{"id":455,"date":"2025-10-23T03:48:44","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T03:48:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ryangsellman.com\/?page_id=455"},"modified":"2026-03-22T00:07:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T00:07:22","slug":"technology","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.ryangsellman.com\/?page_id=455","title":{"rendered":"Technology"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

CES 2020: The Last Great Tech Show Before the World Changed<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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By: Ryan Gsellman<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CES 2020 was big in every sense: the Consumer Technology Association\u2019s post-show audit verified 171,268 attendees, 4,419 exhibitors, and nearly 3 million net sq. ft. of exhibit space\u2014one of the last pre-pandemic mega-shows to hit those numbers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Headline themes and surprise moments<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Two themes were threaded through almost every hall: AI everywhere and mobility-as-tech. Samsung\u2019s keynote framed it as the \u201cAge of Experience,\u201d complete with Ballie, a palm-sized rolling home robot that hinted at ambient AI in the living room. Ballie became one of the show\u2019s most shared demos and a marker for how far \u201chelpful\u201d AI companions might go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The shock reveal belonged to Sony\u2014yes, the TV\/camera\/PlayStation company\u2014rolling onstage with the Vision-S electric concept car. Built to showcase Sony\u2019s sensors, entertainment stack, and in-car UX, the sedan packed 33 sensors in a 360-degree \u201csafety cocoon\u201d and a panoramic dashboard display. Sony stressed it wasn\u2019t entering mass auto production, but the concept underlined how the car had become a software and electronics platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mobility gets sci-fi (and serious)<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Automotive concepts were everywhere. Mercedes-Benz drew crowds with its Avatar-inspired Vision AVTR, using sustainable materials and exploring novel human-vehicle interfaces as a design manifesto more than a production promise. Meanwhile, Hyundai and Uber unveiled a full-scale air-taxi mockup (S-A1) and a partnership for future aerial rideshare\u2014an early signal of eVTOL ambitions from major incumbents. Toyota went bigger still, announcing \u201cWoven City,\u201d a real-world prototype town at the foot of Mt. Fuji to test autonomous systems, hydrogen energy, robotics, and smart homes. All three stories framed mobility as an ecosystem, not just a vehicle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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PCs fold, phones hide cameras, and chips leap ahead<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

2020 was also the year foldables left phone-only hype. Lenovo detailed the ThinkPad X1 Fold, the first fully functional foldable PC with a 13.3-inch OLED screen, signaling that \u201cone-device, many postures\u201d computing had real OEM support (and a $2,499 starting price). On the phone side, OnePlus\u2019 Concept One used electrochromic glass to make the rear cameras \u201cdisappear\u201d until needed\u2014less a shipping product than a compelling design experiment. Under the hood of countless laptops on the show floor, AMD\u2019s long-rumored Ryzen 4000 mobile chips (7nm, up to 8 cores\/16 threads) arrived, igniting a new round of competition in thin-and-light and gaming notebooks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PC makers also played with form: Alienware\u2019s Concept UFO imagined a handheld Windows gaming PC with detachable controllers\u2014essentially a Switch-style device for Steam libraries\u2014previewing today\u2019s booming portable-PC category.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Health tech and a notable policy shift<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Digital health surged. Withings unveiled ScanWatch, a hybrid smartwatch aiming to detect AFib with ECG and flag sleep apnea via SpO\u2082 tracking\u2014ambitious claims that foreshadowed the category\u2019s medical-grade tilt. More broadly, wellness gadgets (from smarter sleep aids to connected fitness) reflected a maturing market that valued validated metrics over novelty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A different kind of \u201chealth\u201d made headlines too: sex tech. After controversy in 2019, the CTA let \u201ctech-based sexual products\u201d back into CES\u2014on a one-year trial\u2014with added rules for how they could market on the floor. Lora DiCarlo\u2019s return symbolized that policy turn and sparked wider debate on normalizing sexual wellness in mainstream tech spaces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Entertainment and platforms<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Sony\u2019s keynote also delivered the most viral logo of the show\u2014the first look at the PS5 wordmark\u2014along with confirmations of SSD speed, ray tracing and haptic\/adaptive trigger features, keeping the next-gen console narrative hot ahead of its holiday launch. Elsewhere in displays, 8K TVs and edge-to-edge designs grabbed headlines, but the real story was software and services riding on top.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Airlines on the keynote stage<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Delta became the first airline to headline a CES keynote, previewing \u201cParallel Reality\u201d personalized flight-info billboards, improved Wi-Fi plans, and even exoskeleton trials (with Sarcos Robotics) to help ground staff lift safely\u2014an example of how CES had expanded beyond gadgets into operational tech.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The quick take<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If CES 2019 was about promises, CES 2020 felt like the bridge between concepts and credible roadmaps. AI embedded itself in everything from home robots to aircraft cabins; mobility stretched from cars to air taxis to entire cities; PCs and phones kept morphing; and health tech edged closer to clinical usefulness. It was also a show willing to revisit its own boundaries\u2014on privacy (Apple\u2019s rare panel appearance) and on sexual wellness\u2014suggesting that \u201cconsumer tech\u201d in 2020 meant culture and policy as much as hardware.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the numbers:<\/strong> CES 2020\u2019s scale and breadth made it the tech world\u2019s last truly massive in-person show before global shutdowns\u2014an ambitious snapshot of where innovation was headed next.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CES 2020: The Last Great Tech Show Before the World Changed By: Ryan Gsellman CES 2020 was big in every sense: the Consumer Technology Association\u2019s post-show audit verified 171,268 attendees, 4,419 exhibitors, and nearly 3 million net sq. ft. of exhibit space\u2014one of the last pre-pandemic mega-shows to hit those numbers. Headline themes and surprise […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-455","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t