The Engadget Expand shows embrace new technology and trends and the latest show was held in New York city. The event is free to the public and attracts roughly 10,000 visitors in the two days it is open. However, the audience is mainly ordinary consumers with very few professionals attending.
Engadget stated that it is focusing more on the consumer experience with new technology rather than the pure specifications. With its focus on emerging technologies, the talks center around what Engadget feels are important trends. At the New York show, the talks covered wearable devices, robotics, Internet of Things, wireless charging and other mobile devices. These trends were not entirely reflected by the exhibitors.
In general, exhibitors at the show are mostly entrepreneurs and small businesses that wanted to demonstrate and sell their products, though there were some larger companies involved as well, with Toyota demonstrating its 2015 Prius plug-in hybrid car. Also Lego, Corning, Huawei, Geek Squad and IndieGoGo were there to mention the most well known names.
One aspect Engadget was pushing is how technology influences and forms society. When it talked about wearables, one application was clothing containing LEDs. Since these are not day-to-day items sold locally, one talk focused on the trend to create such clothing as a DIY project. A similar trend was described by Lego Mindstorm, creating useful machines from toys. The company even had a competition about the most useful toy one could create with Lego Mindstorm. This is more about how people interact with technology rather than what phone they are going to buy, which is an interesting concept.
For most of the products on show, display technology was either non-existent or was a technology which is just used. A display has to provide the visual feedback expected by the consumer, but it does not make any difference for the developers of these gadgets if the display is IGZO LCD or an AMOLED. Technical specifications do not translate into a great marketing message on this level. This may also be true for many other markets where in the past the terms TFT LCD and high resolution were the main marketing message. – Norbert Hildebrand
Display Daily Comments
We may be facing an important trend change in how to sell technology to the consumer. Instead of claiming pixel counts and technology details, we have to tell the consumer how he is benefiting from AMOLED displays. A trend that will take some getting used to by many marketers in the CE world.
The show is not a new technology show like CES, as a matter of fact most shown products would never be seen at CES, as these small companies do not have the budget or planing horizon to exhibit there.
Some of the exhibitors showed display-centric products that will be covered in a separate article. (NH)
