In addition to the usual bargains and discounts expected at this year's IT Month exhibition in Taipei, consumers have also had the chance to check out a collection of eye-catching products making their first appearance.
Companies of all sizes have taken the opportunity to debut or preview their latest gadgets, in the hope of boosting brand image at the show -- the nation's largest IT consumer exhibition in the fourth quarter continues through to Sunday at the Taipei World Trade Center.
Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦), Taiwan's top notebook brand, is introducing a pink-colored leather notebook called the S6 series.
"We need to inject some fashion into notebooks. These pink machines are the best gift for a Christmas stocking," Asustek sales director Kevin Lin (
Retailing in stores at NT$66,800 (US$2,067), the 11-inch machine is the latest addition to the leather-bound laptop family, whose previous two models come in camel and brown colors.
To emphasize its uniqueness, the company is only producing 2,000 units for sale worldwide and IT Month buyers will walk away with a five-piece leather handbag worth NT$2,390 with their purchase.
Rival Acer Inc is keen not to lose out to Asustek, by giving a big push to a new portable computer featuring New York Yankees pitcher Wang Chien-ming (
The machine has a dark blue cover, a standalone graphics card, a 14.1 inch widescreen, a 1.3 megapixel Web camera, a 120 gigabyte hard drive and a 64 bit Core 2 Duo processor. Wang's portrait and autograph are inscribed on the laptop and mouse.
Kurt Hsu (
"Most notebooks are all the same. I want something unique that stands out from the crowd," he said.
He received a discount of nearly NT$5,000 each on the laptops, whose recommended retail price is NT$42,900.
Handset heavyweight Nokia Ojy, a first-timer at the expo, set up spacious booths allowing users to toy with a variety of handsets including its popular music phones, the 5200 and 5300 series.
The company also gave consumers the opportunity to look at the N95, Nokia's first handset offering global positioning system (GPS) and high speed downlink packet access, or 3.5 generation functionality.
Nokia said the N95, which has built-in map information for more than 100 countries, will ship with a complete set of Taiwanese maps when it hits local stores in February next year.
Another firm that has also sought to apply GPS functionality is E-Ten Information Systems Co (倚天資訊), which displayed its latest "Glofish X500" all-in-one Pocket PC Phone.
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