the brightest minds when it comes to analyzing tech and
all the things that are going on. So make sure
you follow him and keep up to date some of
the things that he's doing. I tell you what, We're
gonna take a break right here. We'll be right back.
So why don't you take a pause for the cause,
(21:18):
be right back In.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
This world of technology, things that ever change, rearranging.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
You need someone to help you out. I know someone
that can be alone. You'll be with Paul. I'm gonna
get a Slaine in the tech Zone.
In this world of technology, things are ever changing, rearranging.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
You need someone to help you out. I know someone
who can come and take a journey with me. As
we go through the land of technology. You'll never be alone,
You'll be working.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Paul.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
I'm an dance laying in the Tech Zone.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Take a little trip with me and hopefully you can
see how the hood, suburbs and main street are all
connected no respect.
Speaker 4 (00:50):
Can I mean we.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Network across the globe because it's a global marketing in
case you didn't know, and since we all about information flow,
let me be the first one to work from you
to Tech Zone with Paul Arma Date Slaine. Let's talk
tech because technology changing the game. It's so good in
the hood, it's everywhere. Now let's get into the show
because we love going a Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Hello and welcome to this edition of the Tech Zone.
What is up?
Speaker 3 (01:16):
It's me Paul ahmadea Slaine. I am your hostess with
the mostess. You know, it's all about cees here. We're
live here on the floor in the West Hall and
it has been an amazing CEES so far. I had
an opportunity to see some pretty amazing innovation firsthand. You're
talking about educational tech. You're talking about ad tech. Any
(01:41):
tech out there, you will see it. I even found
out what Samsung is doing when it comes to smart
home technology and the IoT they have something called Bali
and Bally is amazing.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
So Bali can let you know what type of wine
to have with your dinner. So let's have it.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
See if you're having that bone in Rabbi steak and
you have two bottles of wine. Let's say you have
your Thunderbird and your boom Farms Strawberry Hill, and you
ask Bali, which one of these wines should I drink
with my Rabbui? Balie gonna tell you. So that's what
I love about all the great things happening here at CES,
(02:20):
and I had the distinct opportunity to moderate a panel
on user generated design talking about how technology can help
ones like myself or part of the disabled community, and
what companies are doing to make sure that one size
fit all can actually happen. So it's been an amazing CES.
(02:42):
But what makes ES more amazing is running into some
amazing minds out there whom I've had an opportunity to
know for many, many years, and one of them is
joining me right now we're talking about the awesome, the
amazing Ben Arnold. Ben is the industry analyst at Sirkana.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Ben. What's going on man? How you doing, Paul?
Speaker 5 (03:08):
It's awesome to see you. I know we see each
other at cees every year. Well we're not at ces.
I keep up with you on LinkedIn and it's nice
to see you in person.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Hey, good to see you too, Ben, Ben, you always
look look amazing when I see you.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
You have to let me know what I need to
do so that I can look.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
Look fit and healthy instead of every time you see me,
I've gained like five or ten more pounds, So you
got to teach me how I can reduce the poundage.
Speaker 4 (03:34):
All right, it's just positive, positive thoughts, all right.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
I love that. I love that I'll be thinking positive.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
Believe when I've be seeing that Popeye chicken commercial, I'm like, oh,
I'm a positively getting this car. I get me some
spicy chicken. But now, but always great to see you, Ben.
So what's your c has been like?
Speaker 4 (03:51):
It's been busy, lots of meetings.
Speaker 5 (03:54):
Lots of cool products to check out, following all the trends,
a lot of things that you've been hearing IoT, which
you mentioned artificial intelligence, how does that impact our consumer
electronics products? Just really trying to follow a lot of
these stories, and you know, from our vantage point, consumer
electronics sales have been a little bit soft over the
(04:14):
last couple of years, but we've definitely seen the sales
pick up this year. And it's great to have that
story and come to cees and see all of the
new awesome products that people are showing off and been.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
One of the things that I found out that I
thought was amazing was how gen Z are really the
drivers behind a lot of the spending when it comes
to to consumer tech and what makes that happen.
Speaker 5 (04:42):
You think about gen Z, I've got a couple of
them at my house. I mean, they are connoisseurs of technology, right,
they know what they're doing. They're all over things like
streaming services, They've got favorite brands. They you know, do
things differently in technology than you and I do. And
it's a it's a big cohort of consumers. They've got
(05:04):
spending power and so that's why their tastes and preferences
are driving so many products and features and things like that.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
And Ben, let let's talk about twenty twenty five, and
what are some things that that that that that are
forecast things that that we're going to see in twenty
twenty five are the potential keyword.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Taxes not teriffs.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
Is that going to impact, you know, the the analysis
of things of what could be or what may not
be because of some of the uncertainty out there.
