While the science fueling the latest gadgets at the just-wrapped Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas kept tech-enthusiasts enthralled, new designs were also turning heads. Industrial designer Yves Behar — the founder of fuseproject and the designer of GE’s new EV charger WattStation – stopped by GE’s booth at CES and noted that this year’s show is unique in that it marked the arrival of design and what he calls “sustainability thinking.”
As he says in the video talk below with GE’s Chief Marketing Officer Beth Comstock, “A few years ago, there was very little design at the Consumer Electronics Show. For consumer product producers and manufacturers, design was sort of an afterthought — sort of something on the sidelines.” He notes that now, everything is not only getting lighter, smaller and reducing its carbon footprint, but we are entering a “golden age of design work.”
Yves also talked to Beth about the importance of design when it comes to new technologies that consumers have yet to touch and feel, such as EV chargers like WattStation. Click here to view the video.
Also at CES, GE’s Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt joined a panel discussion on innovation with Ursula Burns of Xerox and John Chambers of Cisco. Among the points made by Burns was how the future of innovation will be products that are smaller, simpler to use and more integrated with work flow — and how critical it is, and will be, to have partners and collaboration. For Chambers, a key theme was how important is to listen to customers and have speed to market. Meanwhile, Immelt observed that more than anytime in GE’s history, R&D is driving more products at more price points.
Season of innovation: You can watch a clip of Immelt on the panel by clicking here. To hear him discuss the next phase of the $200 million ecomagination Challenge, which centers on powering the home, click here.
* See a video in which Beth Comstock gives an overview of GE’s booth at CES
* Hear Beth’s remarks about the next phase of the ecomagination Challenge
* See Gizmodo’s “best of show” products and concepts
* Read our CES coverage on GE Reports
