Computer applications show attracts huge crowd
Significant savings and wide varitety of choices seens as reasons for exhibit's rising popularity
2004-07-31 / Taiwan News, Staff Reporter / By Marie Feliciano
Thousands of consumer electronic bugs swooped down the Taipei World Trade Center yesterday to hunt for and haggle over fancy gadgets, computers, software products, printers, and digital cameras that were sold at discount prices.
"I think it's a good buy," said Jena Lin, pointing to her latest acquisition - a shiny personal digital assistant equipped with a camera and recorder.
The twenty-something customer, however, was obviously not done with her shopping. After making the PDA purchase, she headed for the nearest automated teller machine and joined the long queue of bargain-hunters who needed to replenish their wallets. Most of them, including Lin, were heading back to the show ground.
One of the most popular shows in Taipei, the Taipei Computer Applications Show attracted large crowds for four reasons: Fat discounts, tons of products, freebies, and loads of entertainment.
And just like previous shows, vendors - in their bid to make a sale - even employed attractive hawkers to peddle their goods. Young women wearing tiny tank tops, mini skirts, and knee-high leather boots - we even spotted one sporting a pair of wings - conducted raffle draws and contests to entice visitors. Those who did not have any "la-meis" in their camp resorted to loud music and louder vendors to attract attention.
"We expect more visitors this weekend," said Esther Lo, marketing manager of MobiNote Technology Corp.
Headquartered in Taipei County, MobiNote, a medium-sized manufacturer of entertainment-related devices, had its fair share of buyers yesterday. The company's star product was the DVX-POD 7010, a seven-inch portable video player that combined the functions of an MP3 Player, a digital recorder and a personal digital photo album. The device could also function as a personal hard drive with a capacity equivalent to 80 256MB Flash USB Pen Drives.
At the show, the portable entertainment gadget - which normally sells for NT$21,499 - carries a NT$19,900-tag.
"You can store up to 30 movies in this device," explained Lo. "The images are also very sharp and vivid because we are using only high-quality panels. It's comparable to a portable theater."
The glossy portable media player features a seven-inch color LCD (720x480), 20GB 1.8-inch HDD, and weighs 600 grams. To achieve a sleek, mess-free look, the manufacturer hid the media controls at the top of the handheld. It has no front panel buttons.
Its video playback formats included MPEG-4, DivX 3.11, 4 and 5, QuickTime 6 and WMV files. The device could also record TV video directly.
In terms of audio, it supported WMA and MP3 audio files and could record voice via its built-in microphone.
"You could create a digital photo album by downloading the images to your PC first, and then copying them into your DVX-POD," said Lo.
MobiNote's portable video player was selling like hotcakes in Europe and the U.S., she added.