Speaker 5 (05:40):
Absolutely, it's something that we're tracking at our firm, trying
to understand when do we see terraffts hit the market,
our consumers buying up right now before they hit, you know,
that could be a dynamic that's happening in the market.
Speaker 4 (05:58):
And what I fall back on is.
Speaker 5 (06:00):
There seems to be a pretty rich pipeline of products
and innovation and technologies.
Speaker 4 (06:05):
That we will see this year.
Speaker 5 (06:07):
That you know, will help continue to grow the market
even as we account for things like tariffs. So one
thing I've seen a lot this week has been smart glasses.
I've seen some amazing smart glasses and advancements from what
we saw last year. I demoed one last night. I
(06:29):
don't think I can say the name of the company,
but I had these glasses on. They told me to
reach out and pinch and I grabbed a bubble that
was in air, and then I was able to throw
the bubble right, So the right that was an actual
object that was I was seeing in the glasses and
I was able to interact with it. And to take
(06:52):
that a step further, they had another feature which incorporated
generative AI. So you put the glasses on and you say,
imagine a purple basketball. Purple basketball pops up in front
of your face, and you can reach out and grab
it and look at it and you know, throw it around.
So I think we'll find the use case for these things.
(07:16):
Surely it's like games and other creative pursuits, but this
is just kind of the starting point of what we
expect to see. And I think the other thing is
that smart glasses, maybe for someone who'm a smartphone, is
maybe a little bit difficult to use eye tracking, voice recognition,
(07:38):
artificial intelligence. You know, this is just another way to
interact with the you know, digital world, you know, using
using different inputs. Right, not necessarily your your hands or
your fingers, but your voice and your eyes and other things.
So that's what's really exciting to me is is pushing
the envelope in some of these areas.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Well.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
Then you're speaking my language, you know, talking about you know,
except stability and inclusion, you know, because that that that's me.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
I love that.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
It kind of reminds me of what a friend of
ours that we know, Sean Dubervac said many years ago.
He said, our human bodies will become the interface, and
we're starting to we're starting to see that now with
all these different inputs. And one thing that I noticed
when you were talking about the smart glasses, that that
you were able to demo Jesus the way your face
(08:25):
lit up and and and talk about just the sensory
impact that that had on you trying that out where.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
You reached out, grabbed that bubble and kind of threw it.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
Did that kind of take your mind and body on
the trip when you were able to do that.
Speaker 5 (08:40):
I got to tell you, I've talked to people about
this experience that I had, and I said, I saw
magic last night.
Speaker 4 (08:46):
I got to interact with magic.
Speaker 5 (08:48):
And as you can imagine, I have tried a lot
of these products, a lot of the earlier generations, you know,
tons of VR headsets and things, and they've all been
really cool, but I haven't been able to have that
type of an experience where I'm really you know, interacting
with this digital overlay. And the other thing is, you know,
the things in space, they know that there's a there's
a wall on the side, so it can bounce off
(09:10):
the wall. It knows that there's a floor, It knew
that there was a couch in the room, and you know,
objects could sit on the couch.
Speaker 4 (09:17):
So yeah, I'm I was very excited about that. And uh,
you know, whether it's.
Speaker 5 (09:23):
Creation, entertainment, gaming, there's so many places that a product.
Speaker 4 (09:27):
Like that can go.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Yeah, I agree, I agree.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
And what about when it comes to to jen ai
or AI in general, what are some things that we're
seeing that in twenty twenty five that we should kind
of keep our eyes on.
Speaker 5 (09:40):
Well, certainly, you know, from my vantage point consumer electronics
A the products that are you know, using generative AI,
whether it's you know, maybe a program that you use
on your computer that's powered by a graphics card that
allows you to you know, produce video by us writing
(10:01):
in a prompt.
Speaker 4 (10:02):
Uh so, things like that. Uh, I think.
Speaker 5 (10:04):
The the area of creation is ripe for disruption. And
of course creators are a huge trend at CES this
year as well, so many camera sales and accessories, new cameras,
you know, mobile photography, but also the the process of
creating these things are I think is going to change.
(10:26):
And you know that just says that are you know,
technology is smart and I think now the the onus
is on users to figure out how to harness that
and and that's and that's really one of another huge
trend that we're seeing at the show that kind of
blends creators and AI together.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
And what about when it comes to smart home technology
kind of touched on it a little bit. Is there
is there anything anything in particular with smart home technology
that that that that you're really looking at and be like,
oh yeah, and y'all better watch this right here.
Speaker 4 (10:57):
Well you talk about AI.
Speaker 5 (10:59):
I mean, that's another category that AI is going to impact.
