Computer vendors will be offering large discounts on their notebook computers in a trade show that opened yesterday to lower stocks that have built up in the first quarter this year, industry officials said yesterday.
"We saw slack sales of notebooks this quarter because of the election and the political disputes afterward that caused sales to drop by up to 70 percent," said Danny Yao (
The company offered discounts of up to NT$7,000 and free batteries to buyers of its notebook series -- including the Joybook 5000 and Joybook 6000 launched in January, which the maker boasted were the world's first 12-inch wide-screen laptops -- in the Softex software and computer exhibition.
"We hope the price cuts and promotions can boost sales by about 60 percent from the roughly 600 units we sold in the multimedia show that ended last month," Yao said.
This year's Softex show has attracted 200 exhibitors occupying 1,000 booths in the Taipei World Trade Center Exhibition Hall.
The Taipei Computer Association (台北市電腦公會), the exhibition's organizer, expected to lure 20 percent to 30 percent more visitors than the average 300,000 in previous shows, association specialist Shannon Yeh (葉小菱) said last week.
Participating exhibitors, however, were conservative about the exhibition's appeal to consumers, as too many similar shows have taken place in the previous few months, reducing people's appetite for computer products.
"There are none of the incentives to spur people's consumption during this period -- such as year-end bonuses or red envelopes -- as there were in the multimedia show last month or the IT Month before the Lunar New year," said Kate Hsu (許玉佩), a public relations manager at Hewllet-Packard Taiwan Ltd.
The company has launched six new types of notebook since mid-March to meet soaring demand in Taiwan and to keep up with its headquarters' global roadmap, she said.
Portable computers are estimated to account for 37 percent of the 1.5 million personal computers that will be sold in Taiwan this year. The ratio will probably climb to 42 percent in 2008, according to figures by International Data Corporation (IDC) Taiwan.
In a bid to attract consumers, HP is offering a NT$2,000 discount off its Presario 2100 laptop, Hsu said. Buyers can get between NT$2,000 and NT$5,000 off HP's other laptops.
Another exhibitor, Genuine C&C Inc (
The result as been less enthusiasm for computer exhibitions, the company's marketing manager, Sophia Hsu, said.
Genuine is hoping to attract customers with its "solution on demand" service for digital entertainment and computing systems, as well as the chance to win NT$200,000 worth of home theater equipment.
To attract the growing purchasing power of female consumers, the organizer for the first time has created a zone catering to women's tastes for electronics that are smaller, have modern designs and use vivid colors.
Women who wear red on Saturday and yellow on Sunday can visit free of charge.
The show opened yesterday and runs to Sunday at the Taipei World Trade Center Exhibition Hall from 10am to 6pm. Admission is NT$150.
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