News Making The Smart
News Making The Smart Home Simple The European industry association ZVEI gives journalists a taste of the present… and future – at IFA 2011 “The smart home clearly represents an opportunity to generate new business.” international O f f i c i a l D a i l y N e w s S o u r c e f o r I n t e r n a t i o n a l V i s i t o r s a t I F A IFA International is a CLEVERDIS Publication 65 avenue Jules Cantini - Tour Méditerranée – 13006 Marseille • France Tel: + 33 442 77 46 00 • Fax: + 33 442 77 46 01 SARL capitalised at e128,250 - VAT FR 95413604471 / RCS Marseille 413 604 471 info@cleverdis.com • www.cleverdis.com During IFA: Press Center – Hall 6.3 – Room 401 Tel: +49 (0)30 3038 81136 Fax: +49 (0)30 3038 81146 info@ifa-international.org www.ifa-international.org • Publisher: Gérard Lefebvre • Publishing Director: Jean-Guy Bienfait • Project Manager: Bettina Badon • Editor-in-Chief: Richard Barnes • Associate Editor: Béatrice Bernard • Editorial team: Neil Crossley, Mark Dezzani, Max Leonard, Julian Newby, Gary Smith, Bob Snyder, Joanna Stephens • Photos: Didier Baverel • Videos: xTrem Productions • Art Director: Hélène Beunat • Design & Page Setting: Guillaume Kaercher, Valentina Russo, Guillaume Vinrich • Webmaster: Benjamin Ras • Marketing Manager: Jean-François Pieri • With the participation of: Selim Ben Amara, Sichao Guo, Kai Karolin Hüppe, Raphaël Pinot, Masha Polshinskaya, Marjorie Sanch, Kirsten Vandenberghe To contact them : first name.last name@ ifa-international.org • Photos. 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All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements. Risks, uncertainties and assumptions include assumptions relating to the timing of the recorded date. If any of these risks or uncertainties materialises or any of these assumptions proves incorrect, actual results could differ materially from the expectations outlined in these statements. Cleverdis assumes no obligation and does not intend to update these forward-looking statements during the period of publication. Photo Credits and Copyright: All Rights Reserved. Dr Rainer Hecker, member of the board, ZVEI and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of gfu — interviewed by Mark Dezzani, IFA International — and Peter Weber, media consultant to gfu. Journalists were invited on Saturday to a “ZVEI Press Breakfast”, where they had the chance to meet a number of key industry figures, and get the “inside line” on new technologies – in particular the evolution of the smart-home. Jürgen Boyny, Global Director of GfK Retail And Technology Consumer Electronics, notably spoke about the evolution of the Connected Home, and its implications on the industry and the buying public. The key to making smarthome technologies more appealing to the customer is, he said, to keep them simple. This is the conclusion of an industry survey conducted in June 2011 in Germany by the market research group GfK. Ninety companies with experience of smarthome technology and 90 companies without that experience — comprising CE retailers and installers — participated in the survey. "Those companies who have experience in retailing and installing smart home technologies told us that the primary concern of the customer is not the price, but that the consumer is worried that the technology may be too complicated to operate," said Boyny. The survey shows that 50% of consumers are interested in smart-home technologies. "The consumer is not concerned about the expense, only those companies surveyed without experience of the smart home market thought that cost would be a barrier," said Boyny, adding: "The smart home clearly represents an opportunity to generate new business." A significant factor in breaking down the walls of resistance to smart-home technologies, and making their operation more userfriendly, is the development of software that enables all of the smart appliances in a home to communicate with each other, and to be operated through a single interface on a hand-held device such as a tablet or smartphone. US Set To Boost Exports US Ambassador to Germany Patrick Murphy By Gary Smith During his visit to this year’s IFA, US Ambassador to Germany Patrick Murphy toured some of the stands of the more than 70 US exhibitors. “The reason why I’m here is that Germany is a hugely valuable trade partner to the US, and consequently I spend a lot of time going to German trade fairs in order to see how American companies are doing,” Murphy said. “And US manufacturers exporting is an issue that President Obama has made clear is very important to the current administration, because America’s blessing and its curse is that the domestic market is so very big that around 99% of companies don’t need to think about export to have a thriving business. So our mission is to get as many of them as "Thanks to the new Operating Systems, you can now do everything from a single hand-held device, meaning that you do not have to have yet another dedicated remote control in the home. This really helps to simplify the operation of the smart-home technologies for the consumer," said Dr. Rainer Hecker, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the gfu, at the presentation of the survey results on the ZVEI industry trade group stand at IFA, Saturday. Initial demand for smarthome technologies had been driven by security, but is now rapidly expanding i n t o e n t e r t a i n m e n t , c o m m u n i c a t i o n a n d information technologies and also integrated into Home Appliances. Hecker said: "With the benefit of ease of operation, as the customers are used to operating their smartphones and tablets, the appeal of smart-home technology is growing as it offers the consumer greater security and comfort for a better lifestyle." possible to double their export business, which effectively means from zero countries to one.” Murphy also commented on the changing face of the US economy: “There was a huge emphasis on the service economy which grew massively, but to some degree it was at the expense of our manufacturing base. But that is changing now thanks to growth in the IT and CE sectors, so we have a thriving and well-established service sector, and now we are seeing growth in CE and IT manufacturing. Alongside that, the Daimler and BMW factories that have been established in America have created hundreds of small and medium-sized businesses, which provide all the services that those huge factories need.” www.ifa-international.org IFA International • Monday 5 th September 2011 3