And you know, we've had smart speakers for almost a
decade at this point, so we've been talking and having
conversations with speakers. I think the assistants are going to
get much smarter. You're going to have much more natural
conversations with your smart speaker in the future because those
(11:19):
voice assistants Alexa, Google Assistant, you know, have been augmented
with better intelligence and more kind of natural experiences that
you can interact with. And on the camera side again,
a lot of this AI conversation around being able to
identify objects, identify things that are in a camera. There's
(11:41):
been news of the Nest security cameras, so Google they're
going to incorporate Gemini AI into the cameras. So while
now if a animal runs past your camera, it can
tell you, oh, an animal ran past your camera, but
with Gemini AI, it would be, uh, you know, a
(12:02):
kid goes past your camera? Oh, is a kid in
a red sweatshirt on a bike road past your your lawn?
And I think that's that's exciting as well. And it
you know, it just makes the experience a little more personable.
Uh you know, it brings a little bit closer to
the user. And I think the key here is like
(12:22):
the natural language, so it's doesn't spit it out and
kind of technology speak. It's no, a kid in a
red sweatshirt on a bike road past your lawn. And
I think that's something that all consumers can can use
and relate to.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
Wow, I'm sitting here like that would be pretty amazing.
Kind of reminds me of futuristic stuff. Remember, like old
sci fi shows. We would watch their movies and and
they would do a scan on someone and take exactly
who they were and and and do like a three
dimensional you know, kind of turn a three hundred and
sixty degree turn.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
And and that's that. That that's awesome.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
And what are some other trends have been that we're
seeing that that that are really going to shape the
way we live, work, and even play.
Speaker 5 (13:10):
Well, certainly in the area of say appliances, connected appliances,
connected refrigerators, which we've had at the show for a
really long time, and the hardware was there, but not
necessarily the applications. Right, what do you do with a
connected refrigerator? But now we're beginning to see smart cameras
in the refrigerator that can tell you, you know, what
(13:33):
ingredients you have in the fridge, and take it a
step further and say, okay, well you can make this
recipe with what you have. This recipe with what you have.
So I mean, talk about a life enhancement. And right,
I've got a family and kids, and I've got to
make dinner every night. If I just had an assistant
tell me, okay, you've got all these ingredients and you
can make a tun of cast role. I mean, that
(13:54):
would make my life a lot easier. So we're beginning
to see more tangible advances on that front, which is
really exciting.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
All right, Ben, now you got me intrigued.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
Now now, or what's your favorite dish to cook for
the family.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
I make.
Speaker 4 (14:08):
I make a lot of tacos and burritos.
Speaker 5 (14:10):
Yes, yes, yeah, we you know, we don't We don't
live in California, so we don't have like a great
supply of awesome Mexican food. So that's what I pretty
much make it at home.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Now.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
The type of tacos that we make, we grew up.
It's called ghetto tacos. Yeah, we had we had the
ghettle talk before it probably had a get okay, okay,
ground beef, cheese, lettuce. Now I put ketchup on mine
because to me, it's like a cheeseburger. So I put
ketchup with my cheeseburger with my corner tea is fried hard.
(14:43):
You know that's that when you said tacos that I'm
right there. I am definitely right there with you. And
so we talked about smart home technology. We talked about
ai VR. You know you mentioned about about VR any
any other industries or any other modalit or or different
use cases out there when it comes to tech that
(15:04):
let's say ones are not thinking about now, something like
that kind of going under the radar that that we
should be be aware of.
Speaker 5 (15:12):
Well, certainly, fitness is one that that everyone is very
focused on, and really from a lot of different fronts,
we've seen innovations in like activity trackers and smart rings.
Speaker 4 (15:24):
That's become a very hot category.
Speaker 5 (15:27):
You know, taking it back to VR, everybody's talking about
fitness as.
Speaker 4 (15:31):
A use case for VR.
Speaker 5 (15:32):
So you put the headset on and you know, maybe
it takes you to a workout room or maybe you're
exercising on a beach in San Diego and you know
you're doing your calistinus and exercises and the headset can
track what you're doing, and you know, did you do
those those those lunges properly?
Speaker 2 (15:51):
You know.
Speaker 5 (15:51):
I feel like fitness is always a trend at ce
S and outside of ce S that the technology industry
is trying to add value too. And it really seems
like this year with the advancements in on the fitness
side of activity trackers and and what's happening in VR,
you know that we've seen some some growth there too.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Ben.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
You know, I leave every cees saying, wow, it can't
get any better than this, but it always does. It's
like something comes out like who would have thought. You know,
you've you've worked for the CTA before, but who would
have thought that Delta Airlines would be given a keynote ses.
