It's that time of year again...
By the time you read this Riyad, Andy and I shall be jetting across to Berlin for this year’s IFA event. Officially it won’t start until 29 August, but we’ll be there early bringing you all the news during the show’s professionals only day on the 28th. So what can we expect?
In a word I’d say: refinement.
While previous years have seen the showcasing of new standards and revolutionary new technology this time around I suspect we’ll be primarily looking at how manufacturers will be refining many of the exciting standards already out there so that they can finally reach the public en-mass. 
Blu-ray for example, should benefit this year from the end of the format war and witness its first truly affordable players, ditto laptop and desktop SSDs while the burgeoning budget subnotebook sector will be looking to push the envelope once again as manufacturers hunt down Asus’ dominant position.
A large number of consumer mobile phones will naturally still be after the you-know-what made by you-know-whom too while ever more powerful (and hopefully usable) smartphones, camera phones and fashion phones should be doing the rounds. Both LCD and plasma will be going for it to prove you don’t need OLED which will debut in greater volume and sizes in 2009. And expect big things from GPS makers as they battle to preserve the market for standalone devices.
Of course, none of this is to say new technologies won’t be there: OLED will be looking to cause a major bang with larger panel sizes, there is likely to be increased talk of cloud computing and WiMAX and projectors will no doubt be making a big push for our attention as the Home Cinema market really begins to take off.
To fulfil your every desire we’ll be sitting in on the major press conferences from Panasonic, Sony, TomTom, the Blu-ray Disc Association, Toshiba, Sonos, Dolby, Samsung, Philips, LG and Logitech for starters as well as bringing you the hottest news from around the show floor – all 30 Halls of it.
So if you’ll excuse us, we’ll get back to exercising our typing fingers and packing our comfiest shoes. I suggest you guys gather a healthy supply of eye drops…
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
