rozhkovam June 11, 2010 at 20:35

“What I saw” or Computex 2010

Computex, which takes place in Taipei in late May and early June, is one of the most significant events of the year in the IT telecom industry. To a greater extent, it is IT rather than telecom (in telecom, the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, which takes place in February, is the palm). Traditionally, large and not very large vendor companies gather on the one hand in Taipei (mainly from Taiwan and China), on the other hand - representatives of distribution companies, telecom operators, retail chains, as well as IT journalists from around the world who come to see the whole variety new products offered.

This year the exhibition celebrated its 30th anniversary. It’s funny to wander around the event and realize that it was still starting when even the usual “pisyuk” was considered a curiosity, and you could only dream about any smartphone communicators (yes, what’s about them! Just about cellular communications!) some "technologies of the future."

This year, in my opinion, the exhibition turned out to be somewhat less crowded than even a year or two ago. This can be confirmed by at least a reduced number of exhibition pavilions. Hall 2 was “abbreviated” in front of Tower 101 (which, unfortunately, is NOT the tallest building in the world - the palm went to the Burj Khalifa in Dubai).

Representatives of many companies I knew did not go to the exhibition this time. Under the slogan: "Expensive, stressful (since it’s far to fly), but they will not show anything fundamentally new." And the most indicative for me - the exhibition was ignored by many leading IT-telecom publications: Computerra, Hi-Tech@mail.ru, Mobile-Review and others.

I explain this state of affairs for two reasons. On the one hand, the exhibition movement in the world has been steadily declining for a long time. The main purpose of exhibitions - to see a lot of new and interesting things in a short time, to get acquainted with a lot of new people (= make useful contacts) - is a thing of the past. The dynamics of IT-telecom development is not the same, new people and companies appear in it not as often as before, and you can talk to already known contacts at any time, you don’t need to go to the event to the other end of the world. Indeed, why go to distant lands to look at a new sample of some smartphone that you can easily get by DHL (though, anywhere, except for our beloved “country of fairy tales”, where DHL somehow wraps all such packages back - customs DOES NOT GOOD!),

Another reason for the falling popularity of Computex in the general industry crisis of the host country is Taiwan. Most IT telecom giants no longer perceive the fertile island as a place where it is possible to produce millions of units of an IT-widebandreb with high quality and relatively inexpensive. The main production focus is increasingly shifting to mainland China, as well as to other Asian countries — Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam. In Taiwan, there are development centers and company offices that hail from Taiwan itself. And therefore, exhibitions in other Asian countries are gaining increasing importance: Hong Kong, Signapur, etc.

Nevertheless, Computex remains a place by visiting which you can quite quickly and clearly form your understanding of the main trends of the Sino-Taiwanese industry for the production of telecom and computer hardware.

What are these trends? I will not touch upon purely computer hardware in this article: to be honest, I’m not a god any specialist in mothers, coolers, mice, plugs, and various locksmith tools. Yes, yes, at an exhibition in Taipei, they show not only computer hardware itself, but also related products! At the stands are dozens of small companies producing ordinary household extension cords, sockets and plugs, as well as companies producing electric and locksmith tools. I am not kidding!

Yes, Computex has a place for power tools too!

And even children's toys ....

Some - even with tricky electronic stuffing ...

Audio is stationary ...

Audio is mobile ...

Video is stationary ...

And video is mobile ...

Big brother is watching you!

Nowadays (though, as always) there are a lot of “sewing-seamers”, that is, companies that produce all kinds of cases for phones, laptop bags and the like “near-garment belongings”. Such companies do not differ in anything, do not demonstrate anything revolutionary either. The only thing that can be noted regarding this part of the exhibition is that its slogan this year could well be the thesis: “I didn’t bring the peel to the Apple iPad - LOK!”. There are more than enough all sorts of small bags-handbags on the “apple tablet”. The Chinese garment industry is still on the alert and is closely watching what “white people” around the world are hungry for.

Well, who needs the skin for iPhon?

Or for an iPad?

Or even a skins back?

