So What Business Technologies Should You Buy?
Computer hardware vendors don’t have a showcase for their new products, unlike the software vendors who attend and exhibit at the annual Sleeter Group
CES 2015 contained enough new products that will change my purchase decisions this year over last year. I thought you should know about the most important. Included are:
- New laptop designs from every notable vendor including HP, Lenovo, Toshiba, and others. The new generation laptops are more serviceable, and have new SSD drives that are twice the speed of SSD drives from 2014 and before. Some models have touch screen and 10 key pads built into the units. The new products are such good values, that older models should only be considered during closeout specials when highly discounted.
- Faster solid state drives. Included in the laptops above, both HP with their Z-Wave technology and Toshiba introduced notable improvements in speed in Solid State Drives. Toshiba also showed smaller format SSD units. I was surprised and caught off guard by these improvements.
- Better removable hard drive technologies. Lacie Rugged RAID, Samsung’s 1TB USB3 SSD, and the Synology NAS vendors were all big winners with their new offerings.
- New generation curved monitors from HP, Samsung, Toshiba, LG and others. One of these could potentially reduce a three monitor setup to one, taking less space on your desk and giving a better image to work with while being simpler to set up and use.
- Higher resolution monitors, including 5K, were shown. Software and hardware should be supporting these larger layout monitors this year, giving a full 4K image while surrounding the image with tool bars to run
QuickBooks and QuickBooks Online better. It may take vendors a while to catch up on this separation of application and tool bars. - Display adapters supporting up to 5K resolutions. These become important to buyers of laptops and other portable units like the Microsoft Surface. The demonstration unit running a 5K monitor from a Surface performed brilliantly.
- Docking stations with 4K resolutions from companies like DisplayLink, Targus, Lenovo, IOGear and others. You might recall that we thought it was too early to purchase these products in 2014, but at this point most of the bugs, driver updates, operating system and application support has been worked out. You could choose a 4K monitor strategy instead of a 5K approach.
- Improved scanners for both the desktop and portable use. Canon was the clear winner with new products shown at CES including the desktop DR-160II, which has both TWAIN and VRS software included as well as the portable P-215II. If you intend to do document
management or expense reporting in a paperless fashion, these scanners can help you capture documents quickly and accurately.
We did not find any notable changes in standard computer technology that was available now including keyboards, mice and laser printing. However, new technologies introduced that will be useful in 2016 and beyond include:
- 5G cellular, currently scheduled for delivery in 2020 with speeds of 4.7GB, replacing 3G and 4G. We have been waiting to get fast, reliable mobile internet, which will become critical for the Internet of Things to be successful.
- AW4P wireless power with the capability of charging cell phones, tablets, computer and automobiles. The standards for wireless power are merging, safety and compatibility issues are being worked out, and vendors are jumping on board with new products. The goal is to have universal charging, eliminating the need for so many incompatible power cords and blocks.
- Micro projectors and wall mount projectors in the style of soundbars from companies like LG. You can expect brighter and smaller projectors for use in both business and home.
- Internet of Things (IoT) continues to be a growth area with
risk from more connected home devices, the consumerization of office technology, and no clear standard emerging in smart home technologies (Zigbee, Z-Wave, etc.) Z-Wave claims to have 1200 companies participating in their standard. - Near Field Communications (NFC) was common primarily due to payment vendors. Make sure you are preparing your clients for the October 1, 2015 implementation of the EMV credit card chip standard in the United States.
- 3D printing improvements, including the ability to print from a variety of materials makes this technology more viable and valuable for your clients.
- 3D computers, including both the Sprout from HP, available now, and a prototype 3D product that made manipulating items with a stylus or simply by moving your head while wearing special glasses with sensors exceptionally realistic and easy. The Sprout would certainly be a nice unit in my home for development of presentation materials, since it has the ability to take pictures of both 2D and 3D objects and manipulate them in real time on the included touch screen and blotter-like touch flat surface.
- Zuta pocket printer, which is about the size of a hockey puck, and can print standard size pages. This may be the ticket if you want a wireless, battery operated printer for small print jobs.
- Noise cancelling technology for offices, much like we have had in headsets, should be a superior solution than the white noise being installed in many offices.
- Home grade LED floodlights with a built-in 720p camera for security purposes allows us to light and record wirelessly any motion detected.
If you note the first list above, just about everything related to your computers except the keyboard and mouse has improvements in 2015. This progress in hardware will be welcomed, particularly since many firms put off purchasing new desktops and laptops waiting for the release of Windows 10 this year. There will be plenty of new, faster hardware and superior displays to run our applications better. Notably, the price of new generation technology will be about the same as older, slower technologies.
Better Products for Better Results
CES 2015 demonstrated that advances in computer hardware are far from done. Yes, there were new consumer items with smartphones, tablets and televisions, but there were far more impressive business tools shown if you looked in the right place. The developments in usability of touch screen laptops seemed material, the performance differences were notable, and the progress in displays makes me want to upgrade. Take the effort to research the computers, monitors and supporting peripherals that you purchase this year or look for updated guidance at conferences or in articles published on specific products. It is clear that almost every item normally purchased for use in a small business has been changed for the better. Why shouldn’t you get better results from your hardware?