Next month, the who’s who of the consumer electronics world will descend on Las Vegas to see what will make its way into retail stores for the next year.

Over the years, the International CES has been the launch pad for the VCR, camcorder, CD player and OLED TV, along with countless other innovations that transformed the global CE marketplace. At a time when retailers swarm to trade shows to see what products they can source themselves, trends at these conferences have never been more important.

As part of our pre-show coverage, Appliance Retailer will down the major trends that will be making waves at the January event. So what can Australian retailers expect of the 2014 International CES?

Ultra HD TV > OLED

After launching in 2012 and gaining momentum in 2013, Ultra HD TV, also known as ‘4K’, will push towards critical mass in 2013.

LG Electronics Australia head of public relations Phillip Anderson has predicted an expansion into the space by the major brands next year, while Panasonic Australia MD Steve Rust said he expects CES to have a “strong focus” on Ultra HD with the TV space being just the tip of the iceberg.

“The potential of 4K ranges from incredibly detailed content provided by consumer electronics devices such as TVs, Blu-ray recorders and camcorders, to applications such as security,” said Rust.

Last month in the United States, video on demand service Netflix began trial streams of Ultra HD content. This was a major development in the Ultra HD revolution and will no doubt be discussed further in Las Vegas.

Also in the premium TV space, OLED has been on the AV radar this year in Australia with a number of high-end product releases, but Sony Australia’s marketing manager for home entertainment, Hass Mahdi, isn’t expecting it to explode in Australia, saying the technology has had “some yield issues for quite some time”.

The major brands will no doubt reaffirm their commitment to the future OLED at CES, but retailers can expect to hear more concrete news on the Ultra HD front.

Featured Image: Sony Ultra HD TV.

Appliance Retailer will be heading to the 2014 International CES to provide up-to-the-minute coverage live from the show. Tune in from Tuesday 7 January 2014 to see all the news as it happens.