The main thing is that the apple on the lid was visible through the skin ...

An iPad in red is kind of fashionable ...

However, I did not find as many “reincarnations” of the new-fangled “apple tablet” as I expected - only about five. Moreover, most of them were presented not as “counterfeit for iPad”, but as a product from the “electronic readers” series, moreover, based on Android OS. According to my observations, these products did not cause much excitement.

Sounds like an iPad? In the off state - maybe yes ...

Communicators, smartphones, phones.Quite indicative of this year was the lull on the front of smartphones. They were represented by only two companies - Acer and SIM Wireless -. And five years ago there were about one and a half dozens of companies demonstrating communicators on Computex (most of them built on Windows Mobile), among which were E-TEN (bright memory of the native company!), HTC, Quanta and many others. The exhibition was completely ignored by the Taiwanese communicator giant - HTC, other manufacturers of communicators like Toshiba, which is rapidly gaining popularity in Russia Gigabyte, Samsung ... This time, only Acer was only noticeable in this area with only two new products.

Acer at Computex 2010 ...

... pleased with the new items ...

Somewhere I already saw it ...

There was also the company SIM Wireless, very ambitious and very smart guys from China. The company is famous, first of all, for the fact that in the last 1.5-2 years it has been the main supplier of RoverComputers. Although it is rumored that soon the most interesting new products from this manufacturer will be seen in Russia under a different, relatively new brand.

RoverPC S8 and its future competitor. Due to the special shape of the control keyboard and joystick, the new device looks more elongated, less bricked than the classic RoverPC S8.

Find ten differences ...

Backside at the beginner, I’ll inform you, it’s much more pleasant ... More gracious ...

The company showed an original solution - the Super qVGA screen manufactured by LG, which has a small resolution (240x480), is quite cheap (which allows them to be used in very budget devices), but the quality of their picture closely approaches high-resolution screens, and in the viewing angles they outperform even most VGA displays. According to company representatives, such a screen is a budget alternative to Super AMOLED and WVGA displays, which are installed on products of the premium segment. The cost of a Super qVGA screen is only a couple of dollars higher than a regular qVGA screen! The company plans to begin shipping devices with a new screen within the next couple of months. Moreover, the Russian partners of SIM Wireless (and Rover, and other new companies) will try to clearly maintain the price tag of up to 10 thousand rubles, which is good news.

The usual qVGA (left) and Super qVGA (right)

We are waiting in RoverPC and other communicators, originally from SIM ...

At the exhibition there was a Microsoft stand, which, as has already traditionally been customary, in the zoo mode show all the "new products" (and not very) on Windows Mobile. However, something really new and revolutionary in the smartphone-communicator segment was not noted. Apparently, everything that could be shown has already been shown in Barcelona.

Dual sim Gigabyte GSmart S1205 on Windows Mobile. Microsoft booth.

The Chinese could not get around the fashionable theme of "grandmothers" today. The trend to increase the number of offers in this segment became clear in Barcelona. Although there the Chinese offered devices of very different designs and ergonomics. Today, it seems that everyone in the Middle Kingdom is vying to copy the models of the Russian-Latvian vendor Just5, as the main trendsetter in this direction. I counted about five Chinese (no name, of course) firms offering the model “a la Just5 CP09” (of course, similar in appearance to the main one).

Original - Just5 CP09

And Chinese imitation. Pay attention to the name:
Cell phone for Senior - “phone for the Senior”, apparently, the younger is not destined to use.

One company even managed to "cook up" a fake for CP10.

Just5 CP10 - Original

Chinese version. It’s a bit out of design ...

I have not yet seen the followers of the latest generation of “grandmothers” (CP11 with a “jumping out” screen).

Just5 CP11 has not been faked yet ...

But, I think this is a matter of time. A month or two and imitators will appear in this model. Although, I was already shown the next product of “Russian lovers of gadget grandmothers” - Just5 “in metal”, which, however, has not yet been announced. Nevertheless, the Chinese, apparently, can still keep up with the riot of imagination of Russian and Latvian phone designers.

