Exploring Home Appliance Innovations at This Year's IFA in Berlin: A Lookout for Ideas Similar to These Three Examples

IFA has always been a platform for innovation. Some are incremental, fine-tuning existing products (but marketed great innovation), while others are ground-breaking, introducing entirely new products and categories and truly advancing the home appliance industry. Not all innovations are immediately noticeable, and many have substantial improvements occurring “under the hood” e.g., enhanced process control or usage of new ground-breaking materials. All those innovations offer numerous benefits like improved resources conservation, prolonged longevity, or improved ease of use. In essence, IFA is the place where emerging trends in the industry can be spotted.

Considering the trends presented at the last year's IFA and this year's CES in Las Vegas, there are certain expectations from IFA this year. Here are three examples of recently showcased technologies, that we would be most interested to see if any of these - or similar ones - find their way into home appliances presentations at IFA.

Example 1: At this year's CES, a Canadian company showcased a transparent film that offers full protection against microwave radiation while maintaining up to 99% transparency. 

When microwave functionality is added to an oven, it is necessary to use perforated plate/wire mesh installed into the oven doors to ensure the reflection of the microwaves within the oven. Those, however, impacted visibility into the oven, that might not be a big issue for those who primarily use the appliance as a microwave-oven, but pose a problem for those who use the appliance as conventional oven and rely on visual control for food preparation i.e., determine the dish's readiness by its color. However, with this innovation, microwave functionality can be incorporated into conventional ovens without compromising visibility, thus reducing redundancy and the need for two separate appliances hence reducing the resource consumption, nut also freeing up kitchen space.

Example 2: Sometimes, innovation involves using an already widely implemented technology and adapting it to a new category of appliances. Heat pumps are a good example of technology that is commonly used in several appliances such as tumble dryers or refrigerators. Expanding this application to dishwashers offers the potential to increase dishwasher energy efficiency and enables the energy savings of up to 30 percent compared to existing technologies. Yet, companies offering dishwashers with heat pumps are scarce (and they do not present at IFA) while their annual output is marginal. It would be great to see more, even world leading brands adapting this type of technology and offering similar products.  

Example 3: A Dutch start-up encountered at CES this year introduced a sensor that has potential to significantly boost the functionality of various home appliances. The company engineered a Near-Infrared (NIR) sensor that can be manufactured by using semiconductor manufacturing technology, hence allowing a large-scale production at low cost. Sensor’s applications could enable a range of home appliances, such as washing machines or dishwashers to continuously monitoring the load by using the NIR spectroscopy (e.g., determining the type of soil by analysing the washing liquor) and adapting the process parameter based on the feedback. This could usher an increased efficiency by using a tailored process control, which in general is marking a significant stride towards more sustainable usage of the appliances.

These are just three examples of promising innovation that have the potential to advance home appliances. It will be great to see if any of these or other interesting ideas will be presented (e.g., as a final product or even just a prototype) at this year's IFA in Berlin.

For further insights on market trends, analytics and industry forecasts, book an analyst meeting onsite at IFA, Berlin 2023.

This article is the first in a series of analyst commentary about the home appliance industry and related topics which Omdia expects to see at this year's IFA, Berlin. Visit the Further Reading section to read the rest of the series.