Speaker 4 (16:34):
It's it's it's great and I love what ct A.
Speaker 5 (16:37):
The unofficial tagline at CTA is every company is a
technology company.
Speaker 4 (16:42):
And that's that's true.
Speaker 5 (16:43):
Every company has to interface with technology in some way,
either it's an app or in the actual product that
they produce. You know, how they are are reaching consumers,
how they're marketing their products. Everybody has to keep an
eye on this space because it's it's changing very quickly
and it's uh, it can be a multiplier to your business.
So that's why I'm here every year. Of course I
(17:04):
love gadgets and consumer electronics and everything, but I want
to see how the kind of the larger trends in
technology are boosting businesses.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
And Bill, let's talk about what with what your company
focuses on in the tech world in this space of
of analysis and and things that that that that they
do to help us out, you know, the shape technology
as we see you today.
Speaker 5 (17:28):
Sure, well, Sirkana is UH. We are business intelligence company.
We track sales of products that you buy at retail.
So you go to Amazon and you purchase a pair
of headphones that gets trapped in our data and so
we roll that information up UH and produce reports and
it gives us a view for you know, especially in
(17:50):
the consumer technology space. You know, how are different categories
of products performing, our sales growing, our sales declining, Who's
got all the market share within these categories? And then
the other piece is we study consumers. Which groups of
consumers are buying products, what are they buying, how much
are they spending?
Speaker 4 (18:11):
And so it really gives us a great view.
Speaker 5 (18:13):
For how consumers are you know, purchasing technology, and it
really you know, through our forecasting and you know, we
get a view for where the market is going. And
a show like this is perfect for us because we
get to see all the innovations before they hit the market.
We start to think about, okay, well, what types of
(18:35):
consumers are gonna be looking for these products?
Speaker 4 (18:38):
How do these products.
Speaker 5 (18:39):
Change over time with new features and as new brands
come in and lower prices. So all of those things
are in our space, and that's that's really where I
spend a lot of my time.
Speaker 3 (18:52):
Awesome and Ben, before I let you go, anything else
you'd like to share with with the audience, share with
the tech world.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
The floor is yours.
Speaker 5 (19:00):
So everybody asked me what what what's my favorite technology product?
And at Sirkana, I track a couple of different verticals.
One of them is smart home and the last year
for Christmas, I was gifted a smart bird feeder. So
it's a bird feeder that goes outside. It's got a
camera on it and the camera identifies what types of
(19:21):
birds are.
Speaker 4 (19:22):
Coming to the bird feeder.
Speaker 5 (19:23):
So we've got you know, cardinals and different sparrows and woodpeckers.
And I'll tell you this, it is as entertaining as
watching TV. And I know, I'm I'm getting I'm getting
up there at age, but I could sit and watch.
Speaker 4 (19:36):
The bird feeder for for hours.
Speaker 5 (19:38):
I know this a little bit of a sidebar, but uh,
you know, it's it's technology, it's AI, it's cameras, and
it really kind of you know, satisfies my technology.
Speaker 4 (19:49):
Interest in a bunch of different ways. But I think
the kind of.
Speaker 5 (19:51):
The larger view, right is that you know, tech is
here to add value to our lives, to improve our lives.
It's a huge industry that we're all in vested in.
We want to see it succeed. We want to see
you know, great products that are useful to consumers. And
that's that's really what I'm I'm here to to focus on,
to champion and to you know, to report on.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
I love that. I love that, Ben.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
I myself, I I have koi in my backyard, so
I would love to see some technology that would allow
me to see my koi underwater and you know, give me.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Some some pretty cool tips about them.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
Oh that's a cohaku, or that's a cheetah wosery, you know,
that's all these different things.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
It's too cold to feed them right now. Give them
a treat, you know, that would be pretty amazing.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
And Ben, and thank you so much, you know, for
sharing that, and uh looking forward to catching up with you,
Sue and my friend.
Speaker 4 (20:44):
Absolutely, I'm hey, I'm convinced.
Speaker 5 (20:46):
Unveiled next year twenty twenty six, we're gonna see that
underwater UH fish camera, smart camera, UH to take care
of the KOI fish in your backyard.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Hey, let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
That is the amazing Ben Arnold. Ben is one of
the brightest minds when it comes to analyzing tech and
all the things that are going on. So make sure
you follow him and keep up to date some of
the things that he's doing. I tell you what, We're
gonna take a break right here. We'll be right back.
So why don't you take a pause for the cause,
(21:18):
be right back In.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
This world of technology, things that ever change, rearranging.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
You need someone to help you out. I know someone
that can be alone. You'll be with Paul. I'm gonna
get a Slaine in the tech Zone.
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