Jan 20, 2026
3 min read
The road from wild imagination to home is long and filled with many dead ends, but it often begins at CES
I can't remember the greatest TV I've ever seen.Against the backdrop of the Las Vegas convention center, a Samsung PR representative slowly led me to workers preparing for the evening's event.They're gearing up for Samsung's most ambitious home entertainment launch yet, First Look, next year.Hundreds of journalists and industry personnel could soon gain access, but I got a preview in the back.
We passed an arch that was under construction specifically for computer monitors.Smart TV functionsand an extravagant screen built into a modern bookcase. I flicked the Sero, a TV that can rotate the screen into portrait mode, and then, behind a half-built stage, I saw: The Wall, a 292-inch micro-LED brighter than any movie screen.and much larger than real life
It was CES, the world's biggest technology event in 2020. Every year, Samsung is one of the most important consumer electronics exhibitors at the event. And I knew that Samsung's big TV would be the talk of my industry because it towered over me. I felt like I was part of technology history.
I have spent most of my adult life at CES.I've attended every year since 1999 except for the first two years of the COVID pandemic. I fly to Vegas in January right after the holidays for a week of hustle.There, along with hundreds of other journalists and colleagues, I write articles and shoot videos about the coolest gadgets in the world.Tough gig, I know.
Big TVs remain one of the most recognizable symbols of CES, and have grown in importance since the introduction of HDTV broadcasts in 1998.
"HDTV has been the biggest thing in my video life, no question," said Gary Shapiro, CTA president."HDTV has fundamentally changed the viewing experience."
But CES is about much more than television.For years, the consumer electronics extravaganza is where we get our first glimpse of the technologies we use every day—game consoles, the latest phones, streaming services—as well as more futuristic technologies, including humanoid robots, artificially intelligent washing machines and personal electric airplanes.CES is a place where thousands of companies present their most innovative and promising developments.It is one of the most important indicators of major technology trends.
And although bellwether companies like Apple, Amazon, Google, Meta and Samsung exaggerate their events and live broadcasts throughout the year to launch major products, CES persists.
San alt seo:
Other major trade shows have come and gone.Comdex, which ran from 1979 to 2003 and was also based in Vegas, showcased computer technology at the time and competed directly with CES.E3, a large-scale video game industry event that spawned from CES, has been held annually from 1995 to 2021. A handful of international technology trade shows, including Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, IFA in Berlin and Computex in Taipei, are still going strong, but CES remains king.
We see the show's influence in TVs, VCRs, game consoles and PDAs.These four devices, each with a rich history at CES, have a technical legacy that continues to evolve.
CES has a long history.We have partnered with the Consumer Technology Group, which hosts the show, to give the best gift of CES staff to the hands of products. ZDNET Again with our partners at Mashable and other Ziff Davis publications, our choices for the best of CES 2026 include laptops, home technology Robots; health technology; Coming from a full review of TVs and much more.
The show featured home robotics, driverless cars, high-tech elder care and the next wave of musical lollipops, among other devices, services and emerging technologies.It may be years before they become affordable, convenient and useful.
The road from wild ideas to mainstream is long and full of dead ends, but it often starts at CES.
CES 1967: In the beginning, TV
The first CES – at the time, its full name was the Consumer Electronics Show – was held in New York City in 1967. It attracted 117 exhibitors, small by today's standards.By comparison, CES 2025 brought together more than 4,500 exhibitors and 142,465 attendees, and pre-Covid shows were even bigger.
The first CES was another technology-focused trade event, the Chicago Music Show, where audio technology was showcased in the form of a pocket radio.
Since the beginning, CES has had televisions.Invented long before the 1960s, the decade saw the introduction of color television broadcasting and the launch of satellite television in the United States.
At the 1967 CES, televisions were the first to feature integrated circuits, a technology that combines many electronic components on a single "chip," or tiny microchips, which would eventually become the thickness of every laptop and smartphone.During that show and for decades afterward, most televisions used cathode ray tubes, or CRTs, which made the screens small and the sets heavy.When we were kids, my sister and I had one or two at home.We used to sit meters from tube televisions and watch cartoons, despite our parents' warning that being too close would damage our eyes.
No matter the era, Adarsh TV has always been huge, promising to bring home the immersive, magical feeling of cinema.Throughout my career, I've seen TVs grow and improve year after year in pursuit of higher resolution, better contrast, more realistic color and brightness, truth and size.
The 2025 survey found that people really want bigger screens.Nearly half of those surveyed said that if money were no object, they would want a television larger than 65 inches in their home.
"A lot of people ask me what size TV to buy, and I always tell people to buy one size bigger than you think you need," said Chris Hemdorf, senior vice president of TV maker TCL's 2025. As a TV reviewer, I give people the same advice, but 65-inch TVs aren't common.
