Top trends at Berlin's IFA tech fair

Berlin

EUROPE'S biggest tech fair, Berlin's IFA, opens its doors on Friday with a flood of new product launches.

Here are some of the top trends making waves along the aisles: Future TV: higher resolution, bigger screens - With four times as many pixels as today's 4K ultra-high-definition (UHD) screens, the latest 8K TV sets have the potential to wow - but the first compatible content will only reach viewers in 2020 with the Japan Winter Olympics.

In the meantime, Europeans are buying bigger and bigger TVs, hitting an average of 50 inches last year.

And wireless or wifi connectivity is moving from the "nice-to-have" to the "must-have" column, with many sets offering on-demand video that users can launch via voice command.

And as listeners increasingly opt for smaller earbuds for everyday use, headsets are evolving to fit new niches - like integration in soft neckbands that won't bother users as they drift off to sleep while bingeing on podcasts.

For shared sounds, TV-connected sound bars or multi-room speaker set-ups sport fewer and fewer buttons as voice commands become the control scheme of choice.

High dynamic range (HDR) monitors increasingly offer gamers and other power users more true-to-life images on their desktop computers, while "convertible" PCs - useable as either laptop or tablet - are increasingly popular for travel.

As for "classic" tablets, sales fell some 18 per cent last year according to IFA organisers.

But authorities in some countries are leery of such developments.

Last November, Germany banned a smartwatch aimed at children that allowed parents to remotely activate a microphone to listen in on the playground.

Elsewhere in the home, cordless vacuum cleaners are gaining ground, making up some 40 per cent of global sales of small home appliances.

Devices from dishwashers to lightbulbs can be networked and controlled remotely by voice commands.

And global demand for air purifiers is rising, stoked by health-conscious Chinese consumers worried about pollution in the country's smog-choked cities.

"Consumers will rush to buy once there's great content to enjoy, while content production is slow as long as consumers are not buying in large numbers," he lamented. That hasn't discouraged Taiwan's Acer from launching a standalone gaming headset in Berlin this year. AFP