Day 1 Edition - 2018 Edition

NEWS
EDITORIAL
Richard Barnes
Editor-In-Chief
LET THE GAMES BEGIN
At the opening press
conference for IFA 2018,
the message was clear.
This year’s show is not
just about innovation, but
about “co-innovation”.
What this means is that
as innovation in one
sector happens, it has a
flow-on effect to another,
resulting in a landslide
effect of new ideas and
possibilities.
A perfect example of this is
in gaming, which is taking
on a whole new shine
thanks to co-innovation.
The arrival of Virtual
Reality technologies a
couple of years ago was
interesting, but it’s taking
on new importance
as we see innovation
and development in
PC chipsets, display
technologies, software
and networking. The
end result is a heady and
exciting new “ecosystem”
for gamers.
This growing fever for
gaming is resulting in
rapid growth in the sales
of gaming PCs of all kinds,
in addition to VR headsets
and other peripherals.
And the excitement of
multi-player participation
combined with the
ongoing development of
virtual reality hardware
have been behind what
IHS Markit estimates was
a 33% rise in spending on
gaming consoles in 2017
– reaching over €12bn.
Booming innovation in
this field has prompted
us to take a special closeup
look in this issue at
the gaming sector, and
how it brings new sales
opportunities to the
electronics retail sector.
As they say, you’ve got to
be in the game to win it.
IFA 2018: Are you
reading me?
Voice control and Artificial Intelligence are the two dominating trends
of the consumer electronics and home appliance industries this year.
This was one of the key take-aways from the IFA 2018 opening press
conference, which took place early Wednesday afternoon.
These technologies are rapidly making
their mark in the market for appliances
and consumer electronics, as consumers
recognise how these technologies
can help them to improve their daily
lives. At IFA 2018, the benefits of both
technologies are becoming obvious:
people become smarter, because AI
helps them to understand data, they
make technology easier to use, and they
take on all the boring tasks no one likes
to do.
“It is very exciting to see how fast
these two big trends are generating
new innovations”, explained Hans-
Joachim Kamp, chairman of the board
of gfu Consumer & Home Electronics
GmbH, the organisers of IFA.
INDUSTRY TRENDS
Visitors to this year’s IFA will be able
to admire screens with 8K resolution,
flexible displays that can be rolled up
like a window blind, large video walls,
new HDR technology and 3D audio
systems. The ongoing development of
voice commands is another exciting area,
and virtual assistants utilising such systems
will become an established feature
of many more types of equipment: in
televisions, sound systems, sound-bars
and headphones, as well as in small and
major domestic appliances.
Interconnected devices continue to be
the main focus of the home appliance
market, a development that will lead to
smarter and more diverse products. This
year, that will bring further improvements
to the already high level of functionality of
interconnected appliances. These devices
can exchange information and
register personal habits. Equipped with
this information, they can then suggest
improvements. In this way, the users of
interconnected devices can save time
as well as benefiting from increased
capacities and resources. They can also
receive a wealth of advice, for example,
about saving energy or clothing care,
as well as new recipes and new ways
of preparing meals. Consequently, in the
fields of consumer electronics and home
appliances, the two dominant trends of
voice control and artificial intelligence
(AI) will have a far-reaching influence at
IFA 2018
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IFA International • Friday 31 st August 2018
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