Foreign media looks forward to CES: from 5G mobile phones to 8K TVs

The annual CES (International Consumer Electronics Show) is about to kick off. What new products will be unveiled at that time? What trends will consumer electronics have in 2020? Here are foreign media predictions: In 2020, the best things in the world of consumer technology will become more powerful and more premium. The word "premium" has been overused, but this year, it will be used more frequently, and it is very appropriate. It tells you that the best products will become better and more expensive.

The changes will also be somewhat redundant, since many of the improvements at the high end of the market will be ones that most people won’t need: 5G phones will be ubiquitous, but 5G networks are still in their infancy. Televisions will get new features like high refresh rates that are important to gamers but may not matter to everyone else. The latest computer chips could give laptops their biggest leap in years, but nothing will be known until they start rolling out en masse.

Many compact products will also be foldable, but is this really necessary?

Other innovations will be more practical. The ubiquitous electric scooters won’t disappear, but they should become more robust and less discarded. The coming year will also see the new console war between Sony and Microsoft heat up again.

Another big trend is streaming TV. The streaming wars are in full swing, and 2020 will see even more services emerge. How many shows will most people be willing to subscribe to? More than they want. How much will the competitors spend on making new shows? More than you think.

All of these trends will kick off at CES in Las Vegas. While there won’t be any major electronics products from major brands at CES this year, the stage will give us a glimpse into where the electronics industry is headed. Walk into any major brand’s booth and you’ll see televisions that cost hundreds of dollars and features that would have cost thousands of dollars a few years ago. Phones with in-screen fingerprint sensors will debut, but become ubiquitous a few years later.

Since mainstream tech companies typically save their best products for their own events, you can also expect smaller companies to have a better chance of showing off their products and attract more attention at CES.

Trickle-down economics is no longer a viable economic theory, but it still applies to electronics. Premium products eventually become commoditized, prices fall, and fancy features become mainstream. This will continue to happen in 2020—the main theme of premium products will be to improve existing product categories rather than create new ones.

Here's what to expect at CES and in the world of consumer electronics in 2020.

Mobile phones: 5G is coming

5G is here. Will anyone be the big winner this year?

This year, 5G phones will go from being a weird experiment on a few street corners to being a regular product across the U.S. Some U.S. carriers have already launched 5G networks, but whether they can really deliver fast enough speeds to change people's daily experience remains an open question.

Carriers and phone makers should address this issue as soon as possible, because new 5G phones could have big side effects. The first batch of Android phones with 5G technology were quite large, and the new products in 2020 may still be the same. In addition, there are concerns that Qualcomm's latest chips may not be as power-efficient as expected, because these highest-end chips require a separate modem, which consumes more power.

In addition, will Apple launch 5G this year? In the past, the company usually takes a long time to adopt the new generation of cellular network technology. In the past year, it has been in constant dispute with Qualcomm, and Apple's newly acquired Intel modem division is unlikely to be able to meet the challenge so quickly.

So, in 2020, there will be a lot of questions surrounding 5G, but those questions will come from the phones that manufacturers will start selling in large quantities.

CES Outlook: CES has never been a phone show, but there are always some phones on display - usually to show new technologies such as in-screen fingerprint sensors, and some companies may also discuss their 5G phone plans. With Samsung and Apple alienated from CES, small manufacturers have a chance to get some attention.

2020 prediction: This is the year foldable phones become the norm. That doesn't necessarily mean they'll go mainstream, but there will definitely be some. The first to truly put it to the test will be the Motorola Moto Razr.

(The above is the American prediction for 5G. The current market situation is somewhat different from that in China.)

Television: Full of gimmicks, but also with real content

Ambitious and expensive TVs always steal the show at CES at the beginning of each year. Last year, LG showed off a rollable OLED TV, and Samsung followed suit with a revamped version of its stunning modular TV, “The Wall,” which uses MicroLED display technology that rivals OLED in picture quality but with almost none of its drawbacks.

