CES 2025: The shifting smart TV sector, MobileX's sales tilt and robot risingsCES 2025: The shifting smart TV sector, MobileX's sales tilt and robot risings

On the Light Reading Extra podcast, Phil Harvey and Jeff Baumgartner discuss Jeff's CES travels, some smart TV updates, MobileX's apparel play and the rise of the robots.

At a Glance

  • Peter Adderton's new sales play for MobileX (05:00)
  • Smart TV news from TiVo, Xumo and the recently rebranded Whale TV (12:00)
  • What weird or curious things were at CES 2025 (robots... lots of robots) (20:30)

CES 2025 in Las Vegas drew more than 141,000 attendees (up from 138,000 last year) and north of 4,500 exhibitors. Artificial intelligence (AI) was, once again, a big draw at this year's gadgetfest, marked by an Nvidia keynote that saw people queuing up an incredible three hours prior to the event (some 6,300 attended it live at the Michelob Ultra Arena, according to the Consumer Technology Association, CES's showrunner).

The sheer size and scope of CES makes it impossible to cover every aspect of importance. But Jeff Baumgartner, Light Reading's lone CES correspondent, was on the scene, bouncing up and down the Vegas Strip for meetings and press events (including an update from Skylo about its direct-to-device initiative) and a glance around the show floor and other elements that were at least modestly germane to Light Reading's coverage area.

Jeff and Light Reading Editor-in-Chief Phil Harvey connected on the LR Extra Podcast to discuss some of what could be seen and heard at this year's show, which now stretches along most of the Strip, including spots like the Aria, The Cosmopolitan, The Venetian, Caesar's Palace, the Park MGM (the old "Monte Charlo," as Harvey referred to it back in 2008) and, of course, the Las Vegas Convention Center itself.

Some news was shared at Jeff's last meeting at the show, as MobileX CEO Peter Adderton discussed the company's new apparel/branding partnership with Ethika that will give the mobile service provider a way to turn its own customers into sales agents.

Along the way, there was some news in the smart TV arena, including word that Sharp is TiVo's initial smart TV partner for the US, with another that is yet to be announced. Timed with the show, Sharp announced a partnership with Xumo, the Charter-Comcast streaming joint venture, to develop a new line of connected TVs.

(Source: Jeff Baumgartner/Light Reading) Xumo's  meeting and demo area at the Vdara showed off various smart TV models powered by its operating system, including a glance at a new lineup from Sharp that will debut later this year.

Jeff caught up with Xumo President Marcien Jenckes at the show to discuss the JV's plans for 2025 and an update on its progress so far (Xumo smart TV shipments are in the "single-digit millions" at this point, he said). We'll have much more on that discussion in a Light Reading Podcast that will publish later this week.

And if you're into robots, CES did not disappoint. They were everywhere.

Enchanted Tools shows its 'Mirokaï' robot at CES 2025

And they were of the benevolent, service-oriented robot variety. None showed any open intention of taking over the human race (they're sneaky that way).

And Philip K. Dick was on to something when he envisioned a day when our pets would be robots. The Tombot, the company behind a fluffy, robotic emotional support animal called Jennie, had show goers lined up to check out its cute creation.

Tombot AI puppy at CES 2025

Connected cars were also a big thing at CES 2025. But we thought Clarios' DeLorean (to show off its advanced battery tech, not a flux capacitor) was one of the cooler displays.

DeLorean at Clarios booth at CES 2025

Here's a snapshot of what was covered in the podcast (click the closed captioning button in the player for a lightly edited transcript):

  • The backdrop: How chaotic and crowded was this year's CES? (01:01)

  • Peter Adderton's new sales play for MobileX (05:00)

  • Updates from the smart TV market, including some news from TiVo, Xumo and the recently rebranded Whale TV (12:00)

  • What weird or curious things were at CES 2025 (robots… lots and lots of robots) (20:30)

  • Thoughts on Nvidia's plans for a $3,000 AI supercomputer (23:45)

About the Authors

Jeff Baumgartner

Senior Editor, Light Reading

Jeff Baumgartner is a Senior Editor for Light Reading and is responsible for the day-to-day news coverage and analysis of the cable and video sectors. Follow him on X and LinkedIn.

Baumgartner also served as Site Editor for Light Reading Cable from 2007-2013. In between his two stints at Light Reading, he led tech coverage for Multichannel News and was a regular contributor to Broadcasting + Cable. Baumgartner was named to the 2018 class of the Cable TV Pioneers.

Phil Harvey

Editor-in-Chief, Light Reading

Phil Harvey has been a Light Reading writer and editor for more than 18 years combined. He began his second tour as the site's chief editor in April 2020.

His interest in speed and scale means he often covers optical networking and the foundational technologies powering the modern Internet.

Harvey covered networking, Internet infrastructure and dot-com mania in the late 90s for Silicon Valley magazines like UPSIDE and Red Herring before joining Light Reading (for the first time) in late 2000.

After moving to the Republic of Texas, Harvey spent eight years as a contributing tech writer for D CEO magazine, producing columns about tech advances in everything from supercomputing to cellphone recycling.

Harvey is an avid photographer and camera collector – if you accept that compulsive shopping and "collecting" are the same.

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