To kick off what will surely be a great week filled with some of the world’s greatest technological innovations, Futurelooks attended the opening press conference for COMPUTEX Taipei 2008. Boasting that it is the world’s leading ICT procurement platform, COMPUTEX has quickly grown to become one of the most talked about events on the computer trade show circuit. In fact, as you may recall from our primer and preview, COMPUTEX is the second largest computer expo in the world.
The press conference kicked off with a welcome speech from Mr. Walter Yeh, the Executive Vice President of the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA). He emphasized the rapidly expanding size of COMPUTEX, both in terms of floor space and in terms of the number of attendees. There are over 1,750 companies represented at COMPUTEX 2008 with the 4,000+ booths spanning across two huge exhibitio centers.
Following the speech from Yeh, Mr. Li Chang took to the podium. He is the Deputy Secretary General of the Taipei Computer Association (TCA) and he introduced the overall theme to COMPUTEX Taipei 2008 known as “WING” which stands for…
W – WiMAX mobile broadband
I – ICT crossover products
N – New compact notebook PCs
G – Green IT conceptual products
In Chang’s own words, they believe that COMPUTEX can “fly higher than high” and they’ve got the “WING’s” to do it.
WiMAX Mobile Broadband
We’ve become an increasingly connected society and it’s even better that we can cut the wires in doing so. Yes, it may be pretty nice being able to take your laptop to the local Starbucks for some blogging action, but wouldn’t it better if you could take advantage of Wi-Fi speeds without being bound to a single location?
WiMAX technology, perhaps best known in North America through Sprint’s XOHM service, is said to provide wireless speeds that not only rival Wi-Fi, but speeds that can actually beat it. Because WiMAX operates in much the same way as a conventional cellular network, it also means that you can enjoy these data speeds anywhere you have a connection, even if you are zooming through town on a bullet train.
The growing proliferation of WiMAX mobile broadband technology can be seen in one of the winners of the first ever COMPUTEX Taipei Design and Innovation Awards. These awards are organized by iF, the same Hanover-based organization that is best known internationally for its annual iF product design awards. Among the Gold award winners was the Via OpenBook UMPC design platform. This subnotebook comes preloaded with WiMAX connectivity. A version of the Asus Eee PC will soon be available with WiMAX as well.
WiMAX allows consumers and corporate users alike to stay connected everywhere they go. No longer will you be tied to Wi-Fi hotspots for your high-speed surfing needs.
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ICT Crossover Products
Many people are already familiar with the acronym IT (information technology), but not nearly as many folks are familiar with ICT, which stands for Information Communications Technology. This is an umbrella term that describes technologies involved in the communication of information. With ICT crossover products, we are seeing that more and more items in the marketplace are becoming virtual Swiss army knives. We want our MP3 players to also play video. We want our cell phones to also act as PDAs. It’s this constant striving toward “What else can you do?” that is creating these “SUV” type products.
In going through some of the other winners of the first ever COMPUTEX Design and Innovation Awards, we see that several products offer more than one primary function. The Asus Ufoto UF735 digital photoframe is perfectly suitable for showing off your favorite pictures, but it can also be connected to your PC to act as a fully functional secondary display. It can also “play the photos with music just like a movie.”
Following in this line of thought with multi-purpose devices, we have the award-winning Mio Leap G50 GPS phone as well. Perhaps the most compelling feature of the Mio Leap G50 is that it is actually a two-sided device. On one side, you have a large touchscreen display for all your personal navigation and PDA needs. On the other side, you have a smaller display and full numeric keypad for phone-related functions. Why buy a phone and a personal navigation device when you can have both at the same time?
New Compact Notebook PCs
It started with the Asus Eee PC at last year’s COMPUTEX. The 7-inch wonder fit perfectly between the relative confines of the PDA and the much larger form factor offered by a standard notebook computer. Because it had the shape and styling of a laptop (as well as a highly affordable price point), the Eee PC was much more successful than the typically keyboard-less UMPC market. The form factor was also very appealing.
Since then, we have started to see all sorts of these sub-notebooks come out the woodwork. From the MSI Wind to the HP Mini-Note, it seems that everyone is jumping on this hot bandwagon. Who can blame them? The Eee PC sells like hotcakes and I can totally see why someone would be interested in such a device. I wouldn’t mind having one myself for mobile blogging and other portable computing functionality.
Also a winner of a COMPUTEX Design and Innovation award as the VIA Cloudbook Max reference design. The Everex Cloudbook was based on this platform’s predecessor. The CloudBook Max offers a larger 8.9-inch display (a size that seems to be all the rage lately), Bluetooth, integrated GPS, and dual embedded 2 megapixel webcams. VIA says that they name the platform as such because its “appearance is smooth and is like clouds on the sky.”
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Green IT Conceptual Products
As fun as it is to look at all these cool toys, it’s also important that we pay attention to their environmental impact. Thankfully, a number of companies have initiatives in place to help reduce their carbon footprint, reduce energy requirements, and otherwise be a little nicer to Mother Nature.
Following the press conference at the new Nangang Exhibition Hall, Futurelooks hopped on the bus over to the main Taipei World Trade Center for the Green IT Forum. There, representatives from such companies as Asustek and Sun Microsystems spoke on what they were doing to “go green.”
Jean-Claude Vanderstraeten, the Environmental Director of HP Asia-Pacific and Japan, emphasized that HP has a deep-rooted legacy focused on corporate and social responsibility. He reminded us that companies should consider the entire product life cycle. What are they doing during production to minimize environmental impact? How are they minimizing energy consumption during use? Are they offering convenient return and recycling at end of use? Are the designs ecologically-conscious?
Vanderstraeten also provided IT solutions to reduce the footprint of the rest of the economy. IT can help companies reduce energy intensity (e.g., digital publishing), substitute carbon-intensive processes with low-carbon ones (e.g., teleconferencing), and enable low-carbon economy management (e.g., deforestation monitoring infrastructure).
I Believe I Can Fly
In covering COMPUTEX Taipei 2008, Futurelooks will look closely at these four prevailing themes — WiMAX, ICT crossover, New compact notebooks, and Green IT — and maybe, just maybe, this trade show can really earn its wings and fly. See you on the trade show floor!
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