But these flashy displays don’t mean much to the average consumer. Samsung’s “The Wall” is expensive, and LG’s rollable TV isn’t available in the U.S. yet. That’s what the most eye-catching TV displays at CES are: They’re essentially concepts masquerading as real consumer products.

Still, CES is a great showcase for TVs, and those less flashy exhibits do become real products that people can buy later. While Apple, Samsung, and even Google save their big phone hardware for their own events, their TV tech still makes an appearance at CES.

CES Outlook: It's time for manufacturers to fully embrace HDMI 2.1 and launch 4K HDR TVs optimized for the next-generation game consoles from Microsoft and Sony. Features that have already appeared on gaming monitors (such as variable refresh rates) will appear on TV products, and 120Hz 4K will take gaming smoothness to new heights.

On the software side of things, the biggest TV announcements at CES 2019 were all Apple-related. Several manufacturers announced support for AirPlay 2, and Samsung also announced support for iTunes itself (which will eventually become the Apple TV app). Expect more similar announcements in 2020, with the advent of Disney+, which will likely become a built-in option on many TVs. In addition, standards like ATSC 3.0 (which can receive 4K signals via antennas) are also expected to start being adopted by TV manufacturers.

2020 prediction: Another year of 8K hype but little content to support it. Without a significant increase in 8K content, 8K will remain a niche technology this year — no matter how good its AI upscaling gets.

The streaming wars: The smoke of war is rising

Streaming services will compete to overthrow Netflix's dominance

The streaming war will become more complicated in 2020. Disney+ and Apple TV Plus were launched at the end of 2019, and similar services such as HBO Max, Peacock and Quibi are also planned to be launched.

As these new services launch and compete for subscribers’ time and money, more blockbuster content licensing deals will occur, such as WarnerMedia paying $450 million for the rights to “Friends” and Netflix reportedly spending $500 million to acquire the rights to “Seinfeld.”

There will also be news of big names working for specific streaming platforms. Martin Scorsese, a famous American director, produced and directed the three-hour gangster film "The Irishman" for Netflix. As film companies such as Disney, Warner Bros. and Universal Pictures develop strategies for theaters and streaming, more movies will flow into streaming platforms. Netflix will also continue to try to get its blockbusters released in theaters.

Ultimately, the biggest story in streaming this year will be how streaming services compete against each other to topple the dominance of Netflix, which has a years-long lead in creating original programming for domestic and international audiences.

Meanwhile, podcasts have a lesser role in the streaming wars. This is an area where Apple and Spotify will duke it out. Spotify acquired several podcast networks and podcast creation technology provider Anchor in 2019 in an attempt to dominate the industry and transform itself into an "audio" company rather than a streaming music company. Apple is said to be building its own original podcast content, presumably to stave off competition from Spotify. Similar to video content, the new podcast space is expected to see more news, and more big names can be expected to join the different services.

CES Outlook: There's a lot of buzz. Quibi will give a keynote, and NBCUniversal will also be in attendance. Presumably, both companies will showcase their upcoming new services and make full use of the CES stage to build momentum.

2020 prediction: Creative talent is clearly in high demand right now. Studios, streaming services, and tech companies want content and big names, which means a flood of new shows from top talent. Exclusive deals with creators and studios mean content prices could soon skyrocket.

PC/Laptop: The Processor is the Key

Intel Tiger Lake will bring 10nm process improvements to high-powered H-series processors

There’s one wild card in the Windows laptop space in 2020: foldable, dual-screen devices. Lenovo showed off a fully foldable laptop last year, and Microsoft has begun showing off its Surface Duo, which will be available in the 2020 holiday season — and a custom version of its operating system, Windows 10X, designed specifically for these devices.

The first wave of these devices will arrive in 2020, and we’ll start to see if extended screens are the future of computing or just a passing fad. It’s too early to tell, but we do know that processors are getting their biggest upgrade in years this year.

