Companies expect bargains to attract customers to expo

Acer Inc is expecting long queues at its booth at IT Month later this week for discounts of up to NT$6,000 on its TravelMate laptops, while Elitegroup Computer Systems Co (精英電腦) will offer NT$36,900 laptops with Centrino mobile technology.

Major notebook computer manufacturers are gearing up for the annual industrial gala, which will start Saturday at the Taiwan World Trade Center Exhibition Hall. Companies will use special promotions or big discounts to boost sales during the nine-day event.

This year Acer plans to offer across-the-board 10-percent price cuts, worth between NT$3,000 and NT$6,000, on laptops including new TravelMates with Intel Corp's Centrino mobile processors, said Calvin Chang (張敬仁), Acer's vice president for marketing.

"We believe the sharp price cut will help boost sales and will also meet consumers' expectations of buying computers at bargain prices during the annual event," Chang said.

Laptops are traditionally the most popular item showcased at IT Month exposition.

Acer hopes to achieve an increase of 50 percent in sales from a year ago. Overall, the company expects to sell 15,000 laptops and 20,000 desktops during the event, Chang said.

"We're confident that we can hit the target during the show ... if the event attracts more than 800,000 visitors this year," he said.

The event's organizers estimated the number of visitors may reach 700,000 this year, Frank Huang (黃崇仁), chairman of the Taipei Computer Association (台北市電腦公會) said at a press gathering on Monday.

Elitegroup Computer Systems Co (精英電腦), a leading motherboard manufacturer which will join IT Month for the first time, said consumers will enjoy great bargains on its laptops during the event.

Consumers will be able to get Elitegroup's latest laptop, the 553 model, for NT$29,999, about NT$4,000 lower than the retail price of NT$34,000, said Adam Chou (周碩倫), a senior marketing manager at Elitegroup.

Elitegroup will provide Centrino notebooks for as low as NT$36,900, down from the original NT$42,000. The company will also roll out the new "desknote," a desktop with the look of notebook computer without a battery, at below NT$20,000.

"IT Month is very important to us ... We hope to sell 10,000 PCs including laptops, desktops and miniPCs," Chou said.

Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦) and US-based International Business Machines Corp have so far kept quiet about their pricing strategies, while Hewlett-Packard Co (Taiwan) is not expected to offer much in the way of discounts.

IBM said it will soon unveil promotional laptop models and preferential prices.

But Hank Hung (洪漢青), an executive in IBM Taiwan's personal-computing division, reportedly said the US company will offer discounts of up to NT$20,000 for consumers who would like to replace their Asustek laptops with IBM models during the event.