Major technological revolutions.

At the opening keynote for IFA 2018, Messe Berlin CEO, Dr Christian Goke welcomed attendees and addressed the current state of the industry.

“Welcome to IFA 2018 – the largest consumer electronics show in the world. IFA is more popular than ever with another record year by welcoming more than 1,800 exhibitors with a display area of 161,000 square metres,” he said.

“Despite our success, this year has not been an easy one for our industry. 2018 has been a year of disruption – political and economic with trade wars escalating. It is obvious that the disruption is a threat to all technology for consumer electronics and home appliances. Increased competition is also driving this disruption.

“The disruption is also technological with innovation bringing change like never before with many technology revolutions that will be bigger than the IT revolutions in the 1980s and 1990s and the mobile revolution over the past two decades. A few of the disruptors include 5G networks to deliver high speed connectivity, voice functionality – the next generation user interface – with growing innovation in smart speakers.

“Disruption is also coming to displace. Take OLED screens in the TV market; they used to be a sideshow and now they are taking centre stage. And then there is technology with the biggest potential for disruption – artificial intelligence (AI). Until a few years ago, consumers thought AI was very alien and abstract. Today it is entering our homes and mobile devices. It is becoming real and in just a few years, it will be the centre of consumer electronics.”