It’s not a stretch to say that the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which takes place this week, is a huge, many-armed beast of a technology show. It’s a collection of Las Vegas venues and summits and showcases, with a sprawling expo at its heart, connected by the filaments of about 170,000 attendees.
Tech-aware folks are generating plenty of social media and Web posts, too, covering all angles of the show. Virtual reality, augmented reality, Internet of things, games, hardware — you name it, it’s likely being talked about.
Amobee, a digital marketing technology company, through its Brand Intelligence platform, stated it has undertaken an analysis of 600,000 sites, between December 4, 2015, and January 4, 2016, covering social, web, video and mobile digital content posts relating to CES 2016. The meat of it is the interesting tidbits where the CES 2016 hype is most impactful (to gamers and gaming tech). Let’s take a quick look:
Big Brands in the Lead
Unsurprisingly, a few big names command a lion’s share of the attention at a trade show as enormous as CES. To capture and keep awareness at a show with the mobile population of a small city and expo floor space most of a square mile in size, you almost have to “go big or go home,” with a splashy keynote, customized tote bags, media event and/or booth space.
According to Amobee, the top five brands getting mentioned the most in digital media, from the top, are Samsung, Apple, Sony, HTC and LG. Apple, who has not attended CES in many years, attracts a raft of high-visibility products and services that plug into their ecosystems. That’s especially true with the Apple-only MacWorld tradeshow still apparently on ice. Sitting just a step back of these brand behemoths, in sixth place, is Oculus, the company behind the much-anticipated Rift VR headset.
Virtual Reality
Speaking of Oculus, a few big-name virtual reality (VR) products have been getting substantial attention: 2016 is often said to be the “year of VR“. Recent stats by market intelligence company SuperData figures on consumers spending $5.1 billion on VR hardware and software in 2016.
The granddaddy of the anticipated VR product rollouts — yes, the Oculus Rift, has been getting noted in 12 percent of all CES-related digital content mentions. The Rift headset will be opening pre-orders during CES. Following closely behind, the up-and-coming HTC Vive (11 percent) and the PlayStation VR (10 percent) headsets.
Best of the Rest
Overall, what kind of tech categories to be shown at CES are people most talking about? Based on the brands getting the most visibility, Amobee’s list of the top five types of tech make sense: Smartphones, laptops, tablets, fitness trackers and 4K TVs are getting the most mentions. Virtual reality is only a step or two back but definitely a part of the conversation. Emerging technologies, like wearables, drones and Internet of things, also take their piece of the digital content pie, which feels like a trend that will continue to grow over the next few years.
Keep an eye on Events for Gamers here and on Facebook and Twitter, as we track and share news from CES!