Satellite navigation.Here, the people are also very "cool" compared with a year or two earlier. If on previous “Computers” GPS-navigators weren’t set up only by a very lazy Chinese, nowadays the choice of devices turned out to be significantly less, although still very significant. I counted about a dozen companies representing GPS solutions, but there were no large vendors among them. Of the famous was Mio, which, according to local Chinese, has very serious problems around the world, and therefore the fate of the business is very, very not understood.

The stand is still large, but the fate of the business is not clear ...

The company showed a new trend in navigators: the appearance of devices of an intermediate form factor with a diagonal of 6 ”. In Russia, the founder of this trend was the new domestic brand Lexand, which recently began selling such devices.

The trend for devices with a 6 ”screen ...

... in Russia began with Lexand ST-610.

The bulk of manufacturers of navigators at the exhibition are ODM assemblers, that is, those who supply devices without a brand to vendors that provide localization and delivery of hardware to the market, but already under their own brand names. I was very pleased with the breadth of the Altima product line (one of the suppliers-collectors of navigators is still the same Lexand brand). GlobalSat and the JJ-Connect builders looked a bit more modest and spherical.

This year's trend is the combination of GPS navigation functions with a digital TV receiver. Similar news showed almost a third of manufacturers of GPS-navigators. However, in Russia this is all weakly relevant due to the non-prevalence of digital broadcasting.

And this is an interesting “appendage” to the navigator - a device that measures tire pressure. The value is displayed on the screen of the navigator located in the passenger compartment.

As before, sports navigators looked very noticeable - the trend did not die, although in relation to Russia I have not yet seen particularly impressive sales. Nevertheless, the Chinese are actively “fig” such devices in the hope that someone will buy them all the same.

Gadgets We turn to gadgets ... More precisely, to trends in this interesting area.

Trend No. 1. The abundance of portable chargers powered by solar panels for communicators, laptops ... I even bought one and brought with me - I'll see what kind of beast. I hope that I will write my report here. About a dozen companies present similar devices. Some kind of mania is just ...

Well, there are a lot of solar panels ...

All calibers and stripes ...

Well, just heaps ...

Trend No. 2. Everything about 3D television. Software, audio systems, various specialized panels, glasses. Obviously, in the field of stereo-video in 3D will be one of the most relevant trends in the near future.

Trend No. 3. Mini projectors. Just a couple of years ago, such a segment simply did not exist in principle. Now I have counted about 5 companies representing similar products. I even managed to talk with the president of one of these companies, who spoke about a real boom in micro-projectors in Europe and Japan. At the Taipei airport in DutyFree, you can already buy similar products! And not just one, but two manufacturers.

Pocket projectors are the trend of the future ...

What is the “cymez” of microprojectors? A microprojector is a portable device the size of a cell phone that can display a picture on a wall or on a screen like a regular projector. Any image! That is, the microprojector can be used to show presentations, or you can watch movies on it corny. According to the president of one of the manufacturing companies, it is the latter use case that is prevailing. That is, devices are not bought as a business tool, but as a toy. He poured five heels of filns on the flash memory, put it in his pocket, and went to drink beer with friends. I opened the bottle, put the chips, took out the microprojector from my pocket and watch a movie. The image is displayed directly on the wall. Moreover, the quality is not much different from conventional full-size projectors. Some micro-projectors work from a laptop or from a computer,

The only thing that stops the “crusade” of such gadgets on the market is their relatively high price. A good microprojector now costs about $ 400 in retail. Agree, not cheap, for a "collective video player"! However, despite this, several thousand such devices are already sold in Japan and Europe every month and sales are constantly growing.

The aforementioned president of the projector manufacturing company noted that the rumors that one of the next versions of the iPhone will receive similar functionality are just rumors, since it is technologically so far unrealistic to integrate a micro-projector into the compact dimensions of the communicator. Although Mr. President did not rule out the possibility that, with the development of technology and the price of necessary components, the functionality of a micro-projector will become as standard for smart phones in the next 5-8 years as GPS navigation or a media player today. In a word, "stay tuned."

