With the start of the three-month summer school holiday last month, consumer electronics vendors are hoping to tap students' purchasing power amid recent slow sales.
"As students will be returning to school for a new semester in September, we estimate that our sales of portable computers will peak next month," said Ian Wang (
He spoke to the Taipei Times yesterday at the annual Taipei Digital Audio and Video Exhibition at the Taipei World Trade Center Exhibition Hall I. The show ended yesterday.
Acer was one of several firms using the summer's first consumer electronics show to display their latest offerings. A similar but larger fair, the Taipei Computer Appliances Show, will take place at the same venue early next month.
Acer introduced two new notebook computers targeting the student market last month, with enhanced multimedia, gaming and DVD burning features.
Retailing at NT$27,900 (US$863), the TravelMate 3302 is a 14-inch laptop that runs on a Pentium M-735A processor. It has 512MB of DDRII memory and a 60GB hard disk. The 15-inch Aspire 1652, priced at NT$29,900, is equipped with the same processor, an 80GB disk and an ATI MR X300 video graphics array.
"Laptop computers selling below NT$30,000 will definitely be popular among students," Wang said.
The company was confident that the 40,000 units of the two models it has allocated would sell out rapidly, Wang added.
The nation's laptop market has been sluggish recently as consumers wait for expected processor price cuts from Intel Corp later this month, as well as Microsoft Corp's new Vista operating system, which is due to be launched in the fourth quarter.
Pricing is their first priority for students, and vendors are thus hoping to boost sales during the back-to-school season with affordably priced machines, Wang added.
Another laptop maker, BenQ Corp (
The company is pricing selected notebooks at between NT$27,900 and NT$39,900, with selling points including pearly white covers aimed at female buyers, as well as digital TV and widescreen models for those who want multimedia features.
BenQ is even offering a model with the latest dual-core Napa platform at NT$33,900 to attract student buyers.
Digital camera vendors want to take advantage of the back-to-school spending spree as well.
Premier Image Technology Corp (
"Sales of our branded digital cameras will hit around 4,000 units per month during summer, from 1,000 units in slower months," Premier's sales manager Willie Chen (
With the company's experience in contract manufacturing for clients such as Matsushita Electric Industrial Co and Sony Corp, Premier will be able to offer own-brand cameras for at least NT$3,000 less than the top-tier brands sell for, he said.
Premier's range of five mega-pixel cameras, priced at between NT$3,990 and NT$6,990, are popular among students, he added.
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