Gadgets galore

While Western industrial nations fight mounting debt, try to keep their currencies afloat and hold on for dear life amid market turmoil, there is at least one bright spot on the horizon. It features shiny touch screens and countless apps, high-definition pictures and super-fast Web connections.

The IFA consumer electronics fair opened to the public in Berlin on Friday, and industry experts say that despite general fears of a new economic recession, their sector is doing just fine.

In fact, Europe's biggest trade show for consumer electronics has expanded its fair area by 4 percent to 140,000 square meters as the number of exhibitors edged up over last year to 1,441.

According to Hans-Joachim Kamp of the gfu consumer electronics association, which organizes the fair, the industry is growing thanks to continued enthusiasm on the part of consumers for all things electronic.

"A recent poll asked Germans how they would change their buying behavior if the economic climate got worse," he told Deutsche Welle. "They said they would reduce their travel budgets and probably put less in their savings account, but they wouldn't cut back on consumer electronics."

Everyone's talking tablets

The buzz this year is around the tablet computer as manufacturers show off their latest designs, hoping to take a bite out of Apple and its iPad. Rivals Samsung and Sony are unveiling their new models this year in Berlin.

Apple has sold more than 29 million tablet computers since the iPad's launch in April 2010. While competitors using Google's Android operating system gained 20 percent of the market in their first year, no single company has emerged as a shooting star.

"Many vendors have introduced media tablets, but none are separating themselves from the pack to pose a serious threat to Apple," Jeff Orr of ABI Research told the dpa news agency.

PC manufacturer Hewlett-Packard unveiled its own iPad competitor, the TouchPad, in July. But just weeks later the US company cancelled the program after missing early sales targets. While some analysts have predicted that sales of tablets using Android, with their lower price points, could surpass those of the iPad by the end of next year, the wait was apparently too long for HP.

Flat sales for flat-screens

Looking at the hard numbers, the sector doesn't look quite so healthy despite the gfu's optimism. Although consumer electronics sales are expected to grow by 4 percent this year to around 27 billion euros, most of that increase will be driven by strong demand for smart phones and tablet computers.

Flat-screen TVs, once the work horse of the industry, aren't moving as fast as they did over the past two years. Kamp chalks that up to the fact that 2011 was devoid of the major sporting events that often move people to invest in new televisions.

While the introduction of full high-definition TV, or HDTV, initially boosted sales of flat-screen sets in Germany, the technology doesn't draw consumers into electronics stores the way it used to. Similarly, sales of 3D TV sets that were hyped as must-have products last year have been disappointing.

Intense competition in the sector has caused prices to fall considerably. A flat-screen television costs an average of 610 euros today, down 8 percent from last year.

"Still, we have more than 20 million old tube televisions in German households today," said Kamp. "We also have many people who will want to replace their first-generation flat-screens with today's models."

This year, manufacturers are hoping to boost TV sales with hybrid models, which feature high-speed Internet capability so viewers can watch cable and surf Facebook or YouTube on the same screen.

The smart fridge

The electronics sector is banking on healthy Christmas retail sales too. IFA Berlin is where retailers put in orders for the next few months, not only for entertainment wares, but for household appliances, which are also on display in Berlin.

The trends this year are: comfort, lifestyle and smart design. While those qualities are attractive, more consumers are also looking at things like sustainability and energy efficiency.

"In German households there are still 10 million refrigerators that are more than 10 years old," said Kamp. If those households could be convinced to replace those models with new energy-efficient ones, "we would save the same amount of electricity that the entire country of Portugal uses."

In the future, domestic appliances should be able to determine when electricity rates are cheapest, and then turn themselves on automatically to take advantage of the low tariffs.

But that could be a development that is an annoying as it is useful. People living in apartment buildings won't likely be too excited about their neighbor's washing machine cranking up the spin cycle at 3 a.m. – no matter how smart or thrifty it is.

Author: Sabine Kinkartz (jam)
Editor: Sam Edmonds