Market & Technology
Market & Technology Trends Jürgen Boyny Jürgen Boyny is the Global Director of Consumer Electronics at GfK. Since 2007, he has coordinated all business within this market and is responsible for service to international clients. Boyny’s wealth of experience is influential in helping GfK Retail and Technology develop its reputation as one of the world’s leading market research organisations tracking retail sales of consumer electronics products. He started his career at the company 24 years ago managing the toy panel for GfK Handelsforschung in Germany. After successfully working with major players such as LEGO and Mattel and Parker, he began to take over client services within Consumer Electronics. Before working for GfK Boyny studied business administration, with a focus on the technology sector, at the Technical University of Karlsruhe. During his time there he worked alongside electronic companies developing PC software and for several years in the chemical industry, where he was employed by the Central Market Research department of BASF. “I think the area of convergence between smart devices is much more important than gesture or voice control” The Global Market for Technical Consumer Goods The outlook remains positive heading into Q4, says GfK Jürgen Boyny, Global Director for Consumer Electronics GfK Retail and Technology talks to IFA International about the general state of the consumer electronics market and much more… [ Interview by Richard Barnes ] If you look at the global development of the industry for this year, overall production stands at +2%, so it isn’t as fast growing as in the previous two years, but it remains positive. We also expect to see a rise in production of anything up to +8% in 2013 in terms of sales in US dollars, but it’s difficult to predict. We have made some assumptions like continued steady growth in China, so with all these basic and positive assumptions, we are expecting the market to continue to grow through 2013. But when you look in detail at the figures, the nature of the growth is changing, and it is very clearly coming from emerging markets like India, Africa, China and Latin America, whereas we are seeing limited expansion amongst the mature markets. What do TV manufacturers need to do to improve their difficult market situation? There needs to be a joint effort from retailers and manufacturers to bring back more value to the TV. Manufacturers need to persuade retailers of the need to convince consumers that it makes sense to spend more money on their TV set. But people will only spend more money if they believe the TV can do something new or better; it’s about real benefits. And having an Internet connected TV, or more content is not necessarily a benefit, because there are already so many TV stations. Real benefits come from being able to easily do things on the TV that previously could only be done on a PC. For example, accessing Amazon, there could be an app, so the TV display allows the user to shop. Similarly for elderly people who have reduced mobility, the TV could be a means of keeping in touch with the family and medical services. In both those cases the TV is really doing something different. The real competition for the traditional TV manufacturers such as Sony, Panasonic and Samsung is going to come from Apple and Google, because the next few years will be about software, not display. What is behind the current boom in Smart TV? It’s partly content driven. That is to say that there is a lot of good HD content out there which makes consumers appreciate picture quality more, and concurrently there is considerable uptake of Smart TVs. The fact that 700 million people will buy smartphones in 2012, means that they see just how much can be done with a single device, so the challenge now is to move this idea of a multi-function device to the TV set. The TV in the future will need to do so much more than be an entertainment device, therefore the next challenge for TV-makers is developing software that will make that happen. What are your thoughts about gesture and voice control? For the moment they haven’t really reached consumers, although I’m sure retailers Jürgen Boyny Global Director, Consumer Electronics GfK are well aware of them. But what we are seeing now is significant penetration of tablet PCs and smartphones, so I expect that the demand for those devices to be able to control some aspects of Smart TVs will be very strong. When you take into account that there will be 1 billion smartphones users by the end of this year, and around 150 million Smart TV users, what we also expect is to see people using their smartphones to choose the content that they want to see, whether it’s from a traditional broadcaster, Facebook or YouTube, then they will want to seamlessly move that content to the Smart TV. I think this area of convergence between smart devices is much more important than gesture or voice control. Grosser Stern/ VIP Room 2 18
HOME SWEET HOME » Unveiled! home entertainment audio entertainment Home Appliances my media public media communication technology & components Trends in Consumer Electronics and Home Appliances A foretaste of what to expect at the world’s leading consumer lifestyle event! A key trend in 2012 is towards much bigger flat screens The factors holding back a transition towards bigger screens were, in the past, a lack of Full-HD content, and a reticence by consumers to leap to a much bigger TV compared to their previous one. Clever "side-by-side" marketing techniques are helping move big screens, and stunning images in Full-HD are a big drawcard. As the world’s leading trade fair for consumer electronics, IFA exhibits the entire product range of a dynamic and innovative industry. Key trends this year include: Ultra high-resolution TVs with brilliant colours, 3-D with and without glasses (4K panels also mean it is possible to build 3-D TVs that produce images in full HD even when viewed with passive glasses); OLED displays, which require no back light, and offer stunning colours and black levels, while being very thin, and thus ideal for wall mounting; 3-D technology continues to develop. Glasses for enjoying 3-D viewing are now being made with lighter and more stylish frames, which can be comfortably worn with normal spectacles, and “no glasses” sets are on the way; Ease of operation - New operating concepts are among this year’s dominant home entertainment trends; Smart TVs – This year sees an evolution in Smart TVs as they become more widespread on the market. IFA will host the latest trends; Second screens – a second display on one’s lap - Tablets and smartphones, in future, they will evolve into universal navigators of media services and functions; Ultrabooks – between tablets and notebooks - Last year, tablets were the big hit and in 2012 ultrabooks are setting a new trend; Home networking – an unbroken trend - CE devices that are part of a home network and communicate with household appliances, heating and lighting systems are yet another innovation that in the years to come will represent an increasingly important trend. Not only do today’s home appliances make life in the home easier and better, they also reflect such lifestyle trends as healthy cooking, wellness, the efficient use of energy and conservation of resources. Simple controls, intelligent Trends in home appliances at IFA 2012 technology and, of course, excellent design, are the outstanding characteristics of the latest electrical home appliances and small appliances from leading manufacturers. Despite manufacturers constantly improving energy efficiency with new home appliance designs in recent years, this successful technology still holds vast potential. In the following pages, we include just a few of the hot new products that will be on show at IFA! IFA International • Monday 27 th August 2012 19
