中国应当用“节俭式创新”打造自己的CES

我们要到什么时候才会在中国看到像是CES那样的大型商展？我指的是那种可能在深圳、上海或是北京举行的、真正的消费性电子产业盛会。 在中国十一长假的同时，日本最大的消费性电子展CEATEC如火如荼举行；在这样的展会上，通常会有许多没有标价或是上市时程的“原型(prototype)”产品。这场大会的主角──日本消费性电子厂商──每年此时纷纷从实验室带着可运作的原型赶往会场。 其主要原因有三：一是获得媒体的关注，二是让消费者惊艳、同时打响品牌知名度，第三则是宣示日本在全球消费性电子产业的领导地位。日本的科技产业社群希望能透过展示最先进的消费性电子技术，让客户了解他们的想法。 日本的消费性电子厂商依赖像CEATEC这样的大会展示新产品；在产业不景气时，日本厂商也会利用展会来提升员工士气，并重新建立自信。而当笔者观赏CEATEC上众多热门产品时，一个问题突然 浮现脑海：“我们何时可以在中国看到像CEATEC或 CES 这样的展会？” 在此我们不讨论台北国际计算机展(Computex)，而是可能在深圳、上海或北京举行的大规模消费性电子盛会。而事实上，包括 TCL、海尔(Haier)、康佳(Konka)、海信(HiSense)等等中国消费性电子大品牌，都曾经在美国举行的CES高调现身。

2012年CES展会上的TCL摊位
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如果中国确实在全球电子产业链上逐渐往“设计者”(相对于仅做为消费性电子产品的消费者或制造商)的位置移动，那么中国拥有自己的世界及消费性电子展会只是时间问题。这是不可避免的，就像战后的Sony在1966年由晶体管供货商转型为Trinitron电视的设计者。 在今年的CEATEC展会上，“智能连接(Smart connectivity)”是一个大趋势，你很难不注意到那些稀奇古怪的原型产品，例如丰田(Toyota)的“智能昆虫”电动车，或是NTT Docomo看来像一副眼镜的“免提影像电话”。无论如何，其基调是寻找一种有效的方法将各种装置、家电与其它装置或服务连接。（请点击这里查看详细报道《[图文报道] 在日本CEATEC上畅想智能连接的未来》） 本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载 本文下一页：“节俭式创新”最适合中国厂商们

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• [图文报道] 在日本CEATEC上畅想智能连接的未来
• 电动车惊艳亮相巴黎车展，可再生能源或成欧洲希望曙光
• 聚焦环球资源香港秋季电子展，四核国产平板抢先发布afMesmc

{pagination} 值得注意的是，丰田的“智能昆虫”并不定调为汽车，而是被宣传为一个“平台”、甚至是智能手机的“配件(accessory”──强调这种车辆与各种家庭相关信息的连接。 这反映了我们看到NFC、蓝牙等技术更广泛运用于连网家庭/家电的趋势，而中国消费性电子厂商与无晶圆厂业者，则可利用“节俭式创新(frugal innovation)”的方式，让智能连接无所不在、而且具成本效益。 何谓“节俭式创新”？一个例子是日本嵌入式软件开发商Gaia在CEATEC所展示的智能连接方案；该方案并非重新设计整套设备，而是藉由开发一种小型化、低成本的M2M无线模块，可嵌入到现有家电中并与智能手机连接。 该无线模块所收集到的原始数据会经由云端传送至消费者的智能手机，做进一步的数据处理。Gaia的产品让我联想到曾经在中国看到的Android平台HDMI (USB)转接棒，只要将这种转接棒插到一般的平面电视，就可将其变身为智能连网电视。 我预期有一天，中国消费性电子厂商们将会在一个“中国CES”展会上让世界惊艳，该展会不一定要像美国CES那般华丽或是呈现各种崭新产品，而是有许多依据“简约式创新”原则设计的直观产品，让人一看就会忍不住说：“为何我们没想到这样做？” 编译：Judith Cheng 本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载 参考英文原文Yoshida in China: Awaiting a Chinese CES, by Junko Yoshida

