Mon, Dec 10, 2007 page12

• Last-minute shoppers crowd IT Month

  EAGER CUSTOMERS Hewlett Packard Co said its unit sales at the expo expanded 30 percent from last year, while Acer Inc reported a sales growth of 50 percent

  • By Lisa Wang / STAFF REPORTER
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  Crowds packed IT Month yesterday in search of good deals on the annual year-end information technology fair's closing day.

  The Taipei session of the expo attracted twice as many visitors on its last day as attended the show on weekdays, the organizers said, adding that consumers had shown keen interest in spending on electronics devices despite concerns about the economy.

  The exhibition, which will continue in other cities until Jan. 15, drew around 150,000 people to the World Trade Center yesterday to scour the 650 booths manned by electronics makers, pushing the total number of visitors during the nine-day fair to 750,000 people and edging close to the venue's limit for visitors at a single time, the Taipei Computer Association (TCA, 台北市電腦公會) said.

  

  Shoppers crowd the World Trade Center exhibition hall yesterday on the closing day of the Taipei leg of the IT Month expo. The fair, which drew 750,000 visitors in nine days, will continue on to other cities until it closes on Jan. 15.

  PHOTO: CHU PEI-HSIUNG, TAIPEI TIMES

  "Strong buying sentiment indicated that local consumers were not affected by the slowing macroeconomic environment," TCA said in a statement released yesterday, easing concerns about slowing consumption as inflation threatens to continue.

  Notebook computer vendors came out strong at the event, the TCA said.

  One laptop salesperson at the expo reported selling at least 130 laptops per day, the TCA said.

  Hewlett Packard Co said unit sales expanded 30 percent from last year, while Acer Inc posted a 50 percent growth.

  Local computer maker Asustek Computer Inc's (華碩電腦) low-cost laptop Eee PC was a top seller at the trade fair.

  The company sold all 5,000 Eee PCs it had stocked for the show and was surprised by the strong interest from average consumers.

  "We sold an Eee PC every two minutes," the computer maker said.

  "The sale of Eee PCs has expanded the PC market, targeting general consumers. This surprised us," Benson Lin (林宗樑), general manager for Asustek's Asia Pacific region, said in a statement.

  The Republic of the Gambia also ordered an unspecified number of Eee PCs after Gambian President Alhaji Yahya Jammeh visited Asustek's booth at the fair last week.

  Overall, sales grew around 35 percent annually to exceed the revenues goal of NT$400 million, Asustek marketing division vice president Kevin Lin (林福能) said in a telephone call.

  The average selling price rose NT$5,000 from NT$35,000 last year despite the PC sector's overall downward-trend in prices, Lin said.

  The organizer said that laptop computers, digital cameras and liquid-crystal-display (LCD) monitors were the top three targets for consumers.

  Subscriptions for high-speed 3.5-generation (3.5G) data cards allowing users to connect laptops to the Internet wirelessly also grew significantly, TCA said.

  Unit sales of digital cameras leapt 30 percent because of replacement demand and the launch of new models, the organizer said, citing exhibitors' sales figures.

  The annual IT Month show will open to the public in Taichung from Friday to the following Wednesday and then continue to Tainan and Kaohsiung through Jan. 15, the organizer said.
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