Innovation is Coming Home!

IoT and the connected home have yet to become a reality for most but at IFA 2018 appliance maker Beko led the way

IFA this year was much like previous years, hundreds of companies screaming from the rooftops about minimally iterative products. A few more pixels, a bit bigger screen, a bit faster processor and everything a bit thinner, oh and crap Robots. I love tech and love my gadgets and can geek out with the best of them but I attended IFA this time looking for more meaningful innovation than a bit better camera on an $800 smartphone. I am happy to report that I found it, but not where you might expect.

A decade ago the invention of the smartphone changed our lives but truly new products like this are few and far between, so every year companies try to reinvent what we already have through minor upgrades and tweaks. We are stuck in a loop where the market is slowly evolving but no real innovation is going on, and the largest companies in the world are all guilty of this lack of effort to progress, so we must start looking off the beaten track for those hat are truly working to innovate.