News EDITORIAL Richard
News EDITORIAL Richard Barnes Editor-In-Chief THE CONNECTED LEARNING CURVE Channel pros, journalists and even manufacturing marketeers are faced with an ever steeper, slippery learning curve at IFA this year. We have to re-learn the way the markets are functioning, in particular how mobile is becoming an integral part of basically everything. We now would find it hard to get along without our smartphones, but for manufacturers in a number of sectors, it’s not been so much fun in recent years. Smartphones have gobbled-up the music player market, the camera market, the GPS market, voice memo market, PDA market, you name it. But when it comes down to it, a smartphone is after all primarily a convenient way to access apps. This will be the key to the future – just how and what accesses the cloud, in what way, to what end, with what kind of security and other issues. The biggest challenge for many of the industry’s thought leaders today is to predict how it will all come together. Indeed for some, the smartphone has been a hungry monster that has consumed their business, but for the consuming public, the device is now very much the centre of their home and work life. Neither a monster nor a toy, nor a phone, it’s something else. Can you guess what the future will hold? The IFA That Was On the final day of the show, IFA Director Jens Heithecker summarises this vintage What have the key trends been this year? For me, it’s the feeling that IFA never defined the future in such a clear way as we have this year. We have never before seen so many global trend-setting innovations. We’ve seen what the important product categories will be, what the important products will be within these categories. This is the year of higher resolution for TV and audio, of connectivity and wearables. We have a huge number of companies launching new wearable products onto the market coming from very different industries: healthcare, small home appliances, IT giants and consumer electronics manufacturers. The big question is who has the best contact with the consumer, who knows the consumers’ behaviour better, who will win, or will it be a combination of all these industries? Please tell us more about how your partnership with CTIA Super Mobility Week is changing the face of the show. It’s the first time two shows from two continents work together to bring the content and products from one show to the visitors and journalists of the other. In terms of technology, of standards in connectivity in mobile solutions and mobile technology, CTIA is the leading association worldwide. That alone has been an excellent reason to partner with them. Industry Take Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the gfu, Hans-Joachim Kamp reports on IFA 2014 Hans-Joachim Kamp Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the gfu Jens Heithecker IFA Director There have been many successful aspects to the show this year. Please tell us more... On the one hand, we’ve had more journalists than in the past, meaning more information being brought to the customer via the media. Second, we have more international visitors. Our target has been to increase the international visitors, and we have realised this. From the feedback we have received up until now from all the important players, they are very happy and they have received more orders. That is very promising for Christmas business. So IFA is even more international and exciting? IFA is organised at the right place at the right time. 35% of business is done in the last three months of the year, so a company has to decide when the best moment to introduce their new models is. For the trade, it’s important to have the optimal atmosphere and chance to meet with their partners. We had the right themes, including for the TV business, with UHD TV and curved screens. Curved will be an important theme in the Christmas business. Home connecting and audio streaming are also high on the agenda. 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News The Road to IoE The Internet of Things has arrived, but the internet of EVERYTHING is just around the corner Today there are more objects and devices that are connected to the internet than ever before. Gartner has predicted that by 2020, there will be 26bn inter-connected devices. In this exclusive interview, we ask Claudio Camacho, co-founder strategic advisor to the Finnish Android Association (the largest Android community in Europe) and head of Wireless Technologies at Tuxera Inc., precisely what IoE refers to and what the main challenges are... It refers to the interconnection of all objects that have connectivity. The main challenge will be how to provide a meaningful interconnectivity between these devices. For instance, what is the benefit for people when their fridge communicates with their toaster? It’s a case of trying to figure out how these interactions can become more meaningful and valuable to the end user. How can this be facilitated? The goal must be to make the end-user’s life easy. The consumer should be given the power to do incredible things with technology without having to learn all the complexity behind. To counter this, Tuxera has developed – with the aim of bringing a large number of major brands under one umbrella – the AllConnect Software Developers’ Kit (SDK), a platform allowing every device to talk together seamlessly, regardless of operating system, protocol or network topology. Apple, for example, supports exclusively AirPlay for media streaming, but there is an increasing demand for a reliable, easy-touse AirPlay streaming solution for every Android user. To compare, DLNA is a platformindependent streaming protocol supported already by over two billion TVs, A/V receivers and other devices. At the moment, DLNA has a number of interoperability and usability issues. Tuxera’s answer to this was Streambels, which works with all the popular AirPlay and DLNA compatible devices out-of-the-box. Claudio Camacho co-founder strategic advisor to the Finnish Android Association To ensure full compatibility, Streambels has been extensively tested and fine-tuned both in Tuxera labs and by dedicated beta testers over the past months. Since it supports both AirPlay and DLNA protocols, including many manufacturerspecific implementations, it’s fully compatible with the majority of smart devices on the market today. This is the kind of interactivity and ease of use that must be developed and nurtured for the future. The consumer should be given the power to do incredible things with technology without having to learn all the complexity behind Euronics Award At IFA Six manufacturers of consumer electronics, home appliances, and PC/ multimedia solutions have been awarded the Euronics Trend Award for the most innovative, promising and trendsetting products at the International Consumer Electronics Fair (IFA). Representatives from Samsung, Panasonic, Denon, Lenovo, Bosch/ Siemens and Groupe SEB officially accepted the award. A panel of six international experts – members of the Euronics International Board of Directors – presented the Euronics Trend Award to manufacturers in five different categories. In the area of Consumer Electronics TV, Samsung and Panasonic were recognised, while in the Audio segment, the prize went to Denon. In the category PC/Multimedia, Lenovo received the honour. For their innovative products in Home Appliances, Major Domestic Appliances, Bosch/Siemens were honoured, and for Small Domestic Appliances, the award went to Groupe SEB. E-House Insights ‘Smart Home, Smart City: Living in the digital world’ is the slogan that has been adopted for the combined presentation by the three confederations, VDE (Association for Electrical, Electronic & Information Technologies), ZVEH (Central Association of the German Electrical and Information Technology Trades) and ZVEI (Large Home Appliance Trade Association of the German Electrical and Electronics Industry) in the TecWatch Hall 11.1 at IFA. The E-House presents insights into interconnected, intelligent building services engineering. The model house, on an area measuring 100 sq m, provides an opportunity for visitors to see for themselves how, for example, improved energy efficiency can go hand-in-hand with Hall 23 Stand 102 Representatives from Samsung, Panasonic, Denon, Lenovo, Bosch/ Siemens and Groupe SEB accept their Euronics Trend awards. enhanced comfort and safety. Attention will also focus on modern home entertainment, as well as on subjects such as energy management and generation, LED lighting systems and homes designed to meet the needs of the elderly. All the applications can be controlled via a smartphone or tablet PC, and are already being deployed in practice. Hall 11.1 Stand 6 & 8 www.ifa-international.org IFA International • Wednesday 10 th September 2014 5
