The CES secret few talk about: Past hits can fizzle with consumers

Jefferson Graham | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption CES 2018: A preview of new products from the tech industry Jefferson Graham previews the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where new smart home products using technology from Google, Amazon and Apple will be unveiled.

This weekend, hundreds of thousands of people will begin to descend upon Las Vegas for the annual January tradition that is CES.

It’s year 51 for the annual consumer electronics show, which begins events Sunday, attracting much of the tech industry to chat industry trends, schmooze and most importantly, show off new gadgets.

The original idea was that dealers would come to the show to see what’s new, order up the products they liked, and put them on their show floors in the spring and fall.

Even with industry consolidation, much of that activity remains. New vendors big and small bring their wares to CES, pick up potential orders and either go through and make them, or give up and revert to the drawing board.

While much of what you will read about from CES over the next few days will be all about the cool stuff we journalists see, there’s something that often doesn't get talked about.

Some of the stuff we rave about will either not see the light of day, or more realistically, the stuff we liked in January won’t catch on with the public, and it will be forgotten about in the months to come.

The most popular tech products of 2017 were not introduced nor shown at CES. Those included the iPhone, Samsung Galaxy S8 and Note 8 phones, Amazon’s Echo Dot speaker, the Apple Watch and the Nintendo Switch, which were all debuted at their own, private, company media events.

And that, dear reader, brings us to our annual “CES: Where are they Now?” segment.

Remember there were nearly 4,000 exhibitors and hundreds of thousands of new products shown at CES 2017. We pulled six that got the most buzz among us, and were most frequently cited in “Best of Show,” roundups from USA TODAY affiliate Reviewed.com, plus Tech Radar and Engadget.

Think to yourself right now: what was the hottest product from last year’s CES? What were we talking about?

Odds are, you can’t remember. I do, because it's the same product every year. Those big, beautiful, ultra-thin, flat panel TVs that cost thousands of dollars. They dominate the show floor, end up on dealer's shelves and the technology included usually gets included on lower priced models in the coming years.

So as we look back at six of the best-loved products from CES 2017, let's start with a mega-TV.

—LG Oled W7. The ultra-thin TV is a “a design marvel,” said Reviewed, while Tech Radar said “nothing in the entire show could match the “wow!” factor,” of the unit. Released in the fall, at a wowser price of just under $7,000, it wasn't included in many Black Friday TV deals ads, because let's face it, the Best Buys and Amazons drive sales with lower-priced entry-level units.

—AirTV. The $130 device aims to marry over-the-air TV signals with streaming channels, as a cutting-the -cord-cable alternative. Engadget said users get "a whole lot of options in one place," and while it was released, it doesn't appear to have sold many units. There are only four reviews for AirTV on Amazon. Compare that to the Roku Express, the entry-level streaming device that has over 450 reviews.

—Lenovo Smart Assistant. This was an early attempt to offer the basic Alexa speaker with better sound, at similar prices to Amazon's Echo. But that mantle was won in 2017, not with this product, but the Sonos One speaker, which in the words of one reviewer (that would be me) said "Alexa never sounded so good." The Sonos made my top of the year list and other publications rated it best of class for 2017, including the Verge, Engadget and Inc.

—Asus ZenFone AR. Tech Radar called the ZenFone the best smartphone of CES, saying “Asus has taken an early lead in this year’s smartphone race,” with the unit, which used Google’s Tango augmented reality technology to super-impose animation over real-life images. ZenFone AR was released in the summer, but got totally overshadowed by AR on new iPhones in the fall. Also, Google said it will close Tango in March to focus on a different AR platform.

—Sleep Number 360 mattress. Many critics were sold on the instant toe warming feature of the high-tech mattress. And Reviewed liked how "if it senses you or your partner snoring, it will automatically adjust one of the individual headrests to make it stop." The mattress was released in mid-2017 to prices that weren't announced at CES: starting at $2,799 and going all the way up to $4,599. Unlike many of the products listed here, Sleep Number had a ready, willing place to sell the mattresses — it has over 550 retail stores.

—Willow Wearable Breast Pump. A new aid for breast-feeding mothers got lots of oohs and ahhs at CES for a product that sits inside mom's nursing bra, and pumps when the time is right. "How a smart breast pump won CES," enthused Engadget. Willow had said it would launch in the spring, for a product priced at $429. We’re still waiting. Instead, the website currently offers a “beta,” program that asks would-be buyers to write in with an essay about why you want the pump, and if selected, due to limited space, “we'll reach out when we've got one for you” and offers it for sale at $479.

Elsewhere in tech this week:

Logan Paul: The YouTube star got into hot water when he shot a video of a suicide victim in Japan and posted it to his millions of followers. The video was quickly deleted, but once again the controversy put more light on YouTube's lax oversight system. Anyone can post anything on YouTube and have it seen, until someone complains.

This week's security breach: Apple said all of its Macs, iPhones and iPads contained a security flaw that required an update. Oh boy.

Booted Uber CEO set to become a billionaire. Travis Kalanick, the co-founder of Uber, plans to sell 29% of his Uber stock, and will thus reap $1.4 billion, per Bloomberg.

5G is coming earlier than we expected--in 2018. Wireless carrier AT&T said it would launch mobile 5G in a dozen U.S. markets late this year. The jump to 5G will mean super-fast smartphones, and the transition will also have a significant impact on technology such as virtual reality, self-driving cars and other Internet-connected gadgets.

Best of Talking Tech podcasts from the week

Lost stuff? Tile can help. USA TODAY's Bryan Alexander joins to discuss the various ways the bluetooth tracker helps him find lost keys and other items.

Tech outlook for 2018. Analyst Patrick Moorhead previews what to expect from Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google in the new year.

Get video of your stuff. Inspired by Elizabeth Weise's USA TODAY piece, we offer tips for documenting your possessions with your smartphone.

How Amazon changed my life. Twenty-something sisters Emilia and Lizzie Kubo-Kirschenbaum talk about living with the Amazon e-tailer.

CES 2018 preview, Jeff Joseph from the Consumer Technology Association talks about what to expect from CES 2018, while we offer our own preview, looking at how Google will be a big player this year.

Look for me on Twitter (@jeffersongraham) and Facebook and if you haven't checked out the daily #TalkingTech podcast yet, now's the time. You can listen on Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to online audio.