At the IFA Kick-Off in July, Mario Winter, Vice President Marketing, Samsung Electronics GmbH, strongly emphasised the importance of health awareness for the industry and detailed how Samsung is tapping into the potential of this burgeoning sector

Health awareness is a growing topic, demonstrated by the fact that 20 million Germans consider health to be “very important” according to a study Mr Winter presented, while around 18.3 million use health apps. An important trend within this context is longevity – people want to live longer and are looking into three main areas in their efforts to do so: sleep, nutrition and movement.

Enter the Samsung Health International app, currently used by 66 million people and available in 65 languages. This app is used for a range of connected devices and monitoring purposes, the top five features being health home, step counting, sleep, training & activity and pulse.

Mr Winter highlighted the great potential for growth in the health awareness sector, citing over 27% growth for smartwatches. Samsung currently has 24% of the wearables market share in Germany, and forecasts for the international market volume in this sector reach 186 billion dollars (roughly 172 billion euros).

Prevention goes hand in hand with concerns of longevity, and Samsung’s vision for the future of health awareness centres around empowering users to reach a healthier lifestyle through modern sensor technology, personalised health data, simple tips that can be implemented etc. The notion is one of overall health support that’s simple to use and integrates seamlessly into users’ lifestyles. Mr Winter underlined the necessity of a comprehensive solution able to integrate with partners, with Samsung providing an open system that allows users to bring together data from sleep, nutrition, fitness etc. in order to have a better overall picture of their individual health. He cited the example of partnerships with intelligent mattresses for sleep data.

AI is playing an increasingly important role across the industry, and digital health solutions are no exception. Samsung is introducing new Samsung Health AI which Mr Winter assured would be a “complete game changer” crossing categories, connecting everything from home appliance such as fridges to wearables to Samsung Food, smartphones, health and medical equipment, and Galaxy AI functions. As AI moves into the home, Samsung is aiming to provide a holistic platform for the future with elements such as intelligent performance analysis for training, Booster Cards to motivate healthy lifestyle choices and My Vitality Score for personalised tips.

There is a lot of anticipation surrounding Samsung’s Galaxy Ring, a key element in Samsung’s overall health strategy. The product will help users achieve a seamless, individual experience, and visitors to IFA can discover more about the exciting innovation on Samsung’s stand at the show.

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AI for all: Samsung’s vision at IFA 2024

IFA International caught up with Mario Winter following his keynote at the IFA Kick-Off to discuss the brand’s priorities for IFA this year and what visitors to the show can expect to experience.

What are your main priorities for IFA this year?
Samsung is focusing a lot on AI and integrating artificial intelligence for all products. We are not talking about just a single category, but we are seeing AI across the board. We want to demonstrate how this is all connected together. Last year we were focusing more on AI coming from the smart home itself. The smart home is still a topic, but under the smart home, we have AI for all. The major question is, how can AI help support my life?

What innovations can visitors look forward to?
There’s a big focus on the new products we launched recently which will be showcased at the show, and visitors can discover how they include the latest AI software. But across product categories, we will be showing how AI is beneficial for the consumer’s life. That is the most important thing and not just from a hardware perspective, but we are looking into the whole ecosystem. We want to move away from listing the features of different products and show how this ecosystem network is working closely together.

CityCube Berlin Stand 101

Photos: © Viktor Strasse