The Times: Gadgets for Christmas
By David Rowan
Forget the video-messaging mobile phone and the plasma-screen television. This season's must-have gadgets are the family submarine and the £40,000 racing car with built-in games console.
The latest techno-toys, on display yesterday at the StuffLive 2003 exhibition at Olympia, West London, suggest that manufacturers have not relented in their constant pressure for us to upgrade our kit.
From a £299 pair of sunglasses that offer the wearer a private video show to the multimedia furniture kits that hold your cigar while you flick television channels, there is no shortage of Christmas ideas for the high-spending consumer.
Not all may wish to fork out £500,000 for the personal submarine marketed as an "underwater sports car" - but that has not stopped the consumer electronics industry from a splurge of new gadgets.
While much of Britain continues in its struggle to programme the video recorder, the neo-Luddites who fail to master the text message must now face yet more pressure, from spy cameras disguised as cigarette lighters to sound speakers that turn shop windows into "whispering" product displays.
One of the busiest stands was run by John Lewis, which was doing a brisk trade in iPod digital music players. The latest digital cameras were also selling well at the Casio stand. Retailers appeared to have learnt the lesson of the Innovations catalogue, which folded last spring after poor sales of such products as heated eyelash curlers, unlikely to appeal to today's younger, cash-rich consumer.
Ian Fogg, an analyst at Jupiter Research, said: "The pace of change is every bit as quick as during the boom years of 1998 to 2001, and our research shows that consumers are still prepared to spend money.
"As broadband internet penetration grows, it seems that we're laying a foundation that makes the digital lifestyle more pervasive."
No one knows how much we are spending on personal technology; the US Consumer Electronics Association estimates that Americans will spend £63 billion on gadgets this year, and analysts say that Britain is likely to spend "tens of billions" on DVD players, PDAs (digital personal organisers) and MP3 players. This is largely because the pace of innovation remains so great.
"It's a time of fast-moving technological advance," Mr Fogg said. "Ten years ago, a digital camera required a suitcase full of batteries and modems, and photos were of worse quality than those you'd get from a disposable camera. Today, the quality from a miniature digital camera is broadly comparable. We're expecting explosive growth."
According to Jupiter's research of regular internet users, a fifth of adults are planning to buy a digital video camera in the next year. Laptops are also attracting growing demand. Mr Fogg said: "As laptops have dropped in price, they have started doing lots of things people want from a home computer, from playing games to connecting to their camera. So in the UK, 14 per cent are thinking of buying a laptop in the next year."
James Beechinor-Collins, editor of the gadget magazine T3, said: "Who doesn't now have a DVD, a mobile phone, or a home PC? When T3 started seven years ago, we had to focus on loads of cool technology that would one day be here. Now the future has arrived, which means home cinemas that offer real cinema experience, and never again having to sit through someone's seven-hour wedding video, because they've edited it on their PC."
A BIG TOY FOR DAD
An underwater sports car
The Gemini personal submarine, from Subeo, a British company, claims to be the world's first underwater sports car. It will take a little persuasion to get your family to agree to trade up from the Mondeo - at £500,000, it will not leave much change for the congestion charge - but at least it has three seats. It is powered by lead-acid batteries and can accelerate to just four knots. Hold on to your chequebook for now, though: only if enough orders come in from the Middle East will it move from prototype to consumer product.
Cost: £500,000
SOME HELP FOR MUM
A robot vacuum cleaner
The Electrolux Trilobite is a small, red circular device that resembles a carrying case for old LP records. Set it free from its recharging station, and it will glide across the floor, scanning the carpet, and vacuum any dirt it finds. In a demonstration for The Times it seemed to miss a few dust spots, but maybe it was simply depressed at its own limitations. Like the Daleks in Doctor Who, the Trilobite cannot cope with stairs - and you'll recall how quickly the Daleks became extinct.
Cost: £999
TECHNO FOR A BOY
A vibrating sound lounger
With teenage boys spending unhealthy amounts of time either lying in bed, playing computer games or listening to loud music, here is a product that lets them do all three at once. The Pyramat interactive "sound lounger" is a portable mat with three built-in speakers that lets you lie down and "feel your audio" through 100-watt mid-range speakers. It also incorporates a "rumble seat" backrest that vibrates along with the music - which should particularly appeal to the adolescent male.
Cost: £100
GIFT FOR A GIRL
A mirror with built-in TV
The trouble with being a 14-year-old girl is that you must constantly monitor your appearance using the nearest mirror, while never actually missing any MTV. The mirror TV screen from Ad Notam offers the solution: a small television screen is integrated in the corner of a large mirror, which can then be hung on the bedroom wall. It's a bit pricey, but then no price can be put on a young lady's vanity.
Cost: £1,000
...AND GADGET FOR GRAN
A light-switch-in-a-plant-pot
What might be seen as the exhibition's most naff product was actually proving one of its bestsellers last night. The Plant-A-Lamp is a combination of wicker plant pot and ordinary household lamp that can be switched on simply by touching a leaf.
Keep holding the leaf and the lamp dims; touch it again and its switches itself off. It works by detecting a small electric charge carried from the hand to the leaf. And thousands of them have apparently been sold in the past year.
