This year's first computer exhibition, the Computer Edutainment and Multimedia Show, will kick off in Taipei this Friday with 1,400 booths providing new products and tempting prices to coax consumers' year-end bonuses and red-envelope money out of their pockets.
"With the recovery of the economy and various rollouts, I believe the show will be successful," Enoch Du (
The show will feature scores of information-technology products, including computers, digital cameras, liquid-crystal displays (LCDs), printers and other peripherals from 180 exhibitors. The number of booths, 1,400, represents a 27 percent increase from last year's figure.
PHOTO: CNA
Fourteen companies including Acer Inc, Asustek Computer Inc (
Prices are expected to be competitive as Intel Corp, the world's largest chipmaker, cut the price of its Pentium 4 processor by 16 percent to 18 percent starting Sunday, said Jesse Wu (
Exhibitors are expected to cut their prices by an average of 10 percent to 20 percent on a variety of products, Wu said.
Many consumers have already been to IT Month -- Taiwan's largest annual IT exhibition, held from December last year through January this year -- but exhibitors are confident that consumers will allocate some money received during the Lunar New Year for IT products.
"I believe the new products and tempting discounts, which are even bigger than those at IT Month, will spur consumption," said Ken Wang (
BenQ aims to sell 3,000 laptops at the show, Wang said.
Twinhead International Corp (
Besides notebook computers, companies said, the show will focus on digital cameras and LCDs -- products that enjoyed strong sales during IT Month.
Digital cameras, in particular, may take the lead with the participation of 26 companies and over 200 booths, Jesse Wu said.
"The booth number for digital cameras is a record over the past 12 years, showing the sector is soaring," Wu said
Meanwhile, Taipei Game Show 2004 will take place at the same venue, which is expected to attract more visitors.
The two shows will run from 9am to 5pm from Friday to Monday at the Taipei World Trade Center Exhibition Hall I. The Computer Edutainment and Multimedia Show will then move to Taichung for an exhibition from March 5 to March 8, and then to Kaohsiung for a show from March 25 to March 28. The admission is NT$100 for children, NT$150 for students and NT$200 for adults.
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