Companies are hoping to provide a final boost to business at the annual IT Month consumer electronics fair, with the number of visitors in the first two days up by more than 10 percent from a year ago, the event organizer said yesterday.
“About 102,000 people visited the show today [Sunday] after 85,000 people on Saturday,” Taipei Computer Association (TCA, 台北市電腦公會) project manager Candy Wang (王明玉) said by telephone. “For the first two days, we figure the number has grown by 10 to 15 percent compared with last year’s IT Month.”
The annual trade fair — called IT Month because it lasts one month and takes place first in Taipei, then Taichung and Kaohsiung — has generally served as the No. 1 venue in the last quarter for consumers seeking bargains and extra freebies, as makers cut prices and add numerous giveaways to boost sales before the year ends.
PHOTO: TANG CHIA-LING, TAIPEI TIMES
The TCA estimated the fair would draw a total of 2 million visitors for the three legs, with 770,000 visitors dropping by the nine-day Taipei segment.
The Taipei-based association, however, does not provide sales estimates on a daily basis, Wang said. The Chinese-language Apple Daily reported yesterday that first-day sales reached about NT$12 million (US$372,000), without citing where it obtained the figures.
“The newspaper’s estimate was not accurate. But certainly we have seen exhibitors in all categories reporting strong crowds and it looks like consumers are more willing to spend, especially when big discounts are involved,” Wang said.
Wang said what seemed to attract consumers this year were notebook computers and digital cameras. Sales of ultra-slim laptops using Intel Corp’s consumer ultra low voltage (CULV) processors appeared “particularly good” when contrasted with conventional notebooks and smaller netbooks, she said.
“Some CULV notebooks can even offer prolonged battery life of up to eight hours,” she said.
The TCA said earlier that 350 companies participating in the event would sell at least NT$6 billion in information technology products and consumer electronics this year.
Launched in 1979, the IT Month fair has become an important event for local consumers seeking to learn more about the latest IT applications. While in recent years companies have been less enthusiastic in using the venue to introduce their new products — in favor of other international exhibitions such as Taipei’s Computex and CeBIT in Germany — IT Month is still viewed as an important coomsumer spending barometer ahead of the year-end holidays.
Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦), Taiwan’s second-largest notebook brand, said market sentiment for the current quarter was upbeat compared with the fourth quarter last year, when the global financial crisis prompted consumers to limit their purchases.
In the Taipei leg alone, Asustek hopes to sell more than 10,000 laptops — ranging from its popular Eee PC netbooks and conventional laptops to the latest three-dimensional notebooks — up from about 8,000 units last year, company vice president of sales Kevin Lin (林福能) said.
Aside from the latest Eee PC addition — the 12-inch 1201N, which retails at NT$19,988 — Asustek is exhibiting another newcomer to the family, the 9-inch T91MT, which is the industry’s first touch screen/tablet/netbook PC running on the Windows 7 operating system and doubles as a digital TV. The T91MT retails at NT$20,000.
“In previous years, tablet PC prices were between NT$40,000 andNT$50,000, which put off a lot of people,” Asustek product manager Jose Liao (廖逸翔) said. “Now, our Eee PC offers value for the money.”
BenQ Corp (明基), meanwhile, is showcasing a full series of projectors. Clients have a chance to walk away with free netbooks, universal serial buses and movie premiere tickets.
For its part, Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) is targeting data users by offering a 3G mobile phone package — the mPro 950 — that allows users unlimited access to the Internet for NT$950 a month, 20 percent off the regular rate, plus a free wireless access card.
IT Month runs through Sunday at the Taipei World Trade Center halls 1 and 3, from 10am to 6pm. Admission is free.
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