Rewarding the evolution of consumer technology

I can think of no better way to kick-start our Opinion pages than paraphrase a section from the ‘EISA 25 Years Book’ that, incidentally, is available for consultation and download through this website.

There’s an old joke among people who use computers in their everyday life: things change so quickly, that by the time you’ve bought your new PC, taken it home and removed it from the box, it’s already been replaced by a newer model. The consumer electronics market is not quite so extreme (at least not yet) but change is definitely in the air: new products, new technologies, new patterns and new trends are emerging at ever shorter intervals. And manufacturers constantly introduce new models that are faster, smarter, sleeker and quite simply better than those of previous generations.

Similarly, both features and software have evolved and converged at a pace. Nowadays it’s often quite difficult to say if features and content were developed to fit a certain category of products or if the products themselves were designed to accommodate the new features! All this makes the life of the consumer more and more difficult, as the choice of product is influenced not only by price and quality but also its core feature set and future ‘upgradeability’.

This is where the EISA Awards, with over 27 years of experience in the field, encompassing 19 European countries and contributions from 50 specialist multimedia magazines, assumes an invaluable importance. Products that earn an EISA Award are judged to have outstanding qualities by a jury formed of experts from a diverse range of European countries. Despite differences in language and culture, our agreement over each award suggests these products will be the right choice for Europe’s 300 million consumers!

On the 15th of August of every year, the decisions of the different EISA panels are finally revealed – it’s a date eagerly anticipated by a large proportion of the consumer electronics community. Please take this opportunity to explore the 2009-2010 EISA Awards and also look back at the winners from previous years. Your feedback is always welcome.

Jorge Gonçalves, President of EISA

Published on August 15th 2009