IFA International 2019 Review Edition

BROUGHT
TO YOU BY
NEWS
PANASONIC PARTNERS WITH INDIE
STARTUPS TO DRIVE INNOVATION
After 100 years in the consumer tech business, Panasonic is going back
to its roots through coinnovations with startups who maintain creative
independence
“How are we evolving further for the next 100 hundred
years?” asks Anne Guennewig, General Manager Corporate
Communications at Panasonic, as the Japanese technology
pioneer celebrates a century of signature CE innovation.
“Coinnovation and cooperation are so important for
our business,” she adds, referring to a new policy of
“creating innovation potential” through partnerships with
independent Japanese startups.
One example of what Guennewig
calls a “speedboat startup” who in
recent years have received funding
from Panasonic but who continue to
develop their own distinct brand, is
Tokyo-based Shiftall.
One of the 20 startups invited
to showcase their wares at the
Japan Pavilion at IFA Next, Shiftall
epitomises the possibilities of
coinnovation with, among other
products, its DrinkShift IoT fridge
that never runs out of beer.
As Takuma Iwasa, Shiftall founder
and CEO, told IFA International,
the company is “infusing the latest
IoT technology with Japan’s wellrecognised
product design heritage.”
This fusion of latest software
capability and cool styling is
evidenced by the stylish DrinkShift
bar fridge customised for your
lounge and which restocks itself
via IoT tech - and a cloud fulfilment
service - that tracks your drinking
habits.
Such a quirky innovation is unlikely
to have got off the ground had Iwasa
stayed in his former job with the
Panasonic Group. While the legacy
brand was still focused on a lagging
TV market that it once dominated,
the Shifthall founder went out on
his own to pursue possibilities in the
burgeoning new world of IoT.
A couple of years ago, Iwasa
approached Panasonic CTO
Yoshiyuki Miyabi about a potential
collaboration. The technology giant
was just beginning its push into
startup coinnovation, and decided to
acquire half of its former employee’s
company. Nonetheless, Shiftall
maintains complete entrepreneurial
independence.
In an effort to also self-fund
innovations and promote the
product among the targeted
demographic, Shiftall crowd-funded
its Wear Space device that was also
on display at the Japan Pavilion. A
wearable device designed to aid
concentration by limiting sight and
hearing senses via noise-cancelling
technology and a partition that
controls your field of view, Wear
Space already won a Red Dot design
award when it was being developed
in 2017. Designed in coordination
with the Future Life Factory, Wear
Space typifies the human-machine
interfaces being created by socalled
J-Startups for a world where
cyberspace and physical space is
becoming highly integrated.
Panasonic followed a similar route
at IFA through its presentation of
products for “lifestyles of the near
future” that employ sensing and data
analysis technologies to monitor and
respond to our daily life routines. At
the Panasonic booth, for example,
the Future Area showcased a variety
of next-generation, wellbeingenhancing
care products such as
the Grow head care device that
identifies the condition of hair, and
improves the blood flow on the scalp
using infrared rays.
Like the Wear Space designed for
digital nomads working in open
or co-working offices, or workers
finding it ever more important to
create personal space where
they can focus, these devices are
ultimately designed to improve
daily lives through their seamless
simplicity
Takuma Iwasa
Shiftall founder and CEO
INFUSING THE
LATEST IOT TECHNOLOGY
WITH JAPAN’S WELL-
RECOGNISED PRODUCT
DESIGN HERITAGE
www.ifa-international.org IFA International • Monday 23 September 2019
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