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Show features bargains galore

Two 'Q Girls' yesterday display the latest laptops from BenQ to celebrate the computer maker's fourth anniversary and promote the annual IT Month trade show, which opens today and runs through Dec. 11. The event is organized by the Taiepi Comupter Association and is being held at Taipei World Trade Center. PHOTO: CHEN YUNG-CHI, TAIPEI TIMES

In a bid to grab customers' attention at this year's IT Month exhibition, consumer electronics makers are slashing prices on everything from the latest laptops to flat-panel LCD monitors and photo printers.

The exhibition starts today at Taipei World Trade Center Exhibition Hall I and III.

The annual computer and electronics show will have 350 vendors occupying 1,765 booths, and see as many as 800,000 visitors this year, according to exhibition organizer, the Taipei Computer Association (台北市電腦公會).

Amid the horde of "3C" (computers, communications and consumer electronics) offerings on display, star products will include notebook computers, flat-panel monitors and MP3 music players.

"The IT Month will serve as an ideal venue for consumers to preview the latest products to come in the next three months. It will increase people's spending power this month through the first quarter of next year," said Dennis Chen (陳敬宏), general manager of personal systems group at Hewlett-Packard (HP) Taiwan Ltd.

Buyers will be able to browse a range of budget portable computers, as first-tier players such as Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), Dell Inc and Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想) will all showcase their products. Some are even pushing limited one-time-only models which go as low as NT$20,000 (US$600).

Expecting a 20 percent increase in revenues over last year to be generated from the fair, HP will promote multimedia laptops starting from NT$22,900, Chen said.

One of the main highlights will include the Compaq Presario B2800, a line of pearly white notebooks targeted at female users. They come with a 14-inch XGA bright view screen, 512MB RAM, and storage of up to 80GB. The prices begin from NT$44,900.

The booths of Acer Inc, on the other hand, will be a crowd magnet as they will be offering dolls of the company spokesman, star New York Yankees pitcher and Taiwan native Wang Chien-min (王建民).

Acer will slash prices by NT$3,000 to NT$7,000 across its lineup of notebooks, with a focus on its portable TravelMate 3000 series.

"Though low prices and freebies bundled with the purchase will definitely lure consumers at the fair, they should pay attention to the product warranty period. As for laptops, maintenance fees will always make up a big part of the total cost of ownership," Chen said.

Meanwhile, along with rivals such as Asustek and BenQ Corp (明基), ViewSonic International Corp (優派) will emphasize its liquid-crystal-display (LCD) monitors at the fair.

ViewSonic will reduce prices by 20 percent on average and aims to reap a 20 percent sales increase over last year, said William Chen (陳暐龍), senior PR specialist for the Asia-Pacific region.

It will offer 200 units of its VX922 LCD monitors, priced at NT$16,900. The 19-inch flat display features an ultra-fast 2 millisecond average video response time, which is ideal for gaming, or DVD or TV viewing.

For those looking for photo printers, vendors said they are cutting prices by at least 10 percent. Consumers will be able to choose between models from HP, Epson Inc and Lexmark International Inc.

Epson, for instance, will push its RX550, its latest multifunctional printer model, which Taiwanese and Japanese consumers will see before the rest of the world.

Priced at NT$9,900, it is a home photo-printing solution with high-quality print, copy and scan functions. It can print up to 20 pages per minute of both black and white and color photos.

The nine-day exhibition, which is into its 26th year, runs through Dec. 11 in Taipei. It is open from 10am to 6pm, with free admission to the public.

After closing in Taipei, the expo will move on to Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung Cities. It will also open in Ilan in March and, for the first time, Yunlin County in April.
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