Connected home: When the coffee boils iPad – Handelsblatt

Berlin “Do you want him more strongly and with a little water?” Asks Bernd Laudahn while having a wiping motion on the iPad opens the menu. “Mild please, with a little water.” Laudahn draws two virtual controller, press OK, and the fully automatic starts at the end of the room to grind the coffee. Laudahn, responsible at Philips Consumer Lifestyle for the area in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, radiates: “That’s something, right?” His

Mag – but if you really need, the question arises , Laudahn was expecting it. “Sure, it looks at first glance like a gimmick. But I’m sure we thus meet the tastes of many customers, “he says, adding:” Cooking is in and a well-equipped kitchen is now a status symbol as once the car “

Anyway.. is the cross-linked via Bluetooth to the iPad coffee machine, Philips has recently introduced only at the IFA in Berlin, more than just a clever product. It symbolizes the new Philips. The Dutch electronics company with its still German-sounding name is in the process of reinventing itself.

Frans van Houten, since 2011 at the head of the company, will the traditional brand radically rebuilt. He is pursuing a different strategy than the rival General Electric and Siemens, which have largely passed from the consumer business. “We believe that it is possible to make everyday products sexy intelligent technologies,” says Laudahn. Networking plays a major role. “We work on the Internet of Things, like any other. But we begin where the user recognizes added value immediately, “says Laudahn. . A household appliance just hang out on the Internet, because it is possible – this is not the thing of Philips

experts such as Jürgen Morath, technology expert at the consulting and services firm Accenture, reaffirm this approach: “Smart Home does not mean that the refrigerator needs to communicate with the coffee maker. Opportunities exist only where the customer accepts a real value, “he says. “This can be a savings in terms of time or money or a gain in comfort.”

As for example in the new coffee maker. The device itself, which comes from the Philips-Saeco daughter, has more than 6,000 settings. The control all the buttons on the right small machines is tedious. The iPad and the app right here create the necessary comfort – and they do offer useful features

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