The Ghosts of CES Past

With the 2015 edition of the annual Consumer Electronics Show upon us, it’s time to reflect on how various companies utilize their time in the sun. And, unfortunately, the signal to noise ratio is not always favorable for the gadget blogger given a large number of introduced products that skulk away with nary the follow-on discussion and no product on shelves.

Some of the more intriguing CES 2014 items we covered that pulled a Houdini:

• Vizio Smart Audio
  Vizio made a splash with sharp-looking Android-powered boomboxes… that never actually materialized.
• MyWayTV
  An inelegant pairing of a flat antenna and Roku stick with a $170 price tag and Spring 2014 ship date that vanished into the ether.
• Kevo Gateway
  A hub to expand Kevo’s smartlock range and utility beyond Bluetooth’s 30′ limitations via a WiFi that failed to launch in early in 2014. Or at all.

Alternately, a decent number of companies we track closely like TiVo, Sling, and Sonos rarely announce anything substantial at CES. But, if there’s anything we know, CES remains a hotbed of TV technologies that may or may not resonate with consumers as large manufacturers repeatedly attempt to shrink the television refresh cycle (and others strive for a US toehold).