In the 1980s and 1990s, large-screen TVs appeared on the market that use a technology similar to movie projectors, called a reverse projection TV. It is installed in the TV body and creates an image from behind the screen.They also used CRTs at the time and in subsequent iterations. These are a series of acronyms for many other technologies (think DLP, LCD, and LCoS).A handful of rear-projection TVs defined my early years at CES before flat-panel technology replaced them. They're usually thin and light enough to hang on a wall. It was a precursor to the screens we use today for Netflix marathons.
Plasma technology arrived in 1995 with the first Plasma (42 -inch) exhibition in the world by Fujitsu, and in CES 1997, Philips introduced the first commercial version available.The technology developed over the following years, but remained expensive by standards today - in 2005, Toshiba sold a 42 -inch plasma for, say, $ 4,500.A few years later, Plasma hit mainstream prices and became highly recommended.
in 2010The "Best of CES" award went to the first plasma TV with 3D function, the Panasonic V10, chosen by a group of journalists, including myself.We met in a double-wide trailer in the parking lot of the convention center and discussed our path to the best overall winner.Excellent video quality from the previous Panasonic plasma I reviewed, with amazing new 3D video and glasses.Alas!In a few years, this concept will be operational.Corpse, and I commented on his death in 2017.
LCD-based displays were developed at the same time, and the technology soon surpassed plasma and other non-dischargeable technologies.With the advent of 4K resolution, plasma technology became less popular and left the market altogether in 2014. LCD has been the most popular TV technology since then.
These days, CES is dominated by big screens, though nothing as big as the 292-inch Micro LED TV that really impressed me.At CES 2024, I really fell in love with the $200,000 C-Seed 132-inch foldable TV.Another impressive example was the LG booth with its OLED multi-screen displays.But innovation in TVs has been slow, as the price of large TVs and picture quality have increased over the years.
"To be honest, television has definitely diminished in importance at CES," says CTA's Shapiro."Because it's such an amazing consumer product that it's now almost cheaper than wallpaper."
CES 1970: $13,000 VCR paves the way to cheap streaming
For as long as TVs have existed, they have offered the same idea: a screen with video and sound that you see at home for entertainment.However, some ideas for creating technology have changed a lot in a short time.
In 1970, just three years after the CES story, Philips introduced the N1500 VCR.This would be the first device to record television programs on cassette tape.Originally a professional broadcast tool, it hit the UK market in 1972, where it sold for £600, equivalent to around $13,000 today.It had a built-in TV tuner for recording over-the-air television programs, as well as an analog clock.which automatically starts recording.
"The VCR was important on several levels," Shapiro tells me."It changed the concept of television. It empowered consumers to choose what they want to watch and when they want to watch it."
The idea that you could "time-shift" to watch a show recently was revolutionary, ultimately changing home entertainment forever.Until then, television programs had set broadcast times.To get "date TV," you had to follow the schedule of the show when it aired.With the ability to independently record and store video, people have taken more of their entertainment.
The format used by the N1500 was called "VCR", but it was never commercially available in the US, resulting in two formats: Betamax (introduced by Sony) and VHS (produced by JVC).Betamax came on the market in 1975, the year I was born, and was considered by many technically superior to VHS, with good video quality.My father is a beta male and is very proud of the Disney movies he has recorded.written.
VHS was unveiled at CES 1977. It used a larger cassette tape than the Beta and promised longer recording times (2 hours versus 1 hour).For the next few years, the two incompatible formats - now known as VCRs - fought in the market, meeting each other in terms of sales, product support and technology, such as record length.
"There was a format war between VHS and Beta," says Shapiro."And it was intense."
Over time Betamax sales declined as more and more families adopted VHS.By 1988, 170 million VERSI had been sold worldwide, and only 13% were Betamax models.Sony also announced that it would produce a VHS version.It was a powerful form of warfare.
The VCR had a 40-year reign marked by Blockbuster video stores and their "be kind, come back" reminders.But home theater technology was about to be digitized.
The DVD format provided higher image quality on a smaller, more durable and non-reversible disc.It also allows recording with DVD-R discs.Around the same time, a diskless device made its debut: the DVR.It has proven to be more popular than DVD-R for recording TV shows and movies.
TiVo and Replay TV were among the first DVRs, devices that stored hundreds of hours of television programs and allowed automatic recording on a hard drive.With a DVR, the "job" of scheduling recordings has become much easier.You can simply indicate that you wanted to record each new episode of The Simpsons, and the DVR will do it automatically.There were no discs to worry about, so you didn't have to worry about damaging them.
DVRs also allow you to fast-forward commercials in 15- or 30-second increments.Some even include the ability to skip commercials without having to click a button at all.One DVR, the Dish Network Hopper, debuted at CES and was named a 2013 Best of CES winner by CNET.
