Counterpoint Analysts are attending the CES Event 2019 in Las Vegas to meet companies and gain latest technological insights. Here is a look at the major updates from run upto CES 2019.

Garmin Announced 4G LTE Connectivity

Garmin announced the vívoactive 3 Music – connected by Verizon, its first GPS smartwatch with 4G LTE connectivity. The smartwatch equipped with Corning (GLW) Gorilla Glass 3, uses ALT1210 chipset from Altair Semiconductor.
It has a battery life of up to 5 days in non-cellular and non-GPS smartwatch mode or up to 4 hours when connected to GPS, playing music and using the LiveTrack feature over 4G LTE.

This was inevitable. It’s been more than a year since Apple introduced its cellular version of the Smartwatch. Apple stepped up its strategy in the smartwatch segment by enhancing the features of smartwatches into broad-based functionalities, including some health and fitness tracking capabilities. Moreover, Apple initiated the trend of ‘smartwatch as a standalone wearable device’ with the adoption of cellular connectivity, which is still driving the new wave of cellular connected wearables globally. Great news for mobile operators!

Source: Garmin

TomTom in Partnership with Denso to Debut End-to-End Autonomous Driving System

TomTom in partnership with Denso will develop an end-to-end Level 2 autonomous solution, using Denso’s sensors (for perception) to update its maps. Data from the sensors will update the maps in real time. Partnership with Denso, world’s second largest component supplier, and a leading player in ADAS system is a big win for TomTom. TomTom can secure its revenue streams (through maps) from leading OEMs through partnerships like these, amidst the growing threat from Google.

Ford Plans New Cellular Vehicle-to-Everything, C-V2X, in its Autonomous vehicles by 2022

Announced at CES 2019, Ford Motor Co. plans to roll out C-V2X wireless technology, that will augment sensors used in its proposed autonomous cars, making the view from radars and cameras more comprehensive. The new technology enables sharing data, such as car's location, colour of traffic light, road signs and pedestrian's crossing, with other vehicles.

Source: Ford

iTunes on Samsung Smart TVs

Samsung scored high on Smart TV with 8K QLED 98-inch display with AI enabled render technology to upscale lower quality images to 8K resolution.

This innovation will solve the 8K content availability problem. Additionally, the content available on Apple iTunes and AirPlay 2 on Samsung TV is a big win both for Apple and Samsung. Apple is expanding its ecosystem and service revenue install base outside of Apple and Microsoft ecosystem, which will further help Apple to get additional user base for its services. Samsung will benefit from Apple’s premium user base with this partnership. Samsung’s AI platform Bixby will get additional information and install base to further optimize its use cases.

Source: Samsung

Intel Progressing on 10nm Chips

Along with Lakefield, Intel has introduced a new hybrid architecture, 3D Foveros and a tiny board size. It has opened up new possibilities for lighter laptops, new devices like phones and tablets with unique form factors that take up lesser space. However, with competitors like Qualcomm already moving to 7nm with new SoC for laptops, Intel is still lagging at matching the high performance, low power consumption, and thin designs. The issue for Qualcomm is to match the Windows performance on ARM. Until this is resolved, Intel has time to quickly adapt and evolve to these new platforms. With these new SoCs, Intel is moving in the right direction to maintain its dominance in the PC market.

Source: Intel

First foldable Display on the Market

The company Royole has made a foldable display that is now commercially available in a smartphone called FlexPai. It bends freely from 0 to 180 degrees and can bend more than 200,000 times. The display is AMOLED and the screen is claimed to be scratch resistant. While this had a great WOW factor at CES, this is still just a proof of concept. The folded phone is still bulky and having it folded out to phablet size makes it pretty unwieldy for those with smaller hands. Technology will continue to advance and make this product more viable, but as long as the device is still pretty thick and clunky, it will just be a novelty device.

Source: Royole

Nvidia Dives into Automotive Platform Business

Nvidia announced a Level 2 Plus autonomous driver-assistance platform - The Nvidia Drive Autopilot. The new system integrates Nvidia's Xavier SoC processors with the latest Nvidia Drive software. Existing Level 2 systems on the market use a single camera with 3 lenses and a simple ADAS controller, which enables basic functions such as lane-keep assistance and adaptive cruise control. Nvidia's Drive Autopilot will leverage multiple cameras and will assist with lane changing, pedestrian and cyclist detection, parking assistance, personal mapping and driver monitoring. It also allows for over-the-air software updates. The new system is part of Nvidia's effort to expand its reach in the mass market.

Source: Nvidia 

Apart from these, some other highlights from CES 2019 are:

• Swiss wearable brand MyKronoz unveiled 2 hybrid smartwatches ZeTime2 and ZePop.
• Qualcomm Technologies, The City of Las Vegas and the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada (RTC) has announced the implementation of a new vehicle communication technology C-V2X and many other Qualcomm power devices.
• Amazon has made announcements regarding Amazon Key that lets the delivery person deliver packages inside a garage and many other built in Amazon devices.