Hi-Fi Garden Chair Among Highlights at Berlin Show
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By Philip Blenkinsop
BERLIN (Reuters) - A hi-fi garden chair and vibrating headphones will jostle for attention with products from over 1,000 exhibitors at Europe's largest consumer electronics fair which opens on Friday.
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Faint flickers of recovery in Europe have given manufacturers hope after over two years of stagnation amid encouraging signs that devices launched at the last biennial IFA fair are gaining mass market acceptance.
Organizers are hailing 2003 as the year of the flat screen television as manufacturers showcase their latest LCD and plasma sets. DVD recorders, which made initial appearances at the fair in 2001, have also become more mainstream.
Hard disc recorders, seen as the video recorders of the future, and digital interactive televisions will also show the industry's pressure to embrace the new and ditch the old.
Hardware apart, consumer electronics firms are also pushing interconnectivity, linking home devices to each other often without wires as well as to the outside world with a broadband Internet connection.
Manufacturers hope consumers will be excited by the chance to use the TV to view holiday snaps taken on their digital cameras or to shut their windows with the television's remote control.
Philips Electronics, Europe's top and world number three consumer electronics maker, announced on Wednesday it had joined forces with four major European telecoms operators to launch products which can be hooked up to the Internet.
Sony Germany chief Leopold Bonengl said on Thursday broadband DSL subscribers would surpass four million in Germany alone this year. The Japanese electronics giant said it would launch a home network receiver in Europe this autumn, connecting existing hi-fis and TVs to other devices such as the PC.
Offerings designed to tempt early adopters include a pocket-sized video recorder, a car radio that also records and a cycling jacket that provides navigational guidance while warming the kidneys.
The vibrating headphones are designed for use by players of video games to make them feel more involved.
Meanwhile, one German company is premiering a remote control unit with buttons more clearly labeled, such as "loud" and "quiet," which it believes will appeal to older consumers.
For visitors with deep pockets and a discerning ear, the main draw may be a hi-fi system, claimed to be the world's most expensive and valued at around a million euros.
While IFA 2003 boasts a record 1,007 exhibitors, cost-saving has forced organizers to cut the fair to seven days from the normal 10, a move likely to depress visitor numbers which reached 370,000 last year.
If they are a reflection of the general population, they will arrive in a mixed mood.
Recent improvements in business sentiment within the euro zone have not translated into increased consumer confidence. Retail sales have also been sluggish.
European Union (news - web sites) retail sales slipped in May, figures released earlier this month showed, by 0.7 percent from April, although they were up 0.9 percent year-on-year. (Additional reporting by Lucas van Grinsven)