Until it wasn't.The company that owned it at the time, CBS, was in the process of suing Dish over its ability to skip commercials.CBS intervened in the awards process and instructed the editorial board to select another winner instead.
"The staff must have been shocked when they heard they had won the award and then CBS withdrew it," Shapiro told me. "Then I realized this is like a gift. This is going to get more attention than ever before."He wrote a column for USA Today headlined "Credit Destroyed on CBS' Order." This about-face sparked controversy and is remembered by veterans like me as an example of corporate interests taking precedence over editorial integrity.
DVRs remain a staple in US homes today, typically sold to cable TV companies.But as more Americans ditch their cable subscriptions and replace streaming services, DVRs have moved to the cloud.The first live TV streaming service, Sling TV, launched at CES 2015 with a $20 package that included channels like ESPN, HBO, TNT and the Disney Channel.This stole the show and ushered in a new era of cord cutting.
Today,Sling and its competitors—YouTube TV;Hulu Plus Live TV and more—offers cloud DVRs.They let you automatically watch TV shows at any time.They allow you to fast-forward through ads, allowing you to watch anywhere.But you will have to press a button.
Besides TV shows and movies, another form of entertainment shares a rich history of CES initiatives.It started on home television but quickly moved to portable formats and even virtual reality.I'm talking about video games.
CES 1977: The Atari 2600 is what happened to Pong
First introduced at CES on June 4, 1977, the iconic Atari 2600 console launched the home video game industry.The console's announcement was quite a surprise.Attendees expect the big news will be related to the release of the VHS format.
The 2600 wasn't the first home console (unlike 1972's Magnavox Odyssey), but Atari was the first to hit the mainstream.Atari was founded in 1972, and its development game, Pong, is considered the first successful video game.Beginning as a stand-alone game, Pong made its way to home consoles, including the Home Pong, a TV-connected console that was introduced at CES in 1974.
Atari employees included Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, who soon discovered Apple.In 1974, they teamed up to develop another seminal game, Breakout.Atari was sold to Warner Communications in 1976 for $28 million, eventually renaming the Atari 2600 to finance the development of a device codenamed VCS (Video Computer System).
Video games were new at the time and could only be played on dedicated arcade machines.Like the VCR, the home game console was a television gadget that opened up a whole new world without you having to leave your home.It was a breakthrough that allowed users to interact with the screen, control content, and compete against other players.
Gaming has evolved to include many other systems and platforms, not just TVs, but computers, phones, VR headsets, and more.It's everywhere and more popular than ever, and CES played it right.
"We were very important to the gaming industry, and we had Nintendo, Sony and Sega," Shapiro said."I remember the guy from Atari was on our board."
The 2600 was a huge success, surpassing its initial production run in 1977 and eventually selling 30 million units worldwide.My uncle and aunt bought it for the family one Christmas, and I vividly remember the hours I spent with my younger cousins – and the adults – as we sat enthralled, playing around in Defender, Combat, and Space Invaders.to say that I am addicted to gambling, along with millions of other people.
Atari is still around today, re-releasing the Atari 2600 Plus a few years ago, but other companies and devices have dominated the gaming world since the early 1980s.In 1985, Nintendo announced the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) at CES in June.
Nintendo is considered one of the most influential gaming devices of all time.It included add-ons such as the Zapper Light Gun and launched some of Nintendo's most popular franchises including Mario, Metroid and Zelda.Many handheld and TV-based successors followed, culminating in the Nintendo Switch, the first successful console to combine home and handheld gaming on a single device.
"The Razer Edge is a bit behind in gaming compared to the late spring gaming presentations at E3 2013," said Large's Scott Stein, who has been at CES since 2004, but it's still a place where new gaming technology pushes the boundaries.
Another modern gaming console debuted at CES.In 2001, Microsoft CEO Bill Gates revealed the final design of the computer company's first foray into gaming consoles—and the first major console made by an American company since Atari.It was called Xbox.
In a memorable speech at CES, Gates took the stage with then-pro wrestler Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson to promote the device.Gates held out a black cloth with the words "Let me unlock the Xbox for the first time."The black monolith, accented with neon green lights, had a large "X" engraved on it and a giant wire handlebar.
Microsoft intended to compete with Sony's successful PlayStation console and added features similar to the Xbox, including broadband connectivity and the ability to play CD-ROMs and DVD movies.The Xbox was the first console with a hard drive, which prefigured modern game consoles.(The current versions of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S lack a disc drive entirely and rely on games downloaded to the hard drive.)
The Xbox is also successful, partly due to the popularity of one of his titles - Halo: Combat evolved - but it did not match the popularity of his direct competitor, Sony's playstation 2.
The original Xbox was the last major console launch at CES.The show's importance to gaming was eclipsed by E3, a competitive convention in Los Angeles that attracted game developers and other hardware makers.