相关阅读：
• [图文报道] 在日本CEATEC上畅想智能连接的未来
• 电动车惊艳亮相巴黎车展，可再生能源或成欧洲希望曙光
• 聚焦环球资源香港秋季电子展，四核国产平板抢先发布afMesmc

{pagination} Yoshida in China: Awaiting a Chinese CES Junko Yoshida When will we see a big trade show like CES in China? We're talking about a real consumer electronics extravaganza in Shenzhen, Shanghai or Beijing. While China has been enjoying extended national holidays this week, the Japanese electronics industry has been fully engaged at CEATEC, its largest consumer electronics show. An event like CEATEC often produces many "prototype" products without a price tag or launch date. Japanese consumer electronics manufacturers, masters of this game, trot out working prototypes from their labs each year during the show. This is done for three reasons: media attention, to wow consumers along with boosting brand awareness and, finally, pitching Japan as a leader of the global consumer electronics industry. Japan’s engineering community wants customers to know what it is thinking by showing off the CE state of the art. Japanese CE companies depend on shows like CEATEC to showcase new products. In the midst of an industry slump, Japanese companies also use trade shows to boost employee morale and to restore industry mojo. While reading about some hot products at CEATEC, though, one question suddenly popped into my head: When will we see a big consumer electronics trade show like CEATEC or CES in China? We're not talking about Computex in Taipei but rather full-blown consumer electronics extravaganza in either Shenzhen, Shanghai or Beijing. Big-name Chinese consumer brands like TCL, Haier, Konka, HiSense and others already have a big presence in Las Vegas at the Consumer Electronics Show – the mother of all CE shows. TCL's booth at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show If China is truly moving up the electronics food chain to become a “designer” of technology (as opposed to merely a consumer or manufacturer), it's only a matter of time before China organizes its own world-class consumer electronics show. It's inevitable, just as post-war Sony transformed itself from a transistor company to the designer of Trinitron TV in 1966. 'Frugal innovation' "Smart connectivity" was a major trend at this year's CEATEC. You can’t but help notice whacky prototypes like Toyota’s "Insect" EV or NTT Docomo’s video phone designed to be worn like a pair of glasses. Still, the underlying theme is finding an efficient way to connect a device or appliance to other devices or to services. Notably, Toyota’s Insect wasn’t pitched as a car. Instead, Toyota touted it as a “platform” -- or even “an accessory” to smartphones -- to connect the car with information scatter around the home. All this illustrates how we are seeing near-field communications and Bluetooth used widely in connected homes and appliances. This stars are now aligned for Chinese consumer electronics vendors and fabless companies to leverage "frugal innovation" as a way to make smart connectivity ubiquitous and cost effective. Look no further for an example than Japanese embedded software developer Gaia, which demonstrated at CEATEC a way to unlock smart connectivity: not by re-designing a whole appliance, but by coming up with a small, low-cost M2M wireless module. The device can can be embedded into an appliance and connected to a smartphone. Raw data then travels via the cloud to the user’s smartphone for further data processing. Pondering Gaia’s M2M wireless module, I recalled an Android-based HDMI (or USB) stick I’ve seen in China. Plugging the stick into a regular flat panel TV transforms it into a smart, connected TV. Both are examples of frugal innovation: They strive to deliver more value to customers at less cost. Shanghai-based ApexOne recently demonstrated a device it calls muPad; Nufront (Beijing) and other China’s SoC companies are also furiously working on a similar HDMI stick designed to turn a regular TV into a streaming TV. Aside from Roku in the U.S., which reportedly has a similar product, we have yet to see similar products entering the global market. But rest assured they are coming. I anticipate the day when Chinese consumer electronics companies will "wow" the rest of the world us at “CES China." It won't necessarily have Las Vegas glitz, and shiny new appliances. Instead, the show floor is likely to be full of intuitive products based on frugal innovation. We'll look at them and say, “Why didn’t we think of that?”