The latest from CES: Ford embraces Apple, Google car systems

By now, it’s significance is (somewhat) on the wane, as the big phone launches have mostly shifted to Mobile World Congress, which takes place about a month later, but you’ll still see big news about TVs, driverless cars, and this year there will nearly certainly be a fair sprinkling of companies showing of VR headsets and VR accessories.

Still, there will be a number of products that are compatible with things such as Google’s Nest Thermostat, and Apple’s HomeKit, which should at least help address the issue of standardisation.

A high-profile wearable – Call this a hunch, but Sony’s efforts in the smartwatch and wearable markets have been hit and miss so far and CES 2016 seems like the flawless time to remedy that. CES 2016 should be all about cars and home appliances, but it should also be about virtual reality devices. We already know that the first batch of 4K Blu-ray movies is going on sale in the coming weeks, with Sony, Samsung and Panasonic the three companies planning to launch 4K-capable Blu-ray players.

Drones are also expected to make a splash at CES, where an Unmanned Systems Marketplace has doubled in size from a year earlier to cover 25,000sq ft (2,300 square meters).

Electronics makers are also building smart technology into all manner of devices, allowing them to adapt to how people use them, responding to voice or gesture, for example. Experts are also counting on seeing a lot of wearables and other smart clothes this year.

Innovation in cars is changing the way people interact with vehicles, as technology handles more and more aspects of driving.

‘It means physical buttons may all but be gone, being replaced by display, gesture recognition, speech recognition’. We can expect to see new sensors and the evolution of ways physical and virtual spaces interact at the 2016 show. Since then, thousands of products have been announced at the yearly show, including many that have transformed our lives.

Though the conference runs Jan. 6-9, it unofficially kicks off on Tuesday, Jan. 5, and Fitbit will lead the way with a 7:30 a.m. press conference. We can also expect Jawbone, Garmin and Basis to all be on the show floor exhibiting their wearables, to name a few.

To avoid getting lost in tsunami of news about all types of new tech stuff being unveiled nearly at the same time at Consumer Electronics show, many companies start to show off their latest products days before the show begins.

“It should appear a little less dense”, said Gary Shapiro, longtime president and chief executive of the Consumer Technology Association.