IFA organizers have taken another implied slap at CES,...
IFA organizers have taken another implied slap at CES, beckoning “industry insiders” who want a “four-month head start” on global new technology introductions to visit the Berlin show in early September. CES, produced by CEA, is four months later, in…
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early January. “Global players in the consumer electronics industry have shifted their focus to Europe, with over 500 million high-income consumers, and to IFA, which inspires trends and powers volume sales at the right time for year-end holiday sales,” organizers said last week. “In the European market, IFA excels as the world’s largest CE trade show. It’s the stage that companies use to reach global media and buyers -- and it is the venue that manufacturers and retailers leverage to introduce new technologies to the world.” For example, IFA organizers said, “the first 3D TVs were introduced at IFA 2009 -- again in September, again four months before rolling out to hype and hope to the rest of the world.” The first IFA was held in 1924, where “attendees marveled at early vacuum tubes and radio receivers,” organizers said. “Today, IFA is the largest consumer electronics trade show on the planet, with a long history of world premieres.” CEA President Gary Shapiro fired back with a statement Friday suggesting that IFA lacks “the global importance” of CES because it refuses to be audited and makes “bogus” claims about show attendance, exhibit space and world firsts. The European trade show body, UFI, “accredits shows which meet standards, including [through] an independent audit,” Shapiro said. “Almost every major European event is accredited by UFI. To my knowledge, IFA is not accredited in part because it refuses to be audited by UFI standards. Ironically, International CES is one of the few [non-European] events accredited by UFI! Just what are they hiding?” Shapiro also urged his IFA counterparts to “be honest in comparisons.” Calling one’s show the world’s largest CE trade event “should mean you have the most trade attendees or exhibit space,” he said. “CES 2010 released an independent audit of 126k attendees. More, we count these attendees only one time -- not every day they come. IFA is the biggest consumer electronics show if ‘consumer’ describes their attendee rather than modifies ‘electronics.’ And we certainly have more exhibit space -- even ignoring how they double- or triple-count the footprint of space. Maybe they claim this because they add hall aisle space.” Shapiro also wants IFA to “be honest in your claims of firsts,” he said. “Funny how 3D was shown at 2009 CES yet they claim it was introduced at their show nine months later. Lots of other bogus claims, as we can’t both have the worldwide premiere of so many of the same products! But yes, they can have credit for the radio at their show in the 1920s.”