That's because the average laptop is expected to get a big upgrade in 2020: Intel's third-generation 10nm process chips, code-named Tiger Lake, will be available this year, succeeding Ice Lake. Unlike Ice Lake, Tiger Lake will also apply Intel's 10nm process technology to high-powered H-series processors, which is worth paying attention to. However, it probably won't appear at CES unless Intel wants to create a surprise.

AMD will also continue to challenge Intel with its upcoming Ryzen 4000 processors, which will bring AMD's latest Zen 2 architecture to laptops. The big question is whether AMD can shake Intel's long-standing dominance in the field.

There's also an interesting new player in the space: Qualcomm, which looks set to push further into ARM for Windows this year by adding two new entry-level chips to its existing (though currently underutilized) Snapdragon 8cx chip.

Beyond that, there will be the usual improvements in this area: some past trends will become more apparent in the coming months, such as smaller bezels, smaller hardware, and more use of USB-C ports.

CES Outlook: Configuration-wise, gaming laptops were the star of last year’s CES, thanks to Nvidia’s full rollout of its new RTX GPUs for laptops. However, this year all eyes are back on processors.

AMD may release new Ryzen 4000 processors for laptops, and with Intel's 10th-generation 10nm chip Ice Lake finally available, existing models are likely to see significant configuration upgrades. Although there are no rumors that Tiger Lake will appear at CES this year, Intel may have a surprise in store.

Of course, we may also start to see some foldable or dual-screen laptop products.

2020 prediction: Gaming laptops are stagnant right now, without a boost from new GPUs from Nvidia and chips from Intel, which means 2020 will be a great year for manufacturers to experiment with some crazy new form factor or design to create the most powerful laptop yet.

Gaming Hardware: The Next Console War Is Coming

Standard console architecture makes it easy to stream games from the cloud

Sony and Microsoft are eager to let you know that the next PlayStation and Xbox are on the way—so much so that they've announced them almost a year in advance, setting up an epic showdown when the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X go on sale next holiday. Nintendo, as usual, is staying on track, and of course the continued success of the Nintendo Switch handheld is undeniable.

The evolution of gaming means that players are no longer tied to a specific device; they can now choose a platform that spans multiple generations of hardware, and may not be tied to a single console at all. Because the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 use the PC-like x86 architecture, it's easy for Microsoft and Sony to build subsequent versions into the Xbox One X and PS4 Pro, which can run the same game library at a higher resolution or frame rate. It's much easier to host games on cloud servers, so subscription services like PlayStation Now and xCloud can also stream games to PCs or phones.

Will Sony and Microsoft give up that advantage in favor of selling newer, more exclusive consoles? It’s possible. But it feels more likely that the future of gaming is one where you get different experiences on each device: in Microsoft’s case, a basic experience on Xbox, a more powerful experience on Xbox One X, and the best visuals on Xbox Series X, where expensive SSDs mean less waiting time for games to load, and you can also continue playing xCloud games on your phone.

With VR and AR gaming still largely unreliable (although holiday season sales of the Valve Index and Oculus Quest seem to offer some hope), cloud gaming is once again the most promising gaming technology advancement. With Google Stadia already launched and the PS5 and Xbox Series X set to hit the market, there will be a slew of offerings vying for gamers to buy next-generation games.

CES Outlook: With both Sony and Microsoft claiming that their consoles can run games at 8K resolution, the industry may emphasize 8K more this year, and we wouldn’t be surprised if one or even three cloud gaming companies use this platform to promote their products.

2020 Prediction: In 2020, we'll take a break from talking about the three-way competition between Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft, because a new challenger will emerge. Maybe it'll be Amazon, which is rumored to be launching a cloud gaming service, or maybe Google's Stadia will make a difference. Maybe Apple will finally embrace big-screen gaming with a new Apple TV or iPad based on Apple Arcade, or even its own game console.

Transportation: Electrification

The internal combustion engine is not going away any time soon

Electricity will continue to dominate all modes of transportation over the next decade. But that doesn't mean we can say goodbye to the internal combustion engine. Today, the vast majority of private cars on the road are fuel-powered.

The complete transition to electric vehicles will take an extremely long time, but the shift has already begun and will continue over the next decade. More countries are expected to follow the lead of the United Kingdom, France, and Norway in proposing to ban internal combustion engines. The United States is considering a "cash for clunkers"-style program to ensure that every car on the road is zero-emission by 2040.

Electric flight will really take off over the next decade, primarily in the form of small, hybrid helicopters that provide short-distance travel in cities. Initially, this form of transportation will be available only to the wealthy. Many people are skeptical that these so-called "flying cars" can overcome safety issues and regulatory hurdles to scale up and reach more people. Battery technology will need to make great strides before we can build all-electric commercial aircraft that can fly between cities.

Some cities will continue to be lured by the unrealistic vision of the Hyperloop. But they should invest more in buses, especially electric ones. Although these humble vehicles may not be as sexy as the Hyperloop, they can really solve the problem of urban traffic congestion.

CES Outlook: Over the past few years, CES has seemed to have transformed from a tech show into a car show. This year, automakers seem to be suppressing the urge to show off their cool products at the event. Since most companies have already announced their 2020 flagship electric vehicles at their respective press conferences, no major announcements are expected at CES. There will be some demonstrations of self-driving cars, but they won't be as exciting as they were a few years ago. After all, there are already real driverless cars on public roads today.

That's not to say CES will be completely devoid of crazy car concepts. Honda will show off an "augmented driving" concept car with a "reinvented" steering wheel. Nissan will show off a new electric car, and South Korea's Hyundai plans to show off a flying car.

2020 prediction: Tesla CEO Elon Musk will continue to post bizarre things on Twitter, walking on the edge of the law (and may be sued by the SEC or private citizens if he is not careful).

Cycling tools: harder, better, faster, stronger

E-scooters may finally be durable enough to last long enough

Electric bikes and scooters have quickly become popular alternative modes of transportation in major cities. Of course, there is still much debate about whether they are replacing car travel or just a means of getting around. Still, they became more common in 2019, and this trend is likely to continue in 2020.

However, the electric rides themselves are also bound to change: evolving into advanced forms that are better suited to these uses. Most importantly, this means they will become more robust, especially electric scooters.

Almost all electric scooter sharing companies are working on developing their own proprietary products, which must be made durable. Electric scooters and electric bicycles may also become smarter and more practical, with better locking systems and brackets, and equipped with dynamic speed limit and other functions.

CES Outlook: As usual, you'll see a lot of weird products. CES is where products like the ZBoard electric skateboard debuted, with two pressure-sensitive pedals on the front and back ends and a hot-swappable battery. In this space, those concepts often don't come true, but they help tease out what is possible. We'll also see something closer to mass production, like Segway-Ninebot's entry into the electric scooter and moped space.

2020 prediction: In order to stand out, some small players will try to launch some eye-catching technologies, such as self-balancing and autonomous driving functions. The relevant discussions have been going on for a while, and the industry has tried some attempts. Maybe this year will see some results. In addition, those startups that want to become famous are trying to solve flashy problems instead of those small but important problems.

In 2020, we’ll also see more experimentation around new types of tools, such as sit-down electric scooters and tricycles.

Cameras: DSLRs aren’t dead yet

The biggest attraction will be the mirrorless camera

It should be easy to predict where cameras are going in 2020. Normally, they will follow the same trajectory as they have in the past five years, when smartphones largely replaced low-end point-and-shoots and mirrorless cameras replaced the once-popular DSLRs.

However, cheap point-and-shoot cameras will likely never make a comeback, while DSLRs don’t seem to be going away, thanks to the huge inertia of Nikon and Canon. Both companies are expected to continue investing in their DSLR businesses and entry-level to pro product lines, even as they finally hedge their bets with competitive mirrorless products.

The big story will continue to be mirrorless cameras, whether Sony pushes the limits of 35mm sensors and modern autofocus systems, Fujifilm continues to maintain its old business while making affordable digital cameras for photographers, or Leica continues to make expensive but extremely good professional photography tools.

In terms of videography, 360-degree cameras seem to have unexpectedly become popular again, although they are no longer designed to create VR content, but to provide endless angles when editing. It will be interesting to see whether established companies enter this field and challenge DJI and insta360, which currently produce 360-degree panoramic cameras.

CES Outlook: CES isn't usually the place for big camera news, but there may be some less-significant announcements from companies like Canon and Nikon. Startups like Insta360 may also show off new products.

2020 prediction: The best camera most people can get their hands on will still be the iPhone, and Android phones will continue to lag behind Apple in video quality and features.

Smart home: safety first

If 2019 taught us anything about the smart home, it’s that the most important feature is security, not cost, platform compatibility, or voice commands. But for the average consumer, the security of a product is the hardest to judge.

There have been countless reports of home security cameras from companies like Nest and Ring being "hacked" or at least accessed by outsiders, and the consequences of such incidents are obviously terrifying and disturbing.

As we head into 2020, the first thing smart home device manufacturers and platform owners need to discuss is how to ensure that their devices and user accounts are as secure as possible.

Of course, the security of such products also depends to some extent on the user. Smart home device accounts must use unique passwords and set up additional security levels, such as two-factor authentication. But judging by Motherboard's excellent analysis of Ring's security, device manufacturers still have a lot of room for improvement.

Despite being around for nearly a decade, the modern DIY smart home is still in its infancy, with numerous issues still to come in terms of usability, setup, compatibility, reliability, and longevity. Some vendors have recently been working to address some of these issues, but it will take time, and it’s unclear whether they will ever be able to do so.

CES Outlook: You'll see a lot of new smart home products, such as light bulbs, switches, smart plugs, and various other accessories, which have been a major part of the smart home market in the past few years. In the long run, some technologies will be more important than others, but it's unlikely that we'll see any truly disruptive smart home technology this year.

2020 Prediction: Negative publicity surrounding Ring products (primarily video doorbells and indoor and outdoor security cameras) will not have a substantial impact on their popularity and use. Despite numerous reports about Ring's close partnerships with local police departments and Ring's problematic Neighbors app, Amazon (which owns Ring) will continue to aggressively promote sales of these devices and achieve higher sales in 2020.

Headphones: Noise Cancelling

With so many headphones now featuring voice assistants, Bluetooth connectivity, and even USB-C ports, it’s hard to imagine where they’ll go next. Of course, high-end features will inevitably trickle down to mid-range headphones, but what new realms will high-end headphones reach in the future?

One area where wireless headphones still need improvement is the pairing process. With the W1 and H1 chips, Apple has proven that it is possible to make pairing a pair of wireless headphones as easy as plugging them into a 3.5mm audio jack. Other headphone companies are probably working hard to develop their own solutions.

Yes, Apple has the control over its own earbuds (not to mention the phones that go with them) that most other headphone companies can only dream of, but given that most Android phones and many wireless earbuds are powered by Qualcomm chipsets, it's not unreasonable to think that a competitor to Apple's AirPods could emerge.

CES Outlook: In the short term, the most desired thing is support for Qualcomm's new AptX adaptive standard. The standard was announced more than a year ago. It's not the most exciting technology, but it has the potential to make wireless audio more reliable when you're in a place with a lot of audio interference by compressing the bit rate of the audio. Earlier this year, Bowers & Wilkins' PX7 headphones became the first consumer headphones to support the standard, and the industry hopes to see more companies join the standard at CES.

2020 prediction: With Apple adding noise cancellation to AirPods, the wave of true wireless noise-cancelling headphones is almost inevitable. Of course, Apple is not the first company to adopt this feature, but no one can surpass it in leading the trend.