From camera phones to wireless computer connections, the freshest crop of gadgets in years are being unveiled to mainstream buyers at this week's CeBIT trade fair, but few may be in a spending mood.
Global economic malaise and the threat of war in Iraq have cast a pall over the technology sector and its traditional sales pitch -- spend money on technology to save money through productivity gains -- is wearing thin.
But vendors converging on the world's biggest showcase of new hardware and software in Hanover, Germany, are expected to pull out the stops to generate some demand.
"We're going to see camera phones from every manufacturer and many other weird and wonderful mobile devices as manufacturers struggle to drive the replacement market," saidanalyst Ben Wood at market research group Gartner Dataquest. Many potential customers will be looking for clear-cut financial benefits from the new gadgets.
"[IT] products and services that shave costs through efficiency gains, help retain customers, or solve the burgeoning integration dilemma in corporate IT have the best chance at success this year," said Tom Pohlmann, a director at Forrester Research. The CeBIT fair grounds will feature fast wireless Internet access over short-range radio networks. These so-called Wi-Fi connections are due to receive their biggest boost ever next week as chipmaker Intel Corp. formally unveils chips that will allow most notebook computers manufactured by year-end to reach the Internet without wires.
Such wireless Internet access networks on laptop computers and other devices promise to become commonplace in cafes, hotels, airports, schools, offices and public places -- pretty much wherever computer users congregate -- in the coming year.
While the latest network gear and entertainment gadgets from Silicon Valley, Japan and China will feature prominently, another featured theme at this year's CeBIT is the battle to define and dominate the "Connected Home," the industry's phrase for the growing links between home computers, home entertainment and other appliances over the Internet. "What is emerging is a once in a decade battle for a new market that could have a dramatic impact on the consumer electronics, PC, telecom and media businesses," Gottfried Dutine, a board member at Philips of the Netherlands.
"Software companies will tell you the PC will be the 'server' of the connected home," Dutine said. "Other electronics companies will argue that the TV will be the center of it. Others will even make a case for the mobile phone."
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
RSS