The 50th IFA is set to be the biggest and successful event to date, says Messe Berlin. That’s also echoed by the organiser of the official Reseller Park at IFA, Jan Nintemann, MD of Global Fairs TT.

His turnkey trade-only platform now covers 1600 sq. metres of floor space, hosting 40 exhibitors plus some exclusive brands.

The Reseller Park has its own entrance to the trade fair grounds and will be in Hall 9 for the third straight year. Hall 9 features the mobile technology at IFA and has proved to be a big draw for resellers of all types (mass merchants, mobile specialists, and of course even the PC dealers that race to reflect the shift to smartphones, mobile devices and mobile accessories).

Originally the Reseller Park started to help PC vendors find the convergence with CE dealers. Nowadays, Nintemann is especially pleased Sony Ericsson has chosen the Reseller Park platform along with other big mobile names in Halle 9: Brightpoint, MobileWorld Distribution (Phonehouse), ENO Telecom, Avenir Telecom, Komsa, Sagemcom to name a few.

Western Digital, Antec and others will exhibit in the Reseller Park as well companies such as Bandrige, Purelink and IT2U.

“All of these exhibitors have profited from the international contacts they have made at the Reseller Park. The Business Lounge is perfect place to make old and new business acquaintances,” says Nintemann.

Nintemann reckons three 3 factors which will come together to boost IFA 2010:

1. New technology – in TV and gadgets, of course. But, above all, in the mobile devices industry. Apple’s development in communications and entertainment has increased the pace of and now everyone wants to take advantage of the need for accessory products. This trend will be most evident in Hall 9.

2. Improving Economy – After two years of financial crisis, the drop in consumption has finally hit bottom and is bouncing back up. Market research shows – at least in Germany – increase growth and an improvement in the mood of consumers to buy.

3. Good timing –The IFA event takes advantage of the upcoming Christmas season and the above points 1 and 2. The upturn is coming and that's why you'll see some companies strating to acquire and initiate projects again. Everyone wants to catch a rising tide.

Dealers are invited to stop by this trade-only zone.

Last minute exhibitors can contact Jan to explore the available options to join in without fuss, the turnkey way.

Either way, don't miss this 50th edition of IFA in Berlin.

Go Turnkey Exhibiting at the official Reseller Park at IFA

According to GfK, the good news is that retail business is getting better this decade. The bad news is that the market is changing (again) and retailers will have to jump a new "Valley of Death" to prosper.

GfK's Dr. Rudi Aunkofer told delegates at RetailVision the global financial crisis created cautious retail behaviour, lower stock levels and much more retail/vendor driven price competition.

But besides the "crisis" (and we use quotation marks as the crisis really affected many other areas of business far deeper than consumer IT), there were underlying cycles that typically drive our IT business.

A study by GfK asked consumers across Europe in what ways were they saving day-to-day to cope with the financial crisis. Consumers named buying food and drink for less as their Number one strategy. Spending less on clothes and shoes came next. Going out to eat was number 3 and postponing larger purchases of furniture or car ranked the 4th most important way they were saving money in the recession. What is remarkable is that cutting back on high tech products did NOT make the Top 10 Ways We'll Cut Costs. Not at all.

Sure, sales of high tech dropped as economies dropped but we, as an industry, were not a direct target as consumers consider us a necessity (or at the very least a sacrosanct luxury).

More important to the state of our business are the underlying cycles that typically drive our IT business.

For example, the product-market cycle typified by a Windows 7 launch. Or the demand cycle shaped by buying cycles (around product longevity and technology-refresh by both consumers and business). And also the technology cycle (for example, the shift to cloud computing is typical in the sense that every 12-15 years we see a new paradigm in computing.)

All three of these cycles work in concert with economy like the way underlying currents affect an ocean battered by storms and weather: while unseen, they can be more powerful in effect than surface weather. You may be distracted by the impact of the immediate weather conditions, but nonetheless the currents are still at work. Aunkofer says without accusation that the market additionally suffers from a lack of innovation at the moment. Nothing like the heyday of new products, new technologies that we've seen pushing sales in the good ol' days.

In this beginning of a new decade, the market of 2010+ onwards is driven by a general upturn cycle…mainly from consumer interest in mobile computing, storage and peripherals.

It's clear to GfK (and now to you) that a bigger product assortment is needed to out-perform the overall market trend. The depth and breadth of your current product mix, plus diversification into new product areas (e.g., photo frames) and adding product innovations…will be your key to jumping over the Valley of Death.

This assortment will need to be visible (both online and on shelves) and actively managed to avoid distribution gaps and inventory gaps.

You will also have to structure your pricing into entry level and premium level tiers. Change doesn't stop there as the market is segmenting further. In monitors, larger is better, in photo frames you need the one "right" size that's popular, in mobile you can win with small or large and in peripherals it's not all about size at all, it's about ergonomic.

GfK is calling the next 10 years a "decade of opportunity." In the future, as GfK sees it, vendors will have to change their "product launch" to an "assortment launch" where they launch a set of products instead of a single top seller.

Go GfK Retail & Technology

Here are some of the most significant products and technologies from CES.

The order is random, and not intended to indicate any priority. The range of product at CES is wide-reaching so what may be game-changing for retailers selling mobile may be insignificant from the viewpoint of dealers focusing on PCs or TVs.

Intel’s WiDi: Consumers who wanted to connect laptops and PCs to their large plasma and LCD monitors typically needed either a direct video connection or the use of a media extender boxes (and only hoped to avoid a nasty time with limited functionality and file format incompatibilities).

Intel will change this with its new Wireless Display technology, known as WiD

Go WiDi

Sharp’s Quad Pixel: Sharp introduces...YELLOW. Yes, that’s right. By adding yellow as a 4^th colour to create a new RGB+Y technology for its Aquos LCD TVs, Sharp expects TV colours to be more natural and to reflect improved backlight .

Go QuadPixel

CEA says that about 130,000 attendees will show up, down 8% from last year…but more likely it will be even less. Nothing wrong with less if the quality of visitor is high. Count on around 2700 exhibitors, including at 300 first-time exhibitors, to be there (same total as last year) but the show is down 5% in size, (1.7 million square feet of exhibits). Some big companies like Sanyo, Cisco and Philips will not be exhibiting on the show floor. Lots of vendors opting for hotel suites. And some still shelling out for celebrity appearances, including Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder and Akon. DTV, OLED TV, 3D displays, and wireless HD video will be the buzz. Lenovo (shown here) shows their dual screen notebook, Dell plans to show Adamo (their Mac Airbook “killer”), Wii gets Video-on-Demand, Palm brings Nova (its new operating system), LG shows TV with direct IP connectivity and Samsung highlights ultra-thin 7mm displays… And what happens in Vegas won’t stay in Vegas this time! Go CES Still Rocks, says Bajarin