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Official Daily News Source f or International Visitors at IFA News Audio Boom Boosts Headphone Market Head Monster Noel Lee puts on a high-fidelity show at IFA Sennheiser Introduces Three New Versions of MOMENTUM Sennheiser adds three new colour variations of its MOMENTUM line: gloss black, classic brown, and intensive red. Noel Lee, founder and CEO of headphones pioneer Monster, hit the IFA keynote stage with DJs, dancers, singers and classical musicians, and a spectrum of pure sound that Monster promises to reproduce through its market leading products. Just as importantly, new ranges of stylish, modish high-end headphones were paraded by young brand ambassadors and models, a central marketing strategy since Monster Beats appeared on the head of DJ Dr Dre. DJ and TV personality Xzibit also made a brief appearance and pledged his allegiance to Monster cause. “Headphones are one of the fastest growing categories in consumer electronics,” said Lee in his keynote introduction. “In 2013 we expect record-breaking sales for headphones.” This expansion is matching the explosion of smartphones and tablets. “Audio is extremely important to the smartphone and tablet Noel Lee: “We say unleash the power of your smartphone” experience.” Pointing to the 57% growth in tablet sales in the last year, Lee said it was inevitable that the headphone market would ghost this growth. Streaming services like Spotify and Pandora also doubled the number of mobile audio players in the market in the last year. “We say unleash the power of your smartphone, unleash the power of your tablet because there’s music inside that you’ve never heard,” said Lee. Lee questioned how a growing range of manufacturers was differentiating the endless product competing to be part of the headphone revolution. “Everybody is trying to do something different, something innovative. You just wonder who’s going to buy all these headphones,” he said. As a market leader, Monster’s own headphone revolution has been spurred, says Lee through superior technology, marketing, and retail partnerships as well as finding retail partners willing to take a chance on 300 plus dollars headphones”. Lee invoked the power of Pure Monster Sound, featuring the deep and powerful bass that changed the industry. New products born of this mantra include Monster’s N-Tune onear line in vibrant new ‘candy’ colours, and the N-Ergy in-ear headphones that produce a very rich, ‘perfect’ sound for their compact size. “In 2013 we expect record-breaking sales for headphones” Hall 3.2 Stand 202 Noel Lee “With these three new additions to the range Sennheiser has reinterpreted the cool, minimalist styling using full elegant colours,” says Charles Cha, Product Manager for Sennheiser. “Whereas the MOMENTUM, on-ear headphones showed off their playful and expressive character, the new models reveal their brilliance in a discrete and elegant way.” Among the outstanding features of the new headphones are the ear cushions and the alcantra headband. This hi-tech material from Italy is smooth, longlasting and breathable, giving long-term comfort and enjoyment of the sound. Headbands made of stainless, brushed steel round off the design features of the MOMENTUM On-Ear. 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News THE NEWS, VIEWS AND PRODUCTS THAT ARE MAKING HEADLINES AT IFA German audio-equipment manufacturer beyerdynamic has launched what is thought to be the world’s first crowdsourcing design contest for headphones. On my-headphone.com, consumers are invited to submit their personal version of beyerdynamic’s premium Custom One Pro model, creating their ‘design’ from the multitude of colours, features and materials available online. The winning entry will then go into mass production — and its designer awarded €1,000 € and first headphones to come off the production line. A new collaboration between Pioneer and Spotify will see connectivity to Spotify integrated into Pioneer AV receivers and home-audio systems via the Spotify Connect service, also launched in Berlin this week. By syncing listening to the cloud, Spotify Connect offers simple, seamless and hassle-free control of music across a phone, tablet or audio product with millions of songs built in. “Streaming music is now bigger than ever,” said Pioneer’s Geoff Loveday. “Spotify Connect is definitely something that will give consumers a whole new level of usability, allowing them to enjoy their music more than ever.” Connectivity is working its magic on healthcare equipment, according to Beurer. The German company’s HealthManager app enables data from all diagnostic scales and meters — including weight, BMI, bone mass, blood pressure and blood sugar — to be transferred via Bluetooth to a smartphone. In the hairremoval category, Beurer’s new intense pulsed light (IPL) devices, which can treat the entire body in around 26 minutes, are also proving popular. “Sales in this market currently total €12m and are set to rise sharply,” said Beurer’s Georg Walkenbach. Giving the Cloud a Silver Lining Electronics giant aims to foster a safe connected environment IBM is at IFA to highlight the ways in which it serves the electronics industry. Specifically it is here to work with client companies to help them to generate new revenue streams through product development; to capture new markets and revenue by improving customer experiences; and to increase efficiency and reduce costs. “If you take a look around the show, pretty much all of our clients are here,” IBM General Manager, Electronics Industry, Bruce Anderson told IFA International. “You’ll see folks here that may have products on display that connect to the internet, that connect to wifi, that connect to a cloud for different services. Then if you take a look at what IBM does, we’re all about making sure that the cloud is there and that it is a very robust and safe environment for manufacturers to put their connected products to – but also for consumers, who are there sharing their information about how they use these products.” Much of IBM’s work involves helping manufacturers to ensure a positive consumer experience which it does by focusing on four core areas: social, mobile, analytics and the cloud. “They’re really relevant not just only to entertainment and wellness, but also to the white goods industry as well,” Anderson said. “I think the biggest problem is the intuitiveness of the device itself and how it interacts with this ecosystem. I worry more about the adoption curve. People come up with great ideas and they get them out into places like IFA and then they don’t catch fire right away and then they go onto the back-burner. There was nothing wrong with the idea but they just didn’t address the consumer’s input.” It’s essential to identify how a product will be used and by whom. “If you segment people you’re going to find unique needs and that is where you need to start. If you’re talking about my 85-year-old grandmother living alone I’ve got one set of use cases; if you’re talking about my teenager I’ve got another set of use cases. If you don’t start there, if you don’t figure out the way you are going to market to those people you’ll never get adoption.” Marshall-Haus Stand 100 “If you take a look around the show, pretty much all of our clients are here” Bruce Anderson IBM General Manager, Electronics Industry www.ifa-international.org IFA International • Tuesday 10 th September 2013 7
