MEET THE VISIONARIES
MEET THE VISIONARIES Consumer Electronics 2.0 Towards a Seamless World of Home Entertainment VIDEO Guerrino De Luca has been President and Chief Executive Officer of Logitech International SA since February 1998 and a member of the Board of Directors since June 1998. Prior to that time, Mr. De Luca served as Executive Vice President of Worldwide Marketing for Apple Computer Inc., from February 1997 to September 1997, and as President of Claris Corporation, a personal computing software vendor, from February 1995 to February 1997. Before this Mr. De Luca held various positions with Apple in the United States and Europe. Mr. De Luca holds a BS in Electronic Engineering from the University of Rome. The Logitech keynote speech, given by President and CEO Guerrino De Luca, was entitled "Never the same again - how digital technology will change the face of consumer electronics and home entertainment". For some time now we have been hearing about convergence, so we decided to ask Mr De Luca what his take is on this much used word. Convergence is only part of the story. We’ve been talking about it for many years now, but if you look at the living room today, most of the devices in it still don’t work together in harmony. Until the day that companies offer a seamless world of home entertainment, the living room will continue to be a wild, untamed and diverse environment. My keynote took a look at the kind of solutions that can tame this environment and how these solutions will change the face of consumer electronics and home entertainment in the future. What’s new? Well we’re calling these new solutions and the model which creates them Consumer Electronics 2.0. Being used to distribution through classic IT channels, how is Logitech's channel approach changing? It’s probably easiest to explain what isn’t changing and why. For the most part, Logitech will remain faithful to its indirect channel sales model. This is because the IT and CE channels are increasingly merging, changing the distribution landscape in turn. For example, Ingram Micro – traditionally seen as an IT player – has become a powerful CE distribution partner over the last two years. Logitech’s direct sales approach will remain unchanged too. We have put in place a new sales force focused on the CE channels, from retail to independent dealers and custom installers. However, Logitech will stay flexible in terms of product distribution when the need arises. Can you give some concrete examples of how retailers should be changing their sales tactics or patterns to take better advantage of the meeting of IT and consumer technologies? The Consumer Electronics 2.0 model I’ll be talking about in my keynote is a new approach to the industry and product development. As a result, it will change the retail landscape and our retailers’ sales tactics. We should see a more solutionbased kind of selling, rather than the traditional “product on shelf” presentation. A good example is MediaMarkt, who recently announced a restructuring of its CE department in stores. A newly created Wireless Music Streaming corner has now been developed and implemented in store, to which Logitech is one of the leading contributors. Are you working together with any CE manufacturers in terms of bundling, or is this on the horizon? A bundle needs to provide real benefits and/or a price advantage to the consumer. Unfortunately it’s too common to find bundles which sell one good product alongside another product that is not selling as quickly on its own. We won’t rule out bundles and are in constant discussions with various players from the CE industry about optimizing our channel sales approach. However, we are convinced that our products offer the quality, innovation and style necessary for them to stand alone! How is Logitech changing in order to keep pace with the market? The world of home entertainment is changing and the internet is changing the ways in which we use, manage and enjoy content at home. Radio was the first online product and it created huge social change in how families enjoyed entertainment. Then VHS was the first example of hardware that allowed time-shifting but it was also the first example of the industry not doing it right. It was too hard to set up, the number of VHRs whose clock was blinking at 00:00 bears testimony to that. How is the humble mouse adapting to the need of modern consumers? We have created two new devices: the Space Navigator, which doesn’t look like a traditional mouse, and the MXR that does, which contains some magic. The Space Navigator is a 3D motion controller that allows a way of navigating that is fluid and unmatched by the mouse and keyboard combination. It enables the user to fly around features on a site like Google Earth as if they were in a helicopter. Then there’s the MX Air laser mouse that can be used in a conventional fashion or held in the hand like a remote control. In the Windows Media Centre you can use it to navigate around features without being tied to the desk and you can also use it for PC content on the TV screen. If you’re listening to music you can control volume by moving it left or right and it changes the song when you move it up or down. It’s a richer form of navigation that is right for today’s sophisticated environment. Hall 25 Stand 113 10 IFA International • Monday, 3 rd September 2007
MEET THE VISIONARIES Setting the “Roadmap”! Connected Navigation – on the way to travel intelligence! We are starting to see some links now between mobile phones and GPS… but it’s just a beginning. Here at IFA 2007, thought leaders are setting the scene for the future roadmap (pardon the pun!) for the industry. IFA International asked Andreas Westhoff, Chief Sales Officer for Navigon, how the market is evolving... Andreas Westhoff studied law at the University of Würzburg, Germany and the New York University, New York. After his studies he started his professional career at E-Plus Mobilfunk GmbH in 1996. From Regional Sales Manager followed by his work as a Regional Team Leader he became Key Account Manager and responsible for distributors such as ProMarkt, Brinkmann and Hertie. He left E-Plus in 2000 as Head of the service provider sales department, moving on to Brodos AG, Baiersdorf, Germany. As Sales Director he established the sales of e-services. Subsequent to this, he joined ad pepper media International N.V., Nürnberg, Germany. As Director Corporate Development his responsibilities contained corporate strategy, M&A, cooperation and investor relations. Since 2001 he is working for Navigon, Germany as Head of Consumer Products and signs responsible for Navigon’s global sales activities. In 2006, he was appointed as CSO of Navigon AG. A short time ago the main navigation-experts began to develop special software to converge route planning with mobile phones. Navigon was one of the first to do this in 2004. But navigation by mobile phone has only been a very small niche when you are looking at the overall navigation market. Last year 80,280 smart phones with mobile navigation were sold in Germany - compared to 2.8 million PNAs. These figures show clearly how things are. Now the time has come to grow the market – and we intend to push growth with our new product range, which will be on the market this year. I am sure that in a few years time mobile navigation by smart phone will catch up with mobile navigation by PNA. But one will not replace the other. Both devices have unique qualities. How will “Connected Navigation” help to develop Location Based Services? Location Based Services aren’t a new phenomenon. The simple fact is that they weren’t introduced to the market successfully. A lot of people had the idea that location based services are the best way to earn a lot of money quickly. This was obviously wrong. To provide information that everyone could find in the internet for free is nothing special. The point is that connected navigation raises the level of location based services to a new dimension. Information combined with interactivity and mobile navigation makes location based services attractive to the consumer. And this is the big difference with former approaches. So new business models will be able to be built around this? Of course. With our idea of “connected navigation” we are able to address completely new target groups. It is a business model that appeals to people in their 20’s. Some of them don’t even have a car. These people meet in online communities. And if we are able to attract them with our idea of connected navigation for free, we have a brilliant base for advertising. This opens up entirely new horizons. What is Navigon doing to promote this and to work in this direction? We are introducing the new navigation system Navigon 2110. this is designed to appeal to first time buyers of mobile navigation. Like its bigger siblings the Navigon 5110 and 7110, the easy to use 2110 features high-performance software behind a smart outer shell and is available in black and white. In terms of technology, the smallest device in the Navigon family is fitted with all the essential functions expected of modern navigational aids today. It is the only Navigon product without a visible TMC antenna. The traffic news receiver is integrated into the car charging wire, making the route planner even more compact. Thanks to improved route calculation, the intelligent software shows the correct way to your destination without long waiting times. With over two million special destinations, the system guides you to any desired destination. The SIRFStar III GPS receiver module sees to optimal position fixing. The in-built PIN code anti-theft protection takes care of security when you leave the vehicle. Hall 8.1 Stand 111 Hall 7.2c Stand 101 IFA International • Monday, 3 rd September 2007 11
