Perfect finale for COMPUTEX TAIPEI 2008 with exhibition size and number of buyers both achieving new heights

June 7, 2008, Taipei Computer Association.

COMPUTEX TAIPEI 2008, the second largest ICT exhibition in the world, ended on June 7th. It was the first time ever that 4 exhibition halls have been used in COMPUTEX TAIPEI, namely TWTC Hall 1, TWTC Hall 3, Taipei International Convention Center and the brand new Nangang Exhibition Hall. With this much capacity the scale of the exhibition has increased by 53 percent compared with last year. According to estimates made by the organizers, the total number of visitors this year, amounted to 106,517 people, within which 34,685 are overseas buyers, 5 percent more than last year's 33,027, reaching a new height. It is also estimated that the 5-day exhibition has brought purchase orders for Taiwan's ICT industry that amounts to more than 20 billion US dollars, effectively increasing Taiwan's visibility on the world stage. COMPUTEX TAIPEI is not only a trade exhibition, but is also one of the most important information and technology exchange platforms for the global ICT industry.

The largest number of buyers was again from the USA and next in place are Japan, Hong Kong, Korea, China, Singapore, Malaysia, Germany, India, Russia etc. The increase of buyers from Asian territories shows that Asia has already become the center of the global IT industry market and also that the demand for IT products is rapidly growing in rising economies like China, India and Russia.

WiMAX and ultra-portable NB have become the focus points of COMPUTEX, attracting endless market opportunities

According to the results of statistical analyses of pre-registered buyers and IPOs, communication products (3G, WiMAX), industrial computers, Mobile Devices / UMPCs, touch screens, Green IT represent a major proportion on the buyer's target product procurement list this year. Coinciding with the four main product themes of this year's exhibition, which is W.I.N.G. (WiMAX, ICT Crossover, New Generation NB, Green IT). Among these products, WiMAX and ultra-portable notebooks are especially high-profiled.

WiMAX is the main event of this year's COMPUTEX, starting with the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the Taiwan Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) and Intel Taiwan, to invest 500 million US dollars to jointly accelerate the commercial deployment of WiMAX in Taiwan. And then there is the exhibition of WiMAX Expo, Taipei, which coincided with COMPUTEX TAIPEI, showing Taiwan's transition into a proverbial "WiMAX Island" that inhabits all the latest technology and products related to WiMAX. The WiMAX shuttle bus service is providing visitors with the opportunity to experience the stable and fast internet connection of WiMAX, even when the user is traveling at high speed on a vehicle, in this instance, a bus. Many buyers have expressed that the first time they began to understand and actually use WiMAX, was at COMPUTEX, and they also believe that, in the future, WiMAX can connect the concepts of digital family with consumer electronics, thereby creating huge market opportunities.

And the ultra-portable notebook computer market with display sizes below 10-inch, is no longer dominated solely by the Eee PC from Asustek. Other manufacturers have also begun to put their products into the market, like the Aspire One from Acer, the Netbook M912 from Gigabyte, the Wind NB from MSI and the second generation OEM laptop from ECS, the Classmate PC etc. have all appeared in the exhibition. In addition, E-lead, AWARE, Amtek are also launching products with similar concepts. From these newly launched products, there are more innovative and user-friendly designs aimed at screens, keyboards and operational systems.

Besides the competition between computer systems manufacturers, the activities of semiconductor giants like Intel and AMD are also a hotspot of attention. Starting with the announcement of Intel Atom at day one of the exhibition, the Atom processor has become the hottest keyword at this year's exhibition. You can find the trails of Intel Atom on a wide variety of product applications, including ultra-portable NB, MID, desktop PC, motherboards and even embedded systems. To respond to this development, AMD has announced a new NB platform codenamed Puma, and revealed that manufacturers like Toshiba, NEC, Fujitsu and Acer are already using this platform. Obviously, the competition of next generation NB is reaching DEFCON One.

Best Choice award winning products are highly sought-after; results for the popularity award "Buyers' Choice" are out

The organizers have specially set up two pavilions separately at Shinyi and Nangang this year, to exhibit the Best Choice award winning products. During the exhibition, buyers and the media alike were continuously asking for details about the products. The Best Choice award list has become sort of an indicator for product procurement and media reports. According to the jury, which consists of IPO and juries from international awards, it is possible to get a peep view of this year's main product trends, during the product choosing process.Therefore, the award winning products represent the best trendsetting products of this year.

After the Best Choice award list was announced at the first day of the exhibition, a buyer's popularity vote was held and ended at 6:00pm on June 6th. The activity lasted for 4 days and accumulated about 5000 votes. Finally, the winner of this year's Buyers' Choice for Best Choice Award is the ARES CG6155 by Asustek, which is also winner of the award category, Product Design-Industrial Design. Asustek is also the greatest winner of Best Choice this year, winning the most awards.

Reputation for being an excellent procurement exhibition and ICT information and technology exchange platform

To enhance the B2B platform features of COMPUTEX TAIPEI, the organizers have limited the access of the first 2 days of the exhibition to "buyers only", which has received a lot of positive approval from buyers and exhibiting manufacturers alike. In addition, the Taipei Computer Association (TCA), one of the COMPUTEX organizers, has held 3 Taiwan-Japanese match making forums with topics like embedded systems, WiMAX and PND products. The purpose of these forums is to help facilitate the understanding between Taiwanese manufacturers and overseas buyers, so that manufacturers can better understand the procurement demands of buyers and buyers can also know more about the research and development capabilities of Taiwanese manufacturers.

Furthermore, according to the interview results of many buyers and foreign press it is a common perception that COMPUTEX is successfully integrating the supply chain of the ICT industry, and making it more convenient for buyers to fulfill their procurement needs. In addition, many new trends and technological results that are not necessarily being shown at other international exhibitions can be seen here at COMPUTEX. One buyer from South Africa has even given the remark that COMPUTEX is the "place to be" for people working in the ICT industry, revealing the fact that COMPUTEX has left a deeply positive impression as an international procurement exhibition.

COMPUTEX TAIPEI 2009 begins from June 2nd till June 6th. See you next year.