What to see at IFA: Android Wear, laptops, connected home, start-ups

BERLIN — Tech enthusiasts in the U.S. are familiar with the Consumer Electronics Show, the mammoth industry confab that takes place in Las Vegas every January.

But the IFA trade show here this week (Sept. 4-9) is a kind of European precursor to CES. While not as big or well known, it's actually a 91-year-old event with more than 1,645 exhibitors that takes place at a venue the size of about 21 soccer fields. IFA expects 140,000 visitors associated with the tech industry, plus 95,000 consumers. And IFA claims at least one chief advantage over CES — timing.

"Whereas at CES products are introduced in January that don't ship until late summer or the fall, there's an awful lot of innovation here that's timed to a holiday season that starts a few weeks from now instead of nine months away," says tech analyst Richard Doherty of Envisioneering.

He adds that "more and more products are being introduced right here this week for Europe, the Americas and for Asia,"

Samsung Electronics got the jump on IFA by pre-announcing the circular new Gear S2 smartwatch that it's showing off this week. It will be interesting to see if Samsung can deliver a watch that's reasonably fashionable and  functional. The rotating watch runs Samsung's Tizen operating system.

The latest Android Wear watches are going to be clocking in all over IFA, with fresh models expected from LG, Huawei, Acer, Motorola (Lenovo) and Asus. Android Wear got its own major boost this week, at least potentially, thanks to Google's new iOS app that brings Android Wear compatibility to the iPhone, starting with an LG Watch Urbane model.

Shifting gears, Intel on Wednesday spelled out the details for Skylake, the chip maker's code name for the 6th-generation processors that will presumably be at the core of at least some of the new Windows 10 laptops that should also make their way onto the show floor. Such chips are faster, more efficient and represent Intel's latest chance to help restore some luster to its longtime Wintel alliance with Microsoft, and help improve the outlook for traditional PCs in a world that has gone the way of mobile.

IFA is not a phone-centric event, but you'll certainly see some new handsets. Sony, which has struggled to gain major traction in the marketplace, is expected to bring out a new Xperia smartphone called the Z5, the first with a 4K display.

But Microsoft, despite its push to further evangelize Windows 10, is not expected to launch its new Windows 10-based Lumia flagship smartphones at IFA.

Acer announced six new Liquid Smartphones, two of which run Windows 10 and the others Android 5.. But only two unlocked Android phones, the Liquid Jade Z and the 4.5-inch Liquid Z410, are coming to the U.S.

Details are still sketchy on another new Acer phone, shown at IFA, the Predator 6. Acer is promoting this device as a handset for gaming. It has a 6-inch high-definition display and is at the very least curious. Of course, whether Acer can have any kind of major impact on the saturated mobile market is a major question — the brand is not associated with phones in the U.S.

For its part, Samsung used to launch its large-screen Note devices in Berlin, but chose instead to unleash its latest phablets weeks ago. So besides the new wearables, the South Korean company is concentrating on appliances and televisions,

Plenty of other categories will get love at the show: cameras, connected home appliances, the Internet of Things, TV, home audio.

For all the big-name tech companies attending, many of the folks behind IFA want to make Berlin itself a star of the festivities as a major draw for start-ups. Berlin Partner, which promotes economic development in the area, says that in 2014 Berlin start-ups attracted $2.2 billion in venture capital — the first time the city collected more loot than young entrepreneurs based in London.

I met with a few Berlin-based start-ups at an event hosted by Microsoft and plan to catch up with others in the coming days. One company, Senic, developed a wireless $199 hockey puck-shaped Bluetooth Low Energy universal controller for smart home devices called Nuimo that the company describes as a "Nest for the rest." The idea is that you won't have to turn to an app on your phone to turn on lights and other home controls. You can mount this puck to a wall or place it in or on furniture.The company faces stiff challenges of course, given all the competition in the space from much better known and well-funded companies.

A second product I saw called Luuv is a "camera stabilizer" for actioncams, smartphone cameras and compact digital cameras that promises to eliminate the shakes in your video. A GoPro was attached to this oddly shaped but interesting-looking contraption, which resembles a small punching bag. I don't see it as a mainstream product soon, but something that might appeal to serious action-oriented photographers. The cost is about 99 euros (approximately $111) on Kickstarter.

Jens Lapinski, managing director of the Techstars Berlin accelerator for start-ups, says people forget Berlin was a global tech entrepreneurship power in the 19th century "because the Nazis and Communists destroyed all that. That entrepreneurial tech DNA that Berlin used to have 100 years ago is still here," he says. "And what we're seeing now is that resurgence."

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