PRODUCT TRENDS VERBATIM
PRODUCT TRENDS VERBATIM FEELING SECURE WITH 40 YEARS EXPERIENCE NEW 6x BLU-RAY BD-R recordable disc fastest on markET Verbatim president Gary Milner 40 years since founder Reid Anderson began loading data tape into cassette casings in a San Fernando garage, Verbatim are celebrating this significant anniversary at IFA this year by launching the fastest Blu-ray BD-R disc on the market. “Reid was a pioneer who recognised the emerging market potential for digital data storage and since then we have never stopped innovating,” says Verbatim’s new president Gary Milner. “Verbatim is now synonymous worldwide with high-quality storage media.” Today Verbatim is part of Mitsubishi Kagaku Media (MKM), and their focus is very much on the security of data stored on Verbatim products. “Encryption and security are an important and growing market segment, both for the private consumer and for corporate and governmental agencies,” says Rüdiger Theobold, Verbatim Marketing and Business Development Manager. “That means the protection of sensitive data through secure 128-bit encryption as well as robust and safe casings that protect data stored on our hard disk drives from knocks, drops and dust.” The portable 500 GB Verbatim Secure HDD protects data through their VerbatimSync Software that both synchronizes and encrypts data stored. The importance of data encryption means that Verbatim now offers secure data storage solutions across the whole of their range. Renowned for their optical storage media, Verbatim entered the hard disk drive market at IFA two years ago. The new InSight model features a data screen displaying the designated drive name and data usage. Technological changes in the digital data storage business continue to evolve at a rapid pace. Verbatim launched the fastest 25GB Blu-ray BD-R with a 6x recording speed this year at IFA. “External hard drive and flash memory products continue to grow rapidly, but it is with the double layer DVD and especially in the Blu-ray arena that we are anticipating a lot of exciting opportunities in the forthcoming year,” comments Milner. Verbatim also have a double layer 50GB Blu-ray BD-R at 2x speed and a competitively priced 25GB 2x speed Bluray manufactured using AZO dye technology, a process owned by their parent company Mitsubishi and used in regular products such as CD-R. “Blu-ray today is relatively small but it is set to grow exponentially,” says Milner. “The Japanese market is more substantial with 40 million recordable Blu-ray discs sold in the past year with just 4 million in Europe. This is about to change though with the imminent growth of HD TV in Europe boosting sales as Blu-ray BD-R is the ideal format for recording and archiving HD TV. In the UK for example the BBC HD channel will permit you to record and time shift their HD programming.” Further innovations for Verbatim at IFA this year include the USB – Executive, a portable hard drive range that they boast are 25% faster than standard USB portable hard drives. The portable drives now come in a range of striking colours and there is even a limited edition gold USB 2.5 inch HDD to celebrate their 40 th anniversary. The MediaStation HD DVR is a new multimedia network hard drive with 1 TB capacity which features full functionality as a home multimedia player and recorder. It is an expansion of the MediaStation range that Verbatim launched last year. “The demand for storage is increasing exponentially. People like collecting, archiving and storing by nature,” observes Milner. “Customers want a high quality product that is very secure and, as the market increases, there is a need for all four different types of data storage devices that we offer. Our extensive distribution base gives the Verbatim brand a broad reach. Worldwide we are the no.1 brand for optical media storage.” Hall 12 / Stand 119 What is the ROBBY WASH? The Robby Wash is a white ball with blue rubber bumper, containing washing granules (macromolecules) whose effectiveness has been tested and proven. This unique, exclusive system will revolutionise the way people do their laundry. How does ROBBY WASH work? There is no more need for detergents, just put the Robby wash in your washing machine for astounding results! How it works: 270g of macromolecules are equivalent to 60Kg of washing powder, all you have to do is to refill it whenever you need to. The activated macromolecules are gradually released through the wash, dissolving dried-in stains by generating ions which activate the water molecules. The increase in pH enables the activated molecules to penetrate deep into the fabrics and attach themselves to the stains. As the motion of the drum agitates the clothes, the stains come off easily and dissolve into the water. Save money… …and the planet Hall 6.1 / Stand 204a 28 www.ifa-international.org IFA International • Monday, 7 th September 2009
PRODUCT TRENDS IFA EXCLUSIVE ON SAMSUNG’S R&D AS wELL AS ENERGy EFFICIENCy, SPACE EFFICIENCy wILL bE AN ENDURING TREND By Richard Barnes Setting a roadmap for the European Home Appliance industry is difficult unless one goes to the heart of Research and Development in the field and looks at what’s being planned for the next 3-5 years. In its ongoing role of educating and informing the market, IFA International paid an exclusive (and rare) visit to Samsung’s Research and Development Centre in Suwan-City, Korea, to get the “inside story”. We spoke to the head of R&D for Samsung’s Digital Appliance Division, Dochul Choi. How is Samsung achieving ever-increasing energy efficiency in its household products? Our goals are much the same across the whole range. Intelligence is being used heavily in digital entertainment devices and now IT. So by utilising the strong IT technology we have in Samsung, we can improve efficiency, also in our home appliances. So there’s more and more intelligence being built into your devices? Correct. We intend to use bigger PBAs and we may well use more powerful chips that offer better control. What are the main trends that we can expect to see in the next two to five years? Because usually in the kitchen, space is limited. So what we are doing is developing, for constant cavity volumes, better (L-R) Richard Barnes, Editor-in-Chief, IFA International and Dochul Choi, Senior Vice-President, Samsung R&D Team, Digital Appliance Division and more useful internal dimensions to offer the customers. You also research the look and feel as well as the industrial design of these appliances at your R&D Centre. Can you tell us about this? We believe that we understand our customerbase pretty well. It’s important to keep evolving so that our products always have a modern look. The traditional white goods look is less essential, as there is a trend towards an ‘IT’ or ‘CE’ look. You trained as a jet and rocket scientist and now you work for Samsung. On an internal level, does Samsung work differently from other companies in terms of R&D? Samsung is perfect for any engineer who has ambition. The company gives you room to grow and basically you can pursue any idea that you want. There are no limitations. In Samsung there is much more freedom and we don’t have to go looking for funding to pursue an idea. So does that mean that the good ideas get to market quicker? Yes. There is no overly vigorous control, which is just one of the many strengths of Samsung. Is that the biggest challenge? Yes it is, because Samsung White Goods are not market leaders yet. So we do have to keep adjusting our products and doing it as quickly as possible. . Is there a lot of difference between the White Goods markets in Europe, Asia and the US in terms of product likes and dislikes? There is and that’s one reason why you need speed of product turnaround. Every country has different tastes and preferences and their kitchen culture is very different. Clothes washing habits are different too. You have to adjust your products accordingly. France and Germany are really quite similar as markets, whereas the differences between Germany and the US are much more significant. In the US, it’s all about scale, because they typically shop once or twice per month, so they want a big freezer. In fact, they usually want two freezers because they have the sort of space that many European countries do not. Is Samsung doing anything to increase its overall energy efficiency? Yes, we’ve carried out internal studies to see which of our manufacturing processes produce the most CO 2 in order to evaluate how good we are as fellow citizens. The conclusions form the basis of an efficiency drive that we are putting in place across all our factories. Also, in terms of packaging we have stopped using styrofoam, replacing it with reinforced paper packaging. In our European factories we are burning Butane, which is a natural gas and less pollutant, plus we’ve started looking at using CO 2 for refrigerators. Hall 20 / Stand 101 IFA International • Monday, 7 th September 2009 www.ifa-international.org 29
