Taiwan at CeBIT 2009: The PC and Consumer Pavilions

Dear Readers,

When deciding to travel to Hannover or not, you are influenced by news stories telling you that CeBIT this year is not what it used to be before. Likewise, it is the duty of this newsletter to prepare you for seeing a Taiwan contingent that is what it used to be before, due to the crisis, but different only in size but certainly not in significance.

The Taiwan PCs & Consumer Electronics Pavilions and exhibitors will be in Hall 21 with MSI, GigaByte, Nvidia, SuperMicro and Clevo, and in Hall 26 with Asus as the most prominent exhibitors. The major topic is netbooks. Acer and Asustek, the top players in that market both claim that the benefits from netbooks for them are far greater than any damage caused by their bite into the business of conventional full-size laptops. But they could be terribly wrong. Millions of users and also managers who not just have to run complete company networks on them experience that these little beasts, bereft of all unnecessary do-dads are all the computing power they ever need.

Interesting enough, at least for this editor, is the similarity between present netbook style developments and Volkswagen car models. In 1965, the "Golf"was a very small, basic and austere mini with manual gearshift and hand-cranked windows. But with each model change it grew bigger to a full size family cluncker, Likewise, there are already upgraded versions of the early austere stripped-down netbooks. When will they touch the size of conventional notebooks ? Only those who take the time to come to Hannover in person will be able to witness this interesting trend hands-on.

MSI, a strong believer in the dominance of CeBIT has increased its stand size to 616 sqm at Hall 21, E28, the largest independent booth in that hall and announced that it will unveil its new ultra-slim 13"X340 with a maximum thickness of 1,98 cm and just 6 mm thick in parts. Besides that MS its full limes of mainboards, graphic cards, notebook computers, sustems, car PC to industrial PCs and Servers.The MSI main slogan for CeBIT 2009 is "Insist on the Best", to signify its commitment to the MSI brand.

Shipment growth of Taiwan's LCD TV industry is expected to reach 50% in 2009, according to the Market Intelligence Center (MIC) of Taiwan's III Institute., and I hope it will show at CeBIT. According to the MIC chief analyst, LCD TV will be the key to future growth of Taiwan's display industry, while Taiwan's LCD monitor industry is affected by presently weak markets and strong performance by neighboring competitors.

And now for something completely different :

The "Uncle Ben"– Syndrome !

In 1943, Mars of America invented the "parboiling"process for rice which saved 80% of the bran nutrients before peeling. For its trademark "Uncle Ben's Rice"consumers gladly paid more, because it upgraded rice from junk food level to a nutritional value.

In other words, Mars converted a nameless commodity into a branded product !

Today, all the world's PC makers have achieved the contrary - - they convert all of their branded products into one single nameless commodity !

Today's PC industry is haunted by murderous competition, drastically sinking prices and pathetic profits and is shedding crocodile tears over customers whom they accuse of only looking for the dirt-cheap and who seem no longer willing to honor famous brands or to admire their technological achievements.

Albert Einstein , the opening speaker of the 7 th IFA Berlin on August 21, 1930 said:

"Shame on those witless and thoughtless people who possess no more mental perception for the miracles of science and technology than a cow has for the botany of the leaves that it munches with relish ! "

If CeBIT today would invite me as opening speaker, I would express it this way:

Not the present world recession inflicts heavy beatings on the PC industry - - the sole culprit for the dreadful figures of many concerns is that their products have become indistinguishable like two peas in a pod. Regardless wether Fujitsu Siemens, or Acer, or Dell, or Hewlett-Packard, or Medion, or Radio Shack, or god-knows-what-brand: Their notebooks or PCs consist of vastly identical modules, bought from the same handful of nameless high-volume subcontractors.

More often than not computers with different brand names emerge from the same manufacturer who just uses carton boxes of different colors. As a result, buyers and consumers today do not necessarily have to attend trade fairs to lay hands on them for evaluation or to negotiate orders, nor can you expect them to respect the virtues of technologies.

Trade fair organizers cannot create markets, they cannot even stimulate demand or influence trends, though especially some delusional high flyers at CeBIT Hannover continue to romanticize about it - - but in cruel reality a trade show organizer mainly rents out real estate to companies who have to fight it out in the market pace, and his show is nothing more but a mirror of that market.

Now therefore, please dare no computer manufacturer, whoever he might be, to accuse a trade show organizer, CeBIT or not CeBIT, for the dwindling buyer attention to their stands, because computer buyers today can as well conduct their business from their desks, much like greengrocers who order EU standardized cucumbers just by weight, length, curvature, and price.

Ronald Reagan, governor of California in 1966 refused spending taxpayer money to enlarge the size of the Redwood National Park as a tourism attraction by saying, "A tree is a tree, how many more do you have to look at ?"

Got the similarity ? O.K., but please come to Hannover nevertheless, we need you there, for atmosphere :

Yours truly,

Yours truly, Dieter Neumann U.I.P.R.E. Senior Editor Hannover Pacific Publications dieterneumann@taiwan-technology.com www.Taiwan-Technology.com www.cebit.de

And here, some previews from our exhibitors:

		Anadem Information Inc. Z97V (15.4"W) IntelR Processor Penryn IntelR Cantiga PM45 1066MHz FSB + ICH9M Geforce 9650M GT with 1024M DDR2 VRAM 15.4" WSXGA+ ........more
		Ultra-light and handbag-sized for all the mobile users. Sublime design.  A compact size for you on-the-go. The 7” touch panel gadget with 904g weight gives the most sensational and unparalleled computing experience. The stunning design incorporates every function you desire for UMPC. Please visit to find out how CLEVO provides solutions to meet your business needs. ........more
		The Revolution of Input device called -- Noahpad technology To provide all necessary big user interfaces on a limited area Two very large touch pads to control cursor and to move window. Just press slightly to enter anywhere on touch pad when the cursor reaches to the target on screen. Big QWERTY keyboard to fit most size of finger. ........more