"We lost that episode, definitely one of the biggest failures of my career," Shapiro said when asked about the game."We made some bad decisions and they created an E3 that ran its life cycle."
Despite this, CES remains an important platform for the debut of gaming hardware.PC makers, chipmakers like Nvidia, and VR and AR companies like Oculus (now merged into Meta) are still debuting their products in Las Vegas.Meanwhile, major game companies that release game consoles have chosen to spread news and rumors for months, culminating in special events like the 2020 PS5 Showcase and the Nintendo Direct for Switch 2 earlier this year.
The move toward launching major tech products at separate, company-focused events has certainly diminished the importance of CES over the years.No company exemplifies this trend better than Apple.
CES 1992: Apple dropped the Newton, which had failed the iPhone
Like its on-again, off-again relationship with gaming companies, today's CES isn't actually a phone show. That title belongs to Mobile World Congress.Yet MWC outshines the individual phone launches held by the big mobile companies: Samsung Unpacked, the Google Pixel event, and, most importantly, the Apple iPhone event. It's where potential phone buyers and tech journalists gather to get all the details on this year's latest mobile devices.
In 1992, 15 years before Steve Jobs announced the iPhone at an Apple press event, the company attended its first CES.Apple's CEO at the time was John Sculley, and the device he introduced was called the Newton MessagePad.Sculley considered it "nothing short of revolutionary," and it marked the computer company's first new product line since the introduction of the Macintosh.
The Newton was incredibly ambitious at the time, and it's not hard to see a straight line of development from the MessagePad to the iPhone.It's called Apple's PDA, for personal digital assistant.The Newton was a handheld and portable device, controlled by a large screen, and designed to help users take notes, organize contacts, calendars, and more.It allowed people to read e-books more than a decade before Amazon launched the Kindle.From a Newton ad: "Send paperless faxes and receive pager messages and emails."
However, in the end, Newton was not successful in the market.Its main feature is handwriting recognition – the device can convert words written on the screen with the included pen into text.That feature did not work well, it often failed to convert simple words into text correctly, and was popularized by the Doonesbury comic strip.As an amazing notebook, the Newton itself is very expensive, starting at $700 when it hit the market in 1993, and is more than $1,500 today.
Other PDAs at the time included the IBM Simon and the Nokia 9000, both of which had early cell phone functionality.BlackBerry-like devices and devices running small mobile versions of Microsoft Windows also appeared in the mid-1990s, but early smartphones—primarily PDAs with cellular technology—quickly surpassed them.One of the buzziest products at CES 2009 was the Palm Pre, the company's newest WebOS mobile phone.A smartphone that uses the software.The Pre won Best of Show and The Voice of the People, cementing its place in CES history.
"Palm knew exactly what it was doing when it used CES to launch a flagship phone with a new OS," recalls Jessica Dolcourt, vice president of content and then technology coverage editor.
Dolcourt says Pre has brought something fresh and new to smartphones in an era of enormous difference and diversity."I couldn't wait to get my hands on it."
Meanwhile, Apple appeared occasionally at CES, but it seemed increasingly seeing the scattered, scattered event as a direct competitor to their attention in the technology world.One of my biggest CES memories was in 2011, when we heard that the iPhone was coming to Verizon.Apple made the huge announcement in New York in CES, completely exceeding the Vegas convention.In later years, Apple appeared in CES to discuss privacy and introduce AirPlay to TVs, among other things, but none of his publications CES could compare the effect of the Newton.
“John Sculley was the keynote speaker,” Shapiro said."Steve Jobs was never like this. When I asked him about it, he said, 'Love giving keynotes. Move it to San Francisco and call it Macworld.'"
CES 2026: What's next in tech history?
If there's anything I've learned at CES after covering it for so many years, it's that flashy tech ideas can take longer than you think to become part of our daily lives, if at all.In each of these cases, the initial launch of the device itself did not immediately revolutionize the market.
Then here are some examples.I don't mention camcorders, CDs, Windows Media Center, Blu-ray versus HD-DVD, SACD versus DVD-Audio, 4G, smartwatches, or Impossible Pork.
The 2026 edition of CES is already in the books like tech giants host their own events. And various innovations it is increasingly shipted from physical hardware (Pologns, laptism is important anymore?
If you ask the nearly 150,000 people who will participate this year, the answer is inconsistent.CES is here, full of history, and definitely full of futuristic, ambitious and unusual new technology.It will almost certainly be there next year as well.
So I suggest adding the impossible lobster and pointing out AI robotic flying cars.
Visual Designer |Lily Yen
Director de arte | Geoffrey Hazelwood
Creative Director |Viva Tung
Video Aparıcı |David Katzmeier
Video Editor |JD Kirsten
Project Manager |Daniela Ramirez
Editor |Corinne Reichert
Content Director |Jonathan Skillings
