CES 2020: If LG's rollable OLED TV sounds familiar, there's a reason

The star of last year's CES was clearly the Rollable OLED TV from LG Display, picked by CNET, Mashable and Reviewed.com as one of the hottest products for CES 2019—a TV that could be rolled up and put in the closet easily.

LG didn't disclose a price, but said the product, first sneak-peeked at CES 2018, would actually be released, in the second half of 2019.

That didn't happen.

LG returned to CES again this year, with a 65-inch Rollable TV, and claims the product will be released later this year, "really," according to LG senior vice president John Taylor. (According to CNET, it will only cost $60,000.)

And that's CES in a nutshell. Companies roll the dice and hope for Lady Luck to strike for them. Products come, get touted, sometimes make it to market, while many don't.

So what happened to the other hits, the products that made many of the "best of show," lists from CES 2019? Let's take a look.

—Apple AirPlay for other TV manufacturers. This one actually happened. Apple said during CES that iPhone and iPad users would be able to use AirPlay technology to beam programming from their devices to TVs (on display at CES) from Samsung, Vizio and LG. By the spring, the first AirPlay compatible models first started getting released by Samsung and Vizio.

—Samsung MicroLED TV, a modular approach to your big-screen TV, Reviewed.com called it "the first big step forward for displays in the last decade." Samsung didn't release pricing or release date information then. The TV never was sold in 2019; at CES, Samsung had said it would take two to three years before a release. Samsung brought new versions to CES 2020, including a 296-inch version. But still no pricing or release date.

—Lenovo smart alarm clock. The clock with the big display and built-in Google Assistant was released in July, and has picked up 31 reviews on Amazon since. It sells for just over $50.

—Ring Door View Cam. The Amazon-owned company started as an independent, launching at CES in 2011 by spending $2,000 to put a card table in a small area of the show. Founder Jamie Siminoff ended up making enough contacts to begin selling the new product, eventually getting into Walmart, Home Depot and other major retailers. From the floor of CES 2019, Siminoff said, "Of the people who were around us, maybe only about 10 percent are still around. Most are probably dead at this point."

Ring released several products at CES 2019 and got good notices for the Peephole Cam, for people who live in apartments and don't have a traditional doorbell slot. It sells for $200. It was released in July.

—Kohler's Alexa toilet. At the 2018 CES, Kohler announced a connected toilet that answers to Alexa and provides "the finest in personal comfort and cleansing." It never got shipped in 2018, but that didn't stop Kohler from bringing it back to CES 2019 and promising a late 2019 release date. It's now been pushed to the second quarter of this year. If you're in a rush, perhaps we could interest you in a regular Numi toilet, which is available now? No Alexa to answer to, but it has Bluetooth, a SD card slot as well as a place to charge your phone while you sit on the pot. Price: just $11,7000.