*Steve Makris is a technology expert who does a weekly Tech Talk segment during Edmonton’s Sunday Morning News.
Hello from Turkey folks, where several hundred global attendees spent four informative and fun technology days at the Regnum Carya Resort in Belek.
The IFA Global Press Conference 2014 spring event, hosted annually in different Mediterranean resorts, is a prelude to the huge IFA Consumers Electronics Unlimited show in Berlin Sept. 5-10, 2014.
Technology giants like BOSCH, dyson, GRUNDIG, Panasonic, Philips and Sennheiser shared their products and global visions in a world – including emerging countries, hungry for smart large and small technologies.
Connected home appliances running on their own operating system will become part of our personal network. TVs are getting bigger and sharper in contrast to shrinking wearable devices like watches and smart jewellery.
IFA presented research on where consumer electronics sales where heading in 2014 around the world.
Despite a crippling world economy, there is a trend for fewer people living under one roof – meaning more households requiring multiples of appliances.
The best news was for small domestic appliances, looking at an increased average sales value of seven per cent; this includes juicers and vacuum cleaners, previously considered luxuries in developing countries.
Large appliances will be spotty around the world, keeping their numbers in Western Europe and North America. But Asia is looking at buying the lion’s share of home goods, more than doubling sales from last year.
Digital camera and PC sales will continue to drop globally while a 50 per cent increase on smart phones and tablets is expected.
Two billion personal Internet capable devices will be sold in 2014 globally, with more than half in smartphone format.
TVs will still dominate in all sizes with a surprising statistic – the average global TV viewing time per day is three hours and 55 minutes! No surprise, then, that 20 per cent more TV sound bars will sell in 2014.
Consumer sales are looking most promising in Asia, representing 60 per cent of the world’s population, and new found wealth will buy innovative electronic consumer goods.
Europe has 10 times more eco-friendly, environmentally designed products than North America.
The next big thing in the coming years will be smart wearable devices, but they still have a ways to go for the perfect fit among other personal devices.
BSH is leading the way with its Home Connect initiative for getting all consumer electronics devices, including large appliances regardless of brand, to communicate with each other online.
There is a growing tower of Babel syndrome from companies like Samsung and LG whose appliances don’t speak to each other. Consumers will not accept that.
BSH commented that with more than 50 billion Apple apps having been downloaded, that’s seven apps for every person on earth!
The best line from industry influencers was from Turkish appliance and display maker Vestel’s CEO Turan Erdogan: “We spent so much in technology to make perfectly flat LED Panels…now we have to make them curved.”
Comments