J.P. Morgan Previews CES 2015, Sees 'Convergence' As Overarching Theme

J.P. Morgan previewed the 2015 CES on Friday which runs from January 6-9 in Las Vegas.

Analysts led by Paul Coster noted that “the most important overarching theme will be convergence and the degree to which the industry is able to deliver compelling applications and services to the consumer anytime anywhere and with five 9's reliability.”

“Much of this convergence will be evident to the consumer in apps and services that are delivered to the Smart TV, the Smartphone/tablet or to smart wearable devices. There will also be a smattering of discrete standalone CE devices and appliances, and some stove-piped solutions, but these generally address niche markets or seem to be subsumed by convergent technologies over the course of time. Mainly investors should be focused on the Smarts,” according to Coster.

In the Smart TV area, Dolby Laboratories, Inc. DLB “High Dynamic Range (HDR) technology could be at the threshold of large-scale adoption, catalyzed by the SMPTE adoption of Dolby Vision. This could signal a new an important licensing opportunity for Dolby.”

For Smart Phones, Coster thought Synaptics, Incorporated SYNA “could be a stock that outperforms through CES. We assign a high probability to SYNA's Validity technology being introduced on one or more new smartphones, with the possibility that we will see the first example of area-touch fingerprint recognition.”

For Action Cameras, the firm did not see any competitors able to “match the totality” of the GoPro Inc GPRO platform.

In the 3D Printing space, investors will be focused on “whether the companies have allocated the resources necessary to execute.” The firm favored Stratasys, Ltd. SSYS over 3D Systems Corporation DDD.

Coster felt that in Peripherals and Accessories, two of Logitech International SA (USA) LOGI “growth-categories, mobile speakers and table keyboard/cases, are crowded with competitors and the tablet market is fragmenting rapidly.”

Of the above stocks, Synaptics, Incorporated saw the largest move downward heading into the CES and recently traded at $63.54, a decline of 7.70 percent.