IFA 2015: Sleeker Smartwatches and Wearables to Shine at Trade Show

Sleeker and sexier smartwatches are expected to premiere this week in
Berlin at one of the world’s biggest consumer electronics shows, with
both phone manufacturers and watchmakers jostling for a share of the
fast-growing market.

The annual IFA show, which began as an
exhibition on the new medium of radio 90 years ago, has developed into a
massive showcase for consumers to touch and feel the latest in
technological innovations.

Over six days from Friday, tech giants
will be trotting out novelties as diverse as chips implanted in humans
to virtual reality headsets, drones and the latest 3D printers.

But
it is “wearable” technology, whether smartwatches or fitness gadgets,
that is expected to dominate this year’s show, analysts say.

South Korean electronics giant Samsung will show off its latest smartwatch, the Gear S2, on Thursday.

Chinese
technology giant Huawei is also expected to launch its first
smartwatch, as it joins other Android users in going head-to-head with
Apple, which traditionally does not exhibit at IFA.

“There will be
a lot of announcements from wearables. We’ll see a new cycle of
smartwatches, new smartwatches coming into the market which could be
potentially interesting,” Ronan DeRenesse, analyst from Ovum, told AFP.

“There’ll
be some developments in terms of power consumption, the accuracy of the
data that’s gathered on the smartwatches, the form factors going
towards the round shape, or copying a bit more of Apple Watch, less
techie to something a bit more fashionable,” he added.

But the
smartwatch launches will not be limited to smartphone makers:
watchmakers too will be seeking to safeguard their place on the
consumer’s wrist.

Among them is Fossil, which had previewed a
smartwatch built in partnership with chip giant Intel at a developer’s
conference in San Francisco and which could well pick IFA to launch the
product.

Analysts at Gartner are expecting up to 40 million
smartwatches to be sold this year, a massive jump from an estimated 5-6
million last year.

But they still make up only a fraction of the total product sales from the show.

‘Humans the missing link?’
Last
year, $5.3 billion (roughly Rs. 35,119 crores) worth of orders were placed at IFA – the last major
fair of the calendar year and therefore traditionally where many stores
place their orders for Christmas.

More than 1,500 exhibitors this
year will be seeking to top the 2014 orders level with their gadgets on
show over a floor space of 149,500 square metres, equivalent to 20
football pitches.

Unlike previous years, smartphone launches will
not be a big part of the show, given that most major brands including
Samsung have showcased their new products on other occasions.

DeRenesse
noted that among innovations that would be interesting to look out for
would be those in automobile, given Germany’s strength in the industry.

Analysts
are also looking keenly for any developments into another potential
growth area the interconnected home, where appliances can be switched
on and off from a distance, or where gadgets themselves can talk to
each other.

“IFA has been traditionally showing all types of
consumer electronics, and all these consumer electronics and household
appliances are now becoming connected. (…) That’s really the place of
the connected home,” said Annette Zimmermann, an analyst at Gartner.

Zimmerman believes that mission control for such a smarthome may be no other than the tiny smartwatch on one’s wrist.

But Karpersky Lab has another more radical vision with a live implantation of a chip in a human.

Experts
from the anti-virus software maker are also due to discuss how “if all
things are now connected, the only missing link is the connection to us
humans”.