The Gadget Show Live, April 2013: Technology in the UK
by Ian Cutress on April 4, 2013 6:30 AM EST- Posted in
- Trade Shows
- UK
- Gadget Show
While AnandTech is predominantly a website catering to the US crowd, not everything that gets released ends up in the rest of the world – China and North America are normally locations 1 and 2 on the list of ‘where do we ship our product to’. I come from the UK, which is somewhere in the middle between a US release and a never release. For example we do not get Rosewill here, and no matter how much I look at the Vizio Thin + Light as a possible laptop upgrade, I will have to import one (with 20% import tax) or buy it when I am next over there.
The EU market, compared to most, deals with a lot of different problems than selling in the US, and while the Eurozone as a concept should make it easier, the UK is one of the non-Euro currency countries, which makes it harder. On top of this, we also have our own home grown talent – companies and entrepreneurs that want to invest, market, or find distribution channels. In some eyes, CeBIT is becoming more of a distribution network than any actual new hardware release announcements, but it is this type of local event that occurs all around the world.
On Tuesday I went to an event hosted by one of the UK’s over the air television shows, The Gadget Show. For our non-UK audience, the Gadget Show is not an enthusiast based technology broadcast – it deals with lots of different technology, showcasing some of the big names as well as home grown devices, and their application to the real world. The Gadget Show Live is an extension of this, for companies and entrepreneurs to showcase their wares to first the professional crowd (investors, resellers and media), and then the general public over a multi-day event. The location for this is the NEC in Birmingham, a well known location for this sort of trade (+public) show.
Most of what the big names in the tech industry are selling here are not new – they have been announced globally and nothing from them is that surprising, except how long it has taken for a product to get to the UK. Much like some films, it might be sold in the US or Asia up to 6 months before here and often the UK firms have EU offices that distribute the EU allocation based on markets. It is all very complex stuff, even in our modern age of internet sales.
But the local business or entrepreneurs trying to get investors, put their name onto the scene, show off their wares and perhaps have something interesting up their sleeve is what I went to see. While there was *a lot* of junk at the event itself (like automatic cat litter trays or energy drink promotions), a few items piqued my interest from both a technology and a reality point of view.
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hrrmph - Sunday, April 7, 2013 - link
Ahh yes, but Amazon.co.uk has had the Netgear D6300 WiFi-ac Router / ADSL Modem for 6 months or so. Currently at a mere £170 ($270).Amazon.com in the US only just got that listed and only in the Amazon Market Place from 2 third-party sellers. The French seller only wants $410, while the Irish seller wants $450.
I had to import my Blackberry Z10 from Canada; my Samsung Galaxy Note 2 from Dubai, and my old Philips X523 Dual-SIM from China.
If you are a global thinker, the world is full of apparently "locked washrooms on the highway of life." They can be overcome, but, as you rightly pointed out, it will cost you.
Oh and a UK seller just last week refused to send to the USA some snorkeling gear that is otherwise out of stock elsewhere. Guess that one would cost a plane ticket and the old "ship to hotel room at LHR Terminal 5" trick or ship to friends house in Europe. Been there, done that, on both sides of the Pond.
Not picking on any one country here, but if you think globally, trade barriers are everywhere.
They exist from currency (why does pound sterling demand a 60% premium over the dollar?) to restricted shipping (already covered) to restricted availability (hey Hollywood, how about those DVDs that Obama gave to the Queen that couldn't be played in the UK) to lack of standardization (hate the big British electrical plugs and the whole American special "letter sized" paper thing is inefficient compared to the new world standard A4).
How about the ridiculously un-Spock-logical date format that the USA uses. Who puts the medium sized (medium granuled) units first, the finest units in the middle, and the coarsest ones at the end. We do!
Umm... didn't we lose an interplanetary mission because we Americans couldn't be bothered to switch to metric like the rest of the world. I think the chimps will be converted to metric before we do.
And, whats this quaint thing where Europe has a political union, but still cannot agree on a unified language to trade in. Arabs have a common formal language across 2 continents. Why cannot 'The Continent' do the same?
Driving on the left? I'm tired of switching my brain back and forth depending on who's territory it happens to be in. The right generally prevails worldwide. The left has lost. Let the former empire get over it and get its roads properly untwisted.
Are we solving the world's problems yet? The first step is admitting there is a problem.
Okay, that's enough for now. Maybe the kids can fix this irrational mess that we've been unable to. ;)
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IglooGaming - Tuesday, April 9, 2013 - link
Glad you enjoyed the dome. We are well aware of some of the issues and these will be ironed out in the next few months. We have some big collaborations lined and hopefully we can launch this very soon. The beauty is that we can take any game made for Trinity and play it immediately in the dome. Also we need to work on the control system, which we have in development. This will be much more accurate. If you want to know more please contact ian@igloovision.comDeviceSquad - Tuesday, November 5, 2013 - link
I went to the SadGit Show on Friday and it was more of the same tat, aside from maybe six items we highlighted on our Device Squad website.BrennaFullen - Thursday, July 4, 2019 - link
This is a very cool exhibition from the University of Cambridge, I think many students were interested in visiting it, you can also attend a dissertation writing service by clicking here , you will find all the necessary materials for writing dissertations, I think it will be interesting for you.