The big players lying low presents a great opportunity for the smaller exhibitors to get noticed and make connections. This year, innovative technology will come from unexpected places as smaller companies such as Pebble, a smart-watch company that got started as a Kickstarter campaign, debut products. Now that it's easier for a small operation to raise money and manufacture a physical product on a budget, the gadget market is ripe for a shakeup.

Some big-name startups will also have a presence. Leap Motion will be on the floor, and its motion-sensing technology will appear in Asus notebooks this year. Razer will return this year after making a splash with its Project Fiona game tablet in 2012.