Hardware Asylum at CES 2026

Greetings everyone and Happy New Year.

For those of you who have followed Hardware Asylum and Ninjalane you will know that I have attended the Consumer Electronics Show quite a few times.  In looking back through my event history, I started attending CES in 2007.  Back then things were a little different.  PC hardware makers still created large display booths and would show off the latest motherboards, coolers and cases. 

Since then, the CES show has morphed quite a bit.  Gone are the days of PC makers having space on the show floor.  Instead, you can find them in dedicated meeting rooms or in area hotels which leave the valuable booth space open for other things like lawn robots and the latest tech in hair care.

These changes really make you wonder if we have reached the limits of consumer electronics or if the definition has changed enough that it is becoming something else.

This year for CES 2026 I decided to split my time between meeting with my industry partners and checking out more of CES show floor.  I can tell you that, while I regret nothing I am really wishing I had done some more forward planning. 

But, more on that later.

Personally, I use CES as a way to keep in contact with my industry partners and discover who I need to talk to.  It may seem strange but, people change jobs all the time and companies are often extremely bad about making sure certain information is passed along to the next person.  Because of this I may visit a company I have worked with for years and actually get kicked in the balls because the entire marketing department got wiped out or I might be welcomed with a Pepsi and some small talk about how I have been for the past 6 months. 

To be honest I prefer the second option but, even that has become increasingly rare.

My second agenda is to get an idea of what new things are available.  Most hardware makers have diversified such that they no longer rely on a single type of products to make them profitable and those sorts of things are what I find interesting.