June 4, 004

The "Digital Home" - a concept of interconnecting various computing and consumer electronic devices together wirelessly at home - will be a trend for the future. Acer Chairman Stan Shi said at the opening ceremomy of COMPUTEX 2004.

Stan Shi is the legendary founder of Acer, building this company from humble beginnings in 1976 to one of the world's leading ICT concerns and influenced the development of Taiwan as the Asia's major information technology suppliers with his visions and advice to the government, the industries and their associations. During the opening ceremony of COMPUTEX, he announced his retirement for this year, as he said, to make way for a new generation of leadership.

Shi said the PC alone can no longer fulfill the user's need for the convergence of computing, communicative and consumer electronics products. While the PC had drastically changed the working habits of home users and office workers, a digital home will have an even more revolutionary impact on the lifestyle of consumers who can multitask on different devices connected wirelessly.

"I was lucky enough to have seen, and been a part of the evolution of PCs over the pas 20 years, and I wish I can live for another 2o years how the digital home will evolve," said Stan Shi.

Shi always had warned Taiwan's industry not to neglect own product developments and proprietary designs in addition to OEM/ODM work for other companies. This year's COMPUTEX seemed to show more than before that the message had been understood.

As Taiwan has developed a strong time-to-market, supply chain management and cost-down capabilities, digital home solutions providers could opt to continue working with international firms under OEM or ODM deals, making the necessary key parts and components for them and leave them the task to develop the marketing channels, Shi said.

For those companies seeking to develop a digital home brand name, they should create innovative products and understand more about their markets, at the same tie putting more focus on ease-of-use and consumer support. He added.

During the opening ceremony, Shi was honored for the various contributions he has made to the island's computer industry.

Government joins in:

Taiwan's Vice Premier Yeh Chu-lan said that the Taiwan government will begin efforts to promote the information appliances industry appliance industry, especially digital home products, as this promising sector is expected to create new great trade opportunities for his country.

Yeh made the remarks as part of his keynote speech at the opening of the Information Appliance Forum Asia 2004, which was organized by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the COMPUTEX organizers, as IAFA 204 was a major conference related to this show.

The IA technology, in addition to replacing traditional video and audio equipment will have a gret impace on daily life thanks to its renovated derivative products, the vice premier noted

She went on to say that Taiwan, with its efficient production networks and well developed global logistics system, can offer consumers around the world high-quality digital home appliances at reasonable prices. With its strong research and development capability, Taiwan companies can cooperate with big global names in developing digital products for the consumer level.

Currently, 21 multinational companies have set up 22 R & D centers in Taiwan, the minister added.

Practical displays:

As to underline these ungoing trends have a sense of reality, Philips Semiconductors presented a variety of highly advanced silicon solutions paving the way for the Connected Consumer and Connected Home. One of the more excitingdevelopments, Near Field Communications (NFC ,enables the connected consumer to exchange all kinds of information, or access content and services in security, simply by bringing two devices close together without needing to navigate complicated menus or perform complex set-up procedures.