IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine - November/December 2020 - 95

Column: Consumer Technology Association

Turning to Technology
Brian Markwalter
Consumer Technology Association

& AS CONSUMER TECHNOLOGY SOCIETY members,
we all share two bonds. One is our interest and
involvement in the consumer electronics industry
and the second is our humanity. That shared
experience has been tested more than ever this
year with the coronavirus pandemic. But these
trying times have also shown the critical role that
consumer technology plays in our lives as so
many turned to technology to maintain social
connections, continue education and work, and
even "visit" a doctor.
I have a dual role at the Consumer Technology
Association (CTA), overseeing our market
research portfolio and our work with industry on
technology and standards initiatives. The former
provides incredible visibility into the business
side of our industry. Our first report on the impact
of COVID-19 was published March 4, at a time
when there were only 60 confirmed COVID-19
cases in the U.S., and with a degree of optimism,
we talked about "China returning to work." We
would soon see full-on travel bans, remote work
for those of us who could and a large segment of
the economy told to stop work. In April, CTA
issued a first of its kind, special industry forecast
update, where we revised sales projections on
smartphones, laptops, desktops, tablets, and TVs
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MCE.2020.3010708
Date of publication 22 July 2020; date of current version
9 October 2020.

November/December 2020

downward by 10% points or more from our forecast just three months earlier. The tide had
turned. One bright spot in this sudden downturn
was the increase in use of tech services, especially
streaming entertainment services.
Like everyone else, we cancelled or adapted
events. CTA's Spring Technology and Standards
Forum, an event that usually brings together a
large number of industry technologists for four
days of robust meetings and networking,
switched to a virtual format. In the first indication of how technology can uncover some bright
spots in an otherwise dismal situation, we interspersed some speaker sessions with live online
meetings and more than tripled our attendance.
Despite the relatively quick shift from live to
virtual meetings, our productivity was high. We
agreed to investigate standards work for gesture
control-an emerging technology area that uses
hand gestures as part of the user interface. Gesture control and other types of contactless technology may prove critical in ongoing efforts to
slow the spread of infectious diseases.
In-person meetings are still immensely valuable,
especially for complicated standards projects, but
good technology makes virtual meetings possible
and productive in other ways. A case in point is
3GPP, the global standards organization for mobile
telecommunications. 3GPP Release 16, critical to
5G advancement, was delayed by three months,
undeniably due to the sudden cancellation of

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IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine - November/December 2020

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