The South of Spain that touches the Atlantic ocean, the autonomous community of Andalusia, is known for its blue waters, sandy beaches and sweeping views of the Spanish countryside. This week, though, the region will be showing up frequently on your news feed because of, well, tech.
The 2019 edition of the IFA Global Press Conference, the annual showcase of what’s new in the tech world from some of the tech brands that will be showcasing their wares at the upcoming IFA trade show later in the year, is taking place in the South-Western resort municipality of Huelva, over 90 kilometres from Seville, the region’s capital.
This year, like in years past, we can expect a lot more of the same stuff – the numbers that excite us and give us a closer look at what’s been happening in the mobile world and even in areas where we have little focus on here at Android Kenya like the home appliances market – from analysts from GfK and IHS.
In addition to the usual numbers, there are product showcases and briefings on emerging trends based on the same.
The product showcases will be headlined by some the 2-day gathering’s partners like Sennheiser, Chinese TV makers Hisense, TCL and Skyworth as well as other brands that are also well known for more than their TVs and which have previously taken the IFA GPC stage to demo other products: Philips and Haier.
For Sennheiser, they are making a comeback after gracing the IFA Global Press Conference back in 2017, meaning that they probably have something new and fresh to show us. The last time they were here, they showed us the $300 AMBEO Smart headset which capture 3D video sound. Unfortunately, it remains only compatible with iOS despite an earlier promise to bring it to the Android side of life where, given the constant complaints about the quality of sound we get on our little droids, it would be of much help.
We can expect similar new reveals from Philips and Haier.
Hisense made a splurge last year at the event with their TVs since they were sponsors of the then-upcoming World Cup so we are crossing our fingers to see what the company has in store for us this year. Maybe we’ll get to see those ULED TVs it is pushing this year? LG may not be here this time round with their 8K TVs but other competitors in the TV space (Skyworth, TCL et al) will surely be keen to impress.
Away from the big brands we may already be familiar with, IFA GPC has always been a platform for us to meet some up and coming brands or brands that were previously unknown to us. This year, we are keeping our eyes on Safera, a Finnish smart cooking company which claims to have “manufactured the world’s most intelligent stove guards since 2007”. One can only hope the same tech can be used to cook Android updates faster, no?
