News Right Time, Right
News Right Time, Right Place IFA’s international stature continues to grow As IFA consolidates its place as the biggest and most innovative global trade show in the consumer electronics and home appliances sector, Chairman of the Supervisor Board of the gfu, Hans-Joachim Kamp, explains its international appeal. There are a few reasons. On one hand, 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. When will I get the most attention? Second, IFA is held in the right place, because Germany is very well organised. Other shows are not held on 150,000 sq m of ground. It’s easier to catch a taxi here, you don’t have to wait oneand-a-half hours. For the trade, it’s important to have the optimal atmosphere and an optimal chance to sit together with their partners. What have been the most successful parts of the show? There have been a lot of successful parts. On the one hand, we’ve had more journalists than in the past, with 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 from all the important players, they are very happy and they have received more orders on their books. That is very promising for the Christmas business. One reason for this is that we have had the right themes, including in the TV business, with UHD TV and curved TV. Curved will be an important theme in the coming Christmas period. Home connecting is also higher on the agenda, as is audio streaming. Is this a particularly innovative year for IFA? I think there are more innovative products on the shelf where the consumer has said yes, that’s a product that I want to buy. If we have a new innovation sometimes it takes a little longer for the consumer to decide. We had a discussion a couple of years ago about UHD. Now we see it is a reality, also price-wise. The consumer says yes, I can buy it. There was a lot of discussion one or two years ago about connectivity. Now that’s also becoming a reality. I think it’s important that it’s not far away, that the product will be on the shelf for Christmas. Do you think that consumers have been able to access UHD TV content more quickly than with HDTV? It’s important that the consumer gets a product of the future. The life span of a TV is up to 10 years. If you look at the history, we introduced 16:9 when there was no 16:9 content, yet the consumers bought the TV sets. We introduced high definition and there was no content. A few years further back, we introduced colour TV and there was only B/W content. Now we have UHD and in Germany we have no UHD broadcast content. But on the other hand with UHD you have better picture quality. The importance of the mobile divisions within big companies like Samsung, LG and Alcatel is another significant change at IFA. Yes, because it’s the foundation of the connecting world. Today you use your mobile phone or your tablet to steer your TV.It’s more important in the B2C business for the mobile companies to be present here. Here they get more attention from the trade on the one hand, who have to sell it to the consumers, and from the press on the other hand, which is the reason that IFA is more important for the mobile industry than it was a few years ago. Our target has been to increase the international visitors, and we have realised this. Hans-Joachim Kamp Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the gfu 6
News STATE SECRETARY PRESENTS AWARD TO WINNER OF IKT NEW BUSINESSES COMPETITION The Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy, Brigitte Zypries, presented the awards to the winners of the New Businesses Competition “IKT innovative” at IFA 2014. There were six prizes, each of €30,000, sas startup capital for new entrepreneurs to launch their own businesses, and the winners were: Asaphus Vision, Berlin (innovative software for driver identification and monitoring driver concentration using a face recognition camera), Blick, Koblenz (a new method of testing the userfriendliness of websites), Meshine, Berlin (smartphone app for large events or conventions), Payever, Würzburg (a process for online traders to enable their shops to click onto any form of payment), Pixolus, Cologne (innovative image recognition software for automatically recording meter readings, price tickets, forms etc.) and Telocate, Freiburg (acoustic navigation system for use in buildings). A special prize, worth €10,000, from the Federal Ministry of Economics, for “Innovative ICT in the Construction Sector” was awarded to the team from Leipzig and Zwickau who set up InnoStrukt3D, which has developed software to facilitate the planning of transport, energy and pipeline routes by means of a spatial display and automatic examination of technical regulations. The 290 entries for this competition represented a 20% increase over the previous round. Almost all previous winners have been able to successfully implement their business ideas. Three years after they were set up, 97% of the companies remain active. “Once again there were a record number of participants in the new businesses competition”, said Zypries, “showing that there is no shortage of boldness and creativity in Germany. In almost every industry information and communication technologies (ICT) are the significant driving force for innovations and new business areas. However, we should exploit the existing new business potential in this area to a far greater extent.” Start-ups have until November 30 to apply for the next round of the competition (www.gruenderwettbewerb.de). Living in the digital world and the smart home - strong messages at IFA Smart Choice The Smart Home has been a significant trend at IFA 2014, a fact reflected by the joint presentation of the three electrical associations VDE, ZVEH and ZVEI under the motto ‘Smart Home, Smart City: Life in the digital world’. The 100-square-foot model home is a prime example of networked, intelligent building. This E-House is not a wistful vision of the future but a view of what is technically feasible today. The complete equipment is controlled via smartphones and the internet. All systems are "live" and provide visitors with immediate insights into the functioning of the products used. The E-House demonstrates how modern building can help to increase energy efficiency Usability Awards Presented at IFA The winners of this year’s Usability Awards have been announced at IFA. The Gold Award goes to the ReSound LiNX hearing aid and the ReSound Smart App from GN Hearing GmbH. In addition to the accomplished design, the panel of judges were impressed by the combination of hearing aid and contemporary, intuitively operated app. The winners of the five Usability Awards: the Qixxit – Einfach. Unterwegs. Joachim Gast Director Sales & Marketing, GN Hearing GmbH while making living both more comfortable and safer. The focus is multi-functional, crossgenerational living. Innovative technology supports the elderly in particular, so they can live as long as possible with a high quality of life in their own homes. service from DB Vertrieb GmbH, multi-purpose solar lamp SunBell, with its charger, from K8 industridesign, diagnostic tool Medx from Medx GmbH, the Surface Pro3 tablet from Microsoft and the RWE SmartHome system from RWE Effizienz GmbH. The diversity among the winners clearly shows how user-oriented design can contribute to the success of the most varied applications, whether they are interconnected hearing aids, easy-to-use travel apps, intelligent solar lamps, modular tabletop computers or complex systems for controlling devices in a house and for medical analyses. Concepts for products that have been specifically designed to meet the needs of their users offer greater added value. The winners were presented with their certificates on Tuesday September 9 at IFA. www.ifa-international.org IFA International • Friday 19 th September 2014 7