Cost: £29.95
(The Times, September 27 2003)
Forget the video-messaging mobile phone and the plasma-screen television. This season's must-have gadgets are the family submarine and the £40,000 racing car with built-in games console.
The latest techno-toys, on display yesterday at the StuffLive 2003 exhibition at Olympia, West London, suggest that manufacturers have not relented in their constant pressure for us to upgrade our kit.
From a £299 pair of sunglasses that offer the wearer a private video show to the multimedia furniture kits that hold your cigar while you flick television channels, there is no shortage of Christmas ideas for the high-spending consumer.
Not all may wish to fork out £500,000 for the personal submarine marketed as an "underwater sports car" - but that has not stopped the consumer electronics industry from a splurge of new gadgets.
While much of Britain continues in its struggle to programme the video recorder, the neo-Luddites who fail to master the text message must now face yet more pressure, from spy cameras disguised as cigarette lighters to sound speakers that turn shop windows into "whispering" product displays.
One of the busiest stands was run by John Lewis, which was doing a brisk trade in iPod digital music players. The latest digital cameras were also selling well at the Casio stand. Retailers appeared to have learnt the lesson of the Innovations catalogue, which folded last spring after poor sales of such products as heated eyelash curlers, unlikely to appeal to today's younger, cash-rich consumer.
Ian Fogg, an analyst at Jupiter Research, said: "The pace of change is every bit as quick as during the boom years of 1998 to 2001, and our research shows that consumers are still prepared to spend money.
"As broadband internet penetration grows, it seems that we're laying a foundation that makes the digital lifestyle more pervasive."
No one knows how much we are spending on personal technology; the US Consumer Electronics Association estimates that Americans will spend £63 billion on gadgets this year, and analysts say that Britain is likely to spend "tens of billions" on DVD players, PDAs (digital personal organisers) and MP3 players. This is largely because the pace of innovation remains so great.
"It's a time of fast-moving technological advance," Mr Fogg said. "Ten years ago, a digital camera required a suitcase full of batteries and modems, and photos were of worse quality than those you'd get from a disposable camera. Today, the quality from a miniature digital camera is broadly comparable. We're expecting explosive growth."
According to Jupiter's research of regular internet users, a fifth of adults are planning to buy a digital video camera in the next year. Laptops are also attracting growing demand. Mr Fogg said: "As laptops have dropped in price, they have started doing lots of things people want from a home computer, from playing games to connecting to their camera. So in the UK, 14 per cent are thinking of buying a laptop in the next year."
James Beechinor-Collins, editor of the gadget magazine T3, said: "Who doesn't now have a DVD, a mobile phone, or a home PC? When T3 started seven years ago, we had to focus on loads of cool technology that would one day be here. Now the future has arrived, which means home cinemas that offer real cinema experience, and never again having to sit through someone's seven-hour wedding video, because they've edited it on their PC."
A BIG TOY FOR DAD
An underwater sports car
The Gemini personal submarine, from Subeo, a British company, claims to be the world's first underwater sports car. It will take a little persuasion to get your family to agree to trade up from the Mondeo - at £500,000, it will not leave much change for the congestion charge - but at least it has three seats. It is powered by lead-acid batteries and can accelerate to just four knots. Hold on to your chequebook for now, though: only if enough orders come in from the Middle East will it move from prototype to consumer product.
Cost: £500,000
SOME HELP FOR MUM
A robot vacuum cleaner
The Electrolux Trilobite is a small, red circular device that resembles a carrying case for old LP records. Set it free from its recharging station, and it will glide across the floor, scanning the carpet, and vacuum any dirt it finds. In a demonstration for The Times it seemed to miss a few dust spots, but maybe it was simply depressed at its own limitations. Like the Daleks in Doctor Who, the Trilobite cannot cope with stairs - and you'll recall how quickly the Daleks became extinct.
Cost: £999
TECHNO FOR A BOY
A vibrating sound lounger
With teenage boys spending unhealthy amounts of time either lying in bed, playing computer games or listening to loud music, here is a product that lets them do all three at once. The Pyramat interactive "sound lounger" is a portable mat with three built-in speakers that lets you lie down and "feel your audio" through 100-watt mid-range speakers. It also incorporates a "rumble seat" backrest that vibrates along with the music - which should particularly appeal to the adolescent male.
Cost: £100
GIFT FOR A GIRL
A mirror with built-in TV
The trouble with being a 14-year-old girl is that you must constantly monitor your appearance using the nearest mirror, while never actually missing any MTV. The mirror TV screen from Ad Notam offers the solution: a small television screen is integrated in the corner of a large mirror, which can then be hung on the bedroom wall. It's a bit pricey, but then no price can be put on a young lady's vanity.
Cost: £1,000
...AND GADGET FOR GRAN
A light-switch-in-a-plant-pot
What might be seen as the exhibition's most naff product was actually proving one of its bestsellers last night. The Plant-A-Lamp is a combination of wicker plant pot and ordinary household lamp that can be switched on simply by touching a leaf.
Keep holding the leaf and the lamp dims; touch it again and its switches itself off. It works by detecting a small electric charge carried from the hand to the leaf. And thousands of them have apparently been sold in the past year.
Cost: £29.95
(The Times, September 27 2003)
<< Home