Spotting electronics trends and gadgets during the Berlin IFA 2018

23 October 2018

It is one of the world’s largest tradeshows for consumer electronics and home appliances: the Berlin IFA. As Rompa Group, we had to be there. Our international account managers Tim Franssen and Lawrence van den Molengraft attended the event as Rompa’s representatives. They saw the latest trends, gadgets and developments in the field of electronics during the IFA tradeshow. When they came back, they brought plenty of inspiration for our future with them!

The IFA tradeshow is a Valhalla for fans of electronics. The one thing that stands out immediately is the enormous range of smart products on display: from bicycle helmets to televisions and from ovens to headsets. Tim and Lawrence discuss their three favourite themes and report on what they saw during the Berlin IFA 2018.

1. Smart home

These days, everything – from music to your ventilation system – can be controlled via an app on your smartphone. Hundreds, if not thousands of devices can help you make your home as smart as possible. Every company is developing its own control system and apps. The challenge lies in getting everything to communicate properly. Before you know it, you end up with hundreds of smartphone apps in order to control your devices. Nobody wants that. How can you make the operation of your smart home easier?

If This Then That
The answer is IFTTT, which stands for “If This Then That.” This is an online service that connects and automates apps and gadgets (also known as applets). In other words, IFTTT makes your home even smarter. Just imagine: your house uses facial recognition to recognise you as you walk in. Immediately, every device in your home automatically switches to your preferred setting. The heating jumps to the right temperature, your favourite playlist starts up and the lights turn on to bathe the room in your favourite colour.

Voice control
When it comes to the Internet of Things (IoT), the next major step is voice control. One example is Amazon’s Alexa, which follows your voice commands to operate the lights and audio. Google, Apple, Amazon and Microsoft are all investing heavily in this technology at the moment, for example by conducting research that will make controlling our devices even faster and easier in the future.

2. Digital health

A healthy lifestyle is becoming ever more important. This is reflected in our use of electronics. For example, you can tell exactly how healthy you are by measuring your workouts, blood pressure, heartrate and the quality of your sleep. It also lets you know what else you can do to improve your health. Everything can be tracked digitally and smart products and applications are becoming more advanced all the time. At Rompa, we are very interested in these digital developments and keep a close eye on them.

Personal care
When it comes to health, we have acquired the most experience in recent years in the personal care sector. For more than twenty years, we have been producing plastic products for businesses that are global market leaders in the international shaving industry. For the past fifteen years, we have also been supplying electronic products to this sector, such as the charging stands for shavers. Since 2015, these also come equipped with a special order button that allows users to order new razor blades easily. These products are also featured during the IFA show. In fact, things are taken to the next level with e.g. an electric toothbrush that communicates with an app to track whether you are brushing your teeth properly, whether your toothbrush is kept sufficiently clean and whether you are brushing for long enough. The app even informs you about your next appointment at the dentist’s!

3. Wireless charging

As the demand for electronic products grows, so does the need for quick and easy charging solutions. Power banks, storage facilities in public spaces and restaurants and special stands for your all-in-one smartwatch are just a few examples of the cream of the crop of the wireless charging sector shown off during the IFA. In the future, wireless charging solutions will become available in all shapes and sizes. This presents a wealth of opportunities for us and our customers. Similar to the charging stands that Rompa produces for companies in the personal care sector, we can also design and manufacture new wireless charging products that suit the customer’s product and the company’s design philosophy.

Other markets
Smart home, digital health and wireless charging are themes that continue to draw our attention and with which we have already acquired a wealth of valuable experience. This does not mean that the other themes shown off during the IFA show were not just as interesting. It is quite possible that our innovative solutions will be put to good use in other markets as well in the future. Take gaming, for example, which has been elevated to the next level with the introduction of 8K television and moving seats. Augmented reality puts users smack in the middle of their game or movie. We can also expect many innovations in our kitchens. In awe-inspiring displays, Siemens, Miele and Bosch showed off their innovative developments, including smart refrigerators and washing machines. These devices connect to an app to tell you exactly what you have in your fridge or when your laundry is done.

Investing in the future
In conclusion, we spent two very interesting days at the Berlin IFA. We absorbed everything we saw like sponges. Now it is time to invest our newly acquired knowledge into developing stronger and new relationships and allow our customers to benefit even more from our added value as a full-service provider.