Computex is the most important event on Atomic’s calendar each year. For over a decade we have been making the pilgrimage to Taipei to not only meet with manufacturers, but to also check out the products we expect to see over the coming year.
We attach this importance because Computex is the world’s second largest ICT (Information and Communications Technology) trade show, with over 120,000 people expected attend this year. The show itself, which is in its 32nd year, will be running from the 5th until the 9th of June.
This isn’t just a show for journalists and tire kickers, it is one of the most important annual events in terms of the PC industry as a whole, with US$28 Billion in revenue expected to be generated this year. A few years ago the show grew so big that a new exhibition centre was built in order to accommodate the number of companies wanting to be part of Computex.
This year’s show is going to have four major focuses - Ultrabooks, Smart Handhelds, e-reading and Cloud Services. That isn’t to say that the component market is going to be under-represented however, with all the big names set to attend the show. Companies like AMD, NVIDIA, Intel, ASUS, MSI, GIGABYTE, Shuttle and Thermaltake among the bigger names confirmed so far, and given our past experiences there will be a few surprise products being held back in order to make a splash on the show floor.
We’ll see a glimpse of these when the Taipei Computer Association, who runs the show in conjunction with TAITRA, announces its Best Choice Awards on the 29th of May. These awards are now in their 11th year and are offer an interesting overview of the range of products set to be shown off during Computex.
With Ivy Bridge due to hit before Computex, it should mean that this year’s show should have a lot more new products than last year, which suffered a little from falling well after Sandy Bridge and well before Bulldozer and Sandy Bridge-E launched. This year we have also seen the next generation of GPUs being announced, whereas last year there was very little movement in graphics cards.
By Computex we should not only be seeing Ivy Bridge processors, but also a raft of innovations built around the accompanying platforms. Top of this list should be the long awaited appearance of Thunderbolt on the PC, but also a broader spread of chipsets will be on show beyond the Z77 announced so far.
On top of this expect to see a raft of new PC cases, power supplies, SSDs, Fans, Lights and all the other bits and pieces that make PC building such a fun experience. The big push might be towards Ultrabooks and Tablets, but at heart Computex is still a show all about the PC industry that we all know and love.
John Gillooly travelled to Taiwan as a guest of TAITRA