Trend No. 4 A terrible abundance of manufacturers of readers, that is, electronic books. Well, the models themselves of such devices, of course. I counted about two dozen companies. Moreover, except for Acer (see above) and PocketBook, everything else is shallow Chinese ball-skiers who offered devices in the ODM assembly format. And the most interesting thing that genuinely surprised me: about a third of such models turned out to be the "good old" PocketBook 301! One glance was enough to recognize this device of the Ukrainian-Taiwanese manufacturer, only without the PocketBook brand on the case.

PocketBook has the most visible stand at the exhibition among all manufacturers of electronic books. And the largest announced lineup. I willingly believe that the company's positions correspond to those declared: 3rd place in the world after Sony and Amazon with a share of 10% and 1st place in Russia with a share of 43%

At the PocketBook booth, an expert of mobile gadgets and the ex-head of E-TEN Information Systems (glofiish communicators) in Russia - Mikhail Fadeev (right) was noted.

The most anticipated PocketBook novelty is an electronic textbook with a 9-inch screen.

It’s also close-up ...

PocketBook 601 Revo - restyling PocketBook 301+ classic reader, perhaps the most popular reader in Russia today. The novelty received a more powerful processor and a new design.

She is in a pink

PocketBook 602 - restyling PocketBook 302 Cookie - touch screen + WiFi + Bluetooth. More powerful processor.

Noneyem is a PocketBook 301-style craft.

And one more ...

And another ... This one was at least somehow called. And usually nameless ones stand ..

Other Chinese variations on the theme of electronic books ...

e-INK в красном…

…и в розовом…

….и в белом…

От известных брендов…

… и не очень известных…

И даже вообще без брендов…

И по-китайски…

It's funny that the Chinese did not stop at the fact that they began to offer different variations on the theme with e-INK, although the lion's share of devices still have screens built specifically on this technology. A noticeable part of manufacturers now offer "budget" readers. In essence, this is the return of the once-forgotten TabletPC concept with a TFT screen. It’s simply called now more fashionable, more in line with the latest trends. Everyone knows that TabletPC is not popular, while the word "reader" already causes blissful awe among most market participants. The Chinese “puffed” this topic and slightly changed the positioning of the good old devices, calling them “electronic books” (which the Tablet PC, of course, are not: the main feature of the modern reader is the e-INK screen). Moreover, I even came across one “super-smart” Chinese manufacturer who included two “keywords” in the composition of the name of his product at once (which, apparently, as conceived by the authors of this creation, should bring all white people to an invariable instant thrill): MID and reader). Just wonderful! You can’t refuse a marketing savvy to the Chinese!

Very often, simple "tablets" with TFT screens began to be called readers, which do not have the properties of a real reader ...

But they already have color ...

Reader on an android - why not? The Chinese can do anything ...

The MID theme is still exciting ... A

smart Chinese should know the keywords that excite a white person ...

And most importantly - crush the scale!

That, and perhaps all that I wanted to talk about. It remains to add that this year the trip to Computex turned out to be somewhat strange. On the one hand, the weather pleased: in Taipei it was warm, but not at all stuffy. There was no usual sensation of a suffocating sauna for this time. On the contrary, it is cool in the evening, but not hot, in the afternoon - also very comfortable.

Secondly. This time my colleague and I were sent back this time in a very strange way: their Taipei to the Chinese city of Chengdu, from there to Beijing, and from Beijing to Moscow. I looked at how mainland China lives. Having made sure that China (aka China Socialist) and Taiwan (aka China Capitalist) are, indeed, two VERY large, tangible differences. By the way, if someone gathers at Computex the same way next time, keep in mind: for domestic flights across mainland China, you need a separate Chinese visa (they will not let you go from Taiwan!). If there is no visa, you will be removed from the flight and sent in another way, and by no means faster and more comfortable. I had a visa, although my travel agency did not warn me about its necessity. And, well, one journalist friend whom the agency also sent didn’t want to go out in China,

So, be careful, dear compatriots!

Finally, a few more photos: