Now in its 20th year, the Taipei Computer Applications Show has booked the highest number of booths in six years as vendors gear up for high consumer demand amid a recovering economy.
“More than 200 firms are participating this year, which is about the same as last year, but they have signed up for more booths this time, up to 1,350 as the economy picks up,” said Charles Huang (黃鋆鋇), deputy secretary general of the Taipei Computer Association (TCA, 台北市電腦公會).
“The number of booths marks a record high in six years. Last year, there were only 1,200-plus booths,” he said.
PHOTO: HU SHUN-HSIANG, TAIPEI TIMES
The show, taking place from Aug. 5 to Aug. 9 at the Taipei World Trade Center Exhibition Hall 1, is the biggest consumer PC show of the summer and serves as a bellwether for consumer electronics spending in the second half, Huang said.
The consumer fair, which is free for admission, will boast three pavilions this year: the “Taipei Game Festival” where online games developed by homegrown firms will take center stage; “the 3D Adventure” where consumers can keep abreast of the latest 3D applications in movies, games or laptops; and the “Touch & Fun,” a pavilion in which HTC Corp (宏達電) will demonstrate how consumers can make use of smartphones’ touchscreen applications.
In addition to the pavilions, tech companies, including Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦), Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), Hewlett-Packard Co, Epson Inc and ViewSonic Corp are setting their eyes on student buyers to purchase the latest tech gadgets before the new school term begins in September.
Acer Inc (宏碁), one of the top-three computer makers in the world, is touting the market’s first netbook model that runs on both Android and Windows operating systems, while HP aims to push sales of its “cloud computing” printer, which allows users to e-mail pictures stored on their mobile devices to the printer’s e-mail account and get them printed out without the hassle of cable connections.
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