Thanks to COVID-19, this year’s Consumer Electronics Show trades in crowded exhibit halls and long cab lines for virtual events.
Last year’s Consumer Electronics Show was full of great new tech gear, most of which made its way into retail channels throughout the challenging year that was 2020. We saw AMD launch a two-pronged strike into the notebook and desktop CPU markets that, if not fully in the performance lead, at the very least brought the fight to Intel. There were also tons of notebooks, foldable PCs, and incredible 8K TVs. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19, it was also the last time there’d be any sort of in-person tech conference anywhere in the world, as Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February was canceled, along with every other major conference scheduled to take place. This year, CES is a wholly virtual event where vendors from around the world will have to be content with showing off their wares in streaming videos and a cavalcade of press releases. COVID-19 may have made it impossible to gather in Las Vegas in person, causing a shift in the way consumers get to see what’s on the horizon, but obviously technological progress has not stopped.
