This year’s Computex is expected to provide visitors the earliest opportunities in the world to put their hands on a variety of Windows 8 devices, an executive of the show’s co-organizer said yesterday.
“As Windows 8 works across a number of different platforms, visitors can expect to see a variety of Windows 8 devices at the upcoming Computex,” Taipei Computer Association (TCA, 台北市電腦公會) deputy secretary-general Chang Li (張笠) said on the sideline of a product award ceremony. “Visitors can also expect to see devices running the operating system’s preview version, such as tablets for medical, military and security purposes.”
Taiwanese information technology companies are good at making tablet and notebook PCs and that is where they have focused in developing Windows 8 devices, Chang said.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
More than 10 brand vendors and original design manufacturers across platforms will debut their first Windows 8 devices at this year’s Computex, which is set to be held at the Taipei World Trade Center Exhibition Halls 1 to 3 and the Taipei International Convention Center in Xinyi District (信義) as well as Nangang Exhibition Hall, from Tuesday through Saturday next week.
Asustek Computer Inc (華碩) plans to unveil a number of 10.1-inch tablet PCs running on the touch-enabled Windows 8 operating system at Computex, with a 1366x768 resolution, which is lower than what Asustek’s current premium lines use. This is because Microsoft has asked manufacturers to follow certain specifications when producing the first wave of Windows 8 tablets, according to the company.
Unlike in the past few years, British investment bank Barclays PLC expects this year’s expo to generate more excitement, as in 2007 when netbooks were first introduced.
“We will, for the first time, be able to see actual working PCs running on Windows 8 [preview version], in addition to various models of Ultrabooks running Intel Corp’s Ivy Bridge CPU,” Kirk Yang (楊應超), an analyst at Barclays in Hong Kong, wrote in a note.
TCA, the co-organizer of the annual trade show, yesterday hosted a pre-show conference that showcased winning products of the 11th Best Choice Award BC Award.
There were 425 product entries for this year’s BC Awards selection and 37 of them were recognized as winning products, with nine crowned the Golden Award. TCA said this year’s winning products feature thin-light, portable and mobile computing qualities.
The nine Golden Award winners include AAEON Technology’s (研揚科技) IP65 Rugged Tablet Computer, Asustek’s Transformer Pad TF700 series and PadFone, and Elan Microelectronics Corp’s (義隆電子) Smart-Touchscreen.
Asustek’s Transformer Pad TF700KL is the company’s second tablet computer supporting 4G wireless broadband communication. The tablet will hit stores in the US and Europe next month.
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