During the presentation of IFA 2017 held yesterday in Lisbon, the management underlined what the role of the Berlin trade fair should be: to accelerate growth and innovation in consumer electronics. And to facilitate this strategy, this year IFA will expand the space dedicated to all brands and has created, with IFA NEXT, a space for the innovative startups. In addition, a specific site has been structured for component manufacturers within IFA Global Markets. Considering also that the markets and the technologies of household appliances and consumer electronics are increasingly converging and interconnected, with this edition IFA celebrates the 10th edition of Home Appliances @ IFA. «Our fair continues to be the leading platform for both the market segments: no one else can meet all the needs of industry, retailers, consumers and media representatives. The constant success of the event is reflected in a steady increasing volume of orders – more than 4.7 billion dollar during IFA 2016» – said Hans-Joachim Kamp, chairman of the supervisory board of gfu.
Jürgen Boyny, global director of consumer electronics GfK, continued: «Turnover in the digital market remains high (nearly 950 billion dollar in the total annual sales) and we expect a constant feedback both in 2017 and 2018. At home as in the street, smartphone is shaping the progress of the market by linking all areas of everyday life, from TV in the living room to the washing machine, up to the coffee makers.»
Even stronger was the speech of Christian Göke, CEO of Messe Berlin: «We think it’s time to redefine the boundaries between consumer electronics and household appliances because digital and physical worlds seem to be out of focus. Whether you are in the kitchen, in the living room or in the office, the use of devices grows exponentially. And I mean talking about entertainment, healthcare, gaming, wellness, mobility, the Internet of Things, Smart Home, up to the virtual reality and drones. Today, consumer electronics connects and creates everything. Coming to IFA you will see how we live and work on the future.»
