LAS VEGAS – Everywhere you looked at CES last week, it seemed there was nothing that couldn't be connected to the Internet: Tennis rackets, coffee makers, watches, jewelry, oven ranges and infinitely more appliances and household goods are all getting high-tech upgrades.
It's called the Internet of Things.
To Shawn DuBravac, chief economist of the Consumer Electronics Association, which organizes the International Consumer Electronics Show, the important consideration is not whether a product can be digitized, but whether it should be. The question, he said, is ultimately "Does it make sense?"
Historically, crowds have flocked to the annual show to find out "what's technologically possible, what's technologically feasible," DuBravac said. "But we're now shifting, and no longer is the focus on what technologically can be done, it's what is technologically meaningful."
With so many competing Internet-connected products vying for attention at the massive event — more than 150,000 people were expected to attend Tuesday through Friday — many will ultimately fail. CES has become a place to "try to differentiate the winners from the losers," DuBravac said. "As we digitize and connect and sensorize an increasing swath of our experience, CES becomes that pruning ground."
It's hard to know where to start trimming. There were 900 Internet of Things exhibitors at CES, the largest-ever showcase of such products and services.
Market research firm IDC predicts that the worldwide market for Internet of Things solutions will grow from $1.9 trillion in 2013 to $7.1 trillion in 2020, although estimates from other firms vary widely.
So you get things at CES like the Wi-Fi kettle, which allows tea drinkers to "start boiling your kettle from anywhere in the house" with a smartphone, according to its manufacturer, a British company called